Counting the ways that the Padres' signing of aging slugger Nelson Cruz makes sense is easy. Until a season ago, he was one of the most dependable sluggers in baseball. He curb-stomps left-handers, hitting .295 with a gaudy .939 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
For a team hunting DH and bench pop in today's mega-monied game, the reported $1 million deal is the equivalent of principal owner Peter Seidler rummaging for loose change under the couch cushions.
No payoff, however, could prove more massive and meaningful than this: Cruz, at 42, is an 18-season veteran who scripted a comeback from his own PED purgatory. He instantly becomes a powerful check-and-balance presence for Fernando Tatis Jr.
Tatis, who is eligible to return April 20 from an 80-game PED punishment, is the name that keeps franchise front-office dwellers up at night. The Padres love the talent. The Padres sweat bullets over the decision making.
Consider the sage and savvy Cruz a $1 million guardrail for Tatis, a $340 million investment.
Simple math, really.
Cruz is a been-there, done-that guy for Tatis, who is about to embark on a long and potentially rocky reclamation tour. Flipping the dreadlocks and flashing the high-wattage smile will not be enough for the young star who once held a fragile grip on the "face of the game" title to turn the page.
Hard work awaits. Adding Cruz to the clubhouse presence of Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Juan Soto means hard truths rest on the horizon, too, if necessary.
Tatis knows Cruz and respects him immensely. He's a baseball legend in Tatis' beloved and baseball-crazy Dominican Republic. He's the GM of that country's team for the World Baseball Classic in March.
The suspension means Tatis will be benched when the international spotlight arrives. He let his country down. By default, he let Cruz down. Now he'll see Cruz each day … in the clubhouse … at the batting cage … pregame … postgame.
The pull to impress will be immense.
Cruz has hit 459 home runs, which trails only Miguel Cabrera among active players. If he swats just 10 in 2023 — as he did in a disappointing 2022, which ended in eye surgery — he would pass Jose Canseco, Dave Winfield and Chipper Jones. Hit 16 and he would match Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Willie Stargell, in fewer seasons.
Only Cabrera and Joey Votto claim more hits as active players, though Votto has just 75 more in 260 additional plate appearances.
Toss in the shared connections and history in the Dominican, the most close-knit community in baseball, and the Padres hand-delivered a fresh and powerful reason for Tatis to fly right.
Cruz told me at the recent Winter Meetings in San Diego that he talked to Tatis after the suspension and was working to set up a conversation with the player and MLB father of the same name.
"To talk about life and baseball," said Cruz, who was a free agent after playing most recently for the Nationals. "I love him. He's a great kid."
When Cruz was hit with a 50-game suspension in 2013, he put his head down and let the work and results speak for him. He belted 37 home runs or more in each of his next six seasons, averaging 105 RBIs.
The sterling value of Cruz is that he's unlikely to coddle Tatis or sugarcoat things that need to be said and absorbed.
"Even when you're doing good, there's going to be a question mark about it," Cruz said during that December conversation. "That's what it is. That's life. You make a mistake, you have to embrace it … Be the best player, from now on. Be the best person, too."
Plenty of people will speak to Tatis. In the case of Cruz, he'll listen.
What will become of Tatis' clouded legacy?
"He's the only one who can control what's going on after this," Cruz said.
The addition of Cruz may not yield a run-scoring bonanza for the Padres, though the eye surgery could unlock more late-career power. It does plenty of other things, though, starting by balancing out the DH situation with left-handed hitting Matt Carpenter. His name and resume alone will cause pitchers to pucker with runners aboard. He immediately lengthens a lineup already brimming with boppers.
The most under-the-radar storyline for the Padres in 2023, however, could be the conversations between Cruz and Tatis that none of us hear and the motivations simmering in the shadows.
Cruz makes the Padres better, with his bat and experience alone. The organization saw something bigger and more, as well, by picking up a player who was born the same year the U.S. beat the Soviet Union in hockey's "Miracle on Ice."
They've surrounded and insulated Tatis with ears to bend and examples to follow. Where the budding star was once the player for opponents to steer around, he's now one of many. Adding Cruz aids both.
Though opening day remains more than two months away, count that as the Padres' first win of the season.
