MLB rumors: Could Cardinals change mind on Marmol? Machado's failure as leader, Astros giving batters an advantage

The Padres appear to have significant leadership issues

The San Diego Padres are up there with the Cardinals, the two New York teams -- the Mets and Yankees -- and the Los Angeles Angels for most disappointing teams of the 2023 MLB season. The Padres are stocked with star talent in Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, and Manny Machado, yet they sit 20 games back in the NL West and are only better than the Colorado Rockies, who are 34.5 games back.

No team with so much talent should be struggling so much. The explanations can only amount to a poor fit -- which is hard to believe -- between the star players or a fractured locker room culture.

The latter feels more likely and has gotten some reporting indicating as much in recent days. A report from the San Diego Union-Tribune said that players in the clubhouse universally agree the culture, "lacks cohesion and a central purpose."

Multiple players appear to believe that the issue is due in part to veterans all being on their own workout programs. The article from SDUT used an example of a pregame voluntary workout against the Dodgers. San Diego had few players, mostly non-starters, show up to a workout. Just a bit later, all the Dodgers stars were on the field for their workout, a stark contrast from the Padres seemingly apathetic approach.

Here's an important excerpt from the column:

"According to several veterans, what also does not exist is a team with a “winning culture” that doesn’t include the best players being the hardest workers and those players demonstrating in word and deed to the rest of the team what is expected and tolerated.

To that end, several people maintain there is a leadership void in the Padres clubhouse — at least the kind of leadership the Padres need.

There are plenty of people to potentially blame. This could be the result of the roster composition by President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller. This perhaps should have fallen on manager Bob Melvin to supercede. Maybe this was the responsibility of a group of veterans to fix."

The article went on to say that the tone in the clubhouse is that Manny Machado, viewed as the de facto leader, has not been the solution. The article was sure to point out that no one feels he is necessarily a problem, either but rather, that he doesn't quite command a sense of accountability or tone of urgency one might expect from such a highly paid and highly respected player.

The article said that there have been eight-plus team meetings this year, meetings in which Machado was a vocal participant who helped lay out plans for change to the perceived issues with the team's culture, but that teammates felt he did not follow through on the agreed-upon plans after meetings.

"It was relayed to him that the types of things that could have been disregarded included being on time to meetings and buses, pregame work, executing unselfish at-bats or demonstrating a sense of engagement on the basepaths or elsewhere."

There seem to be a litany of issues in San Diego. Machado's lack of desire to act like a "captain" of sorts and an accountability leader is one alarming note, but some of this has to fall on the shoulders of people up the chain in coaching and management, too.

Considered as a whole, though, it makes it much more clear why the Padres have struggled immensly in 2023.