No, they don’t.
Advanced Stats says that Machado alone is worth about 6-8 wins per year. SD was 66-96 last year without him. So a big year makes them 76-86.
At least SD is trying. Which is more than can be said for half of the rest of the league.
I hear you. It’s disturbing to hear teams are “tanking” and essentially writing off being competitive. Yet at the same time, they expect their fans to keep paying and coming to the games, and watching on TV.
They went from not spending a dime to breaking the bank.
A few weeks ago I was listening to one of the national baseball writers being interviewed on the Angels station... I’m not certain who it was but it might have been Jeff Passan who covers MLB for Yahoo Sports... Anyway, he was asked who will be the surprise team for 2019 and he said that it is the Padres. He compared what the Padres have been doing to what Houston did when they went from dead last to being a WS contender. The last piece of the Padres puzzle was going to be adding veterans to their roster. If that writer knows what he is talking about this could be an exciting year in the NL West.