The Padres will bring back the core of their team — Bogaerts, Machado, Jake Cronenworth, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr.. But they were characterized by having different heroes at different points in the season, sometimes from game to game.

The San Diego Padres had an incredibly successful season, but when a team is investing in winning as aggressively as the Padres are right now, anything less than a World Series is a bit of a letdown.

After the Houston Astros were knocked out of the baseball postseason, the question for some Astros fans was, “Who do we root for now?”