Padres Notes: Major Breakout Candidate, SD Wants to Be Like Dodgers, Yu Darvish Impact

The San Diego Padres lost, 3-2, to the San Francisco Giants on Monday night, falling to 1-3 early in the season.

Walker Buehler allowed three runs across four innings in his Padres debut while the offense was silent until the bottom of the ninth inning, when Jackson Merrill hit a two-run home run. It was the Padres' third and final hit of the night.

In other news, the Padres have a major breakout candidate in their bullpen for the 2026 season. The top prospect has dominated MLB in limited action, and could become a household name sooner rather than later.

Additionally, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller recently discussed the rival Los Angeles Dodgers amid their dominance. Preller said he wants to get the Padres to the Dodgers' level.

“I think it’s good to have teams that are elite, that are kind of setting the pace and having a lot of other teams that can go ahead and play at that level,” Preller said. “We look at it in the NL West: you’ve got to be really good to come out of there. It’s made us better over the last few years, and it makes the league better, honestly. ... It’s a good challenge for us. It’s something that we’re looking forward to seeing if we can get to that level.”

Finally, while Yu Darvish is set to miss the entire 2026 season after undergoing major elbow surgery, he's already made a big impact on the rotation. Darvish has worked with right-hander Randy Vásquez, who credited the Japanese superstar for helping him find success at the MLB level.

“He’s an incredible person,” Vásquez said through his interpreter Pedro Gutiérrez. “He’s helped me out a lot ever since I came here to San Diego. He’s very special to me. We text, we FaceTime, we call each other.”

Here’s more information on these stories and all the latest Padres news (click the headline for the full article):

Padres Breakout Candidate: Top Prospect Ready to Dominate in MLB

Padres Boss Aiming to Get to Dodgers Level

Yu Darvish Has Already Made Big Impact on 2026 Padres

Walker Buehler Believes Padres Are 'Threat' to Dodgers in NL West

Walker Buehler Says He’s Made 'Strides' With Padres Pitching Coach Ruben Niebla

Jackson Merrill Says Padres Can't Overlook 'Sneaky' Threat in NL West

Padres Tweets of the Day

Final. pic.twitter.com/LPR8vtZGLE
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 31, 2026

You can hit it anywhere, but you can't hit it to the Crone Zone. pic.twitter.com/bP7X1wV7AE
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 31, 2026

Luis Arraez spoke about how it feels to return to San Diego, how he'll remember his time with the Padres and if he thought at any point this offseason that he'd return to the Padres: pic.twitter.com/vLV0YEh0rR
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) March 31, 2026