MLB Exec Predicts Padres to Win 2026 World Series

Could this be the season the Padres go all the way?

Sep 23, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) is greeted in the dugout after scoring in the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The San Diego Padres are entering the postseason as one of the hottest teams in baseball.

The Padres went 17-3 over their final 20 games of the regular season. They've also won 41 of their last 59 games.

San Diego is trending in the right direction as the postseason starts this week, and an MLB executive predicted they'll hoist their first World Series title in franchise history.

ESPN's Buster Onley said that an executive told him he thinks the Padres will get over the hump this October.

"The Padres are going to win the World Series for the first time in their history, with just about everything trending in the right direction," Olney said of what he's hearing. "'Once you get into the postseason with all of the built-in off days, that's going to help their bullpen — which is the best,' he noted. The Padres' starting pitching is the team's biggest concern, but as the Dodgers demonstrated in 2024, you can win with three or four functional starters who are backed by a deep bullpen."

The Padres have yet to sniff a World Series this century, with their deepest run coming in 2022 in the National League Championship Series.

Outside of that, the last time they made the World Series was in 1998, losing to the 114-win New York Yankees in a four-game sweep.

The Padres are in as good a position as anybody to make a deep run, though.

San Diego has flipped the script in a big way this season, turning their season around in July. Many of their top players, like Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merril and Michael King, to name a few, have played extremely well and played a big role in the Padres' race for a playoff spot.

"As easy as it would be to pick an AL team to make a surprising run simply because the draw there is softer, experts like the Padres as a dangerous lower-seeded team," ESPN's Jesse Rogers wrote.

"They have a good playoff formula now that the rotation has some help and the lineup is hitting for power. In fact, San Diego leads MLB in home runs in September. And of course, they have that vaunted bullpen."

This season will be San Diego's 10th postseason appearance and their fifth in this decade alone.

The Padres will first have to get through the Chicago Cubs in the wild-card series, which begins on on Tuesday.

If they beat the Cubs, they'll have a date with the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS.

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