Prior to this season, the San Diego Padres last made the playoffs in 2006. The Chicago White Sox suffered the same drought in the 2010s, having last made the postseason in 2008. Now, both teams are headed to the postseason and there’s no possible World Series matchup more exciting than these two teams squaring off.
From the Baltimore perspective, it’s pretty easy to understand why it’d be fun to see San Diego make the World Series for the first time since 1998: Manny Machado. After several excellent seasons in Baltimore, Machado has rebounded from a rough first season at Petco Park by posting a career high in OPS, including a slugging percentage above .600 for the first time in his career.
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While there will always be frustration from the Orioles fanbase that Machado wasn’t an Oriole for life, Machado will likely be spending the rest of his career in a different league from the Orioles, facing them once every three years in the regular season. Machado going to the Padres certainly was a more enjoyable outcome than seeing him as a New York Yankee, something that was regularly speculated up until his move to the Padres was official. Machado’s move to the NL West also stands out in contrast to Bryce Harper staying in the NL East to join the Philadelphia Phillies. Additionally, the early success of Dean Kremer has provided an encouraging sign that trading Machado to the Dodgers in 2018 could provide Baltimore with a solid piece of its rotation going forward.
Regardless of how fans feel about Machado not being an Oriole for life, he isn’t the only former Oriole on the Padres. Wayne Kirby has gone from the first base coach in Baltimore to having the same job in San Diego, while former third base coach Bobby Dickerson is now the bench coach for manager Jayce Tingler. Perhaps the most amusing Orioles-Padres connection is the beloved super utility man from the Showalter era in Baltimore: Ryan Flaherty. Flaherty, whose title on Padres.com is “Major League Advance Scout/Development Coach” can be spotted in the dugout during the games, providing another link between the current Padres and the Showalter era O’s.
Even if the White Sox don’t have an Orioles angle, you shouldn’t need any former Orioles to appreciate a team seeing all of its young talent come together at the right time. They feature a 22-year-old Rookie of the Year candidate in Luis Robert, a 23-year-old Eloy Jimenez with an OPS above .900 and a 25-year-old Lucas Giolito who threw a no-hitter on his way to a very solid 3.53 ERA. While the youth is coming through for Chicago, they’ve also enjoyed breakout seasons from the 27-year-old Tim Anderson and 33-year-old Jose Abreu. Anderson has followed up a season where he won the batting title with an even higher batting average and has an isolated power above .200 for the first time in his career. Meanwhile, Abreu has an OPS above 1.000 and he leads the American League in bWAR.
While both of these teams entered this year with postseason droughts lasting over a decade, the more you look into what happened between playoff appearances, the easier it becomes to root for this World Series.
The best way to highlight how long it’s been for the White Sox is this clip of the 2008 AL Central tiebreaker they won to make the playoffs.
That’s right, the White Sox have been out of the postseason for so long, the last time they made it, they were starting a 38-year-old Ken Griffey Jr. in center. Griffey was joined by another Hall of Famer coming to the end of his career in 37-year-old Jim Thome, who hit a go-ahead homer in that game.
Chicago did get a perfect game from Mark Buehrle the following year, but the two of the most notable things to happen to the team prior to this year weren’t on-the-field performances. The 2016 White Sox started the season arguing over Drake LaRoche, the 14-year-old son of Adam LaRoche. Then in July, Chris Sale was sent home after cutting up the throwback uniforms the White Sox planned to wear. Just to hammer the point home: in the same year the White Sox argued over a child and had their ace destroy a bunch of retro jerseys, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.
In contrast to the White Sox, the Padres spent their years away from the postseason being one of the most irrelevant teams in baseball. In 2007, Jake Peavy won the pitching triple crown on his way to the Cy Young but after that, there was hardly anything a Padre did that got meaningful attention nationally prior to the arrival of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Machado. Adrian Gonzalez provided some really solid production but he was never best 1B in the league, thanks to some guy in St. Louis named Albert Pujols. The Padres tried to enter 2015 as contenders with the acquisitions of Justin Upton, Matt Kemp and Craig Kimbrel, but ended the season an underwhelming 74-88. The most attention the Padres got between 2006 and the Machado signing happened thanks to Bartolo Colon.
Speaking of Colon, you know who allowed that homer? James Shields. Shields was traded from the Padres to the White Sox, with the Padres getting Fernando Tatis Jr. in return. The chance for Tatis to get revenge on the team that traded him would provide yet another source for entertainment in this series.
The Padres and White Sox endured the 2010s without much success. Now, they’ve spent the first year of the 2020s as the two of the best teams in baseball, with plenty of young talent on both rosters from successfully executed rebuilds. It’d be a great World Series to watch and could give Manny Machado a chance to get his first ring.
BSL Analyst
Rose Katz is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland’s journalism school, where she worked for The Diamondback as the online managing editor and a sports blogger. As a student, she spent almost all of her time on campus in The Diamondback’s newsroom or at Xfinity Center, Ludwig Field and Maryland Stadium. Rose gained intern experience with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).