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ATLANTA — Xander Bogaerts reacted as if the move was inevitable, a no-brainer.
He shrugged, stuck out his lower lip and shook his head.
“Play better,” he said. “… Play better and try to contribute.”
Bogaerts, whose batting average has plummeted to .220, was responding to a question about his thoughts on being dropped in the batting order further than he had been since his third season in the major leagues.
He batted eighth in Tuesday night’s game against the Braves, his lowest spot since 2015 when he was with the Red Sox — before he had won any of his five Silver Sluggers or made any of his four All-Star teams or signed either of his two nine-figure contracts.
While Bogaerts acted as if his being in the eight-hole was the logical step, the reality is it took quite a while for the Padres to take that step.
Bogaerts has batted fifth (44 games) and sixth (18 games) most often this season, but Craig Stammen actually had moved him up to third for eight games earlier this month before batting him fifth Sunday and sixth Monday.
“Take a little bit of pressure off Bogey is probably the biggest thing,” Stammen said. “We’ve got to get him going somehow, you know. Thought moving him up in the lineup might get him going. … Putting him down a little bit lower, hopefully that takes a little bit of the pressure off him, lets him just go play baseball.”
The 33-year-old Bogaerts has seen a mostly precipitous drop in his production since signing an 11-year, $280 million contract with the Padres before the 2023 season. But he has never had numbers this low 95 games into a season.
His OPS sat at .638 entering Tuesday’s game, which ranked 135th out of 148 qualifying players. He has hit .189 with a .558 OPS since April 29. It is his worst 67-game stretch since early in his first full big-league season (2014).
Bogaerts has spoken about being unable to go the other way, a component of his game that has over the years allowed him to scrape together hits even when his swing isn’t feeling great. He essentially explains it as his swing not doing what his brain tells it to do.
“Keep working,” he said. “That’s all I can say. Keep trusting and keep working. Every day you feel (good). Then you look at the box score. … Just play better.”
The other stuff
The move with one of their highest-paid players — by measure of his $25 million base pay, their highest paid — to near the bottom of the order was the grandest machination.
But Tuesday’s lineup was as jumbled as any Stammen has turned out in a while.
“Just trying to shake it up a little bit,” he said.
Jake Cronenworth was the left-handed batter in the No. 2 hole between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado. Ty France was fourth again, and Jackson Merrill moved down to first from second. Luis Campusano was sixth for just the second time, and slumping Gavin Sheets seventh after batting fourth or fifth most of the past six weeks.
And after Bogaerts was Luis Rengifo, making his second start for the Padres and doing it as the DH for just the third time in his 652 MLB starts.
Rengifo, signed to a minor-league deal last month, was called up July 8. He made his first start on Sunday in Kansas City and went 3-for-5. He was 2-for-2 after coming off the bench Monday.
“The last two games that he’s played, he has opened our eyes a little bit to ‘All right, maybe this guy needs a little bit more playing time,’” Stammen said. “… We’re trying to play hot hands. We’re in the situation where we’re behind in the standings and we’ve got to figure out a way to make up ground. And it’s tough to have hot players sitting on the bench. If he’s swinging it well, we’ve got to get him in there.”
France on fire
France entered Tuesday’s game on an eight-game hitting streak, tied for the sixth-longest in his career and six off his high set in 2023 with the Mariners.
He is batting .464 (13-for-28) with three doubles and five home runs during the streak. His 1.607 OPS over the eight games is his highest in any stretch of at least eight games in his career.
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