2024 Padres Season Review: Yuki Matsui, Alek Jacob and Wandy Peralta.
Looking back at a few more Padres relievers seasons.
2024 Regular Season Statistics
Yuki Matsui: 0.3 fWAR, 64 G, 62.2 IP, 3.73 ERA, 1.165 WHIP, 69 K, 27 BB, 8 HR, 0 HBP.
Positives From This Season
I feel like Matsui was one of those relievers who got more negativity on social media than he deserved. After a couple three earned run outings, some wanted him off the team but then he went on to shutout his opponent in 12 consecutive games after that.
Righties hit .196 off him and batters hit .197 when Matsui pitched on the road.
He’s not someone I expect to be a part of the postseason high leverage group next year but he’ll still be a guy that can get outs for you to help you get to October.
Negatives From This Season
With the five-year, $28 million contract he got, maybe some were hoping he’d pitch well enough to be one of the 7-8-9 relievers but with only one postseason appearance (in the ninth inning of a blowout loss), it was clear that’s not what San Diego thought of him compared against his teammates.
Now with that said, this was arguably the nastiest bullpen in the league—and it dramatically changed before the deadline—so it’s not totally Matsui’s fault. It’s more of a compliment to those guys ahead of him and A.J. Preller for not settling with the bullpen he had at the beginning of the season.
Matsui has an opt-out following the 2026 season.
Alek Jacob: 0.2 fWAR, 7 G, 14.2 IP, 2.45 ERA, 0.750 WHIP, 19 K, 2 BB, 1 HR, 2 HBP
Baseball Savant
Positives From This Season
Alek Jacob had some spurts where it looked like he could stay a while in the big leagues. Because he’s not a high velocity guy, it’s probably going to be hard for him to be a high leverage arm but having someone that can provide a huge change in speeds can be nice to have in your back pocket if you’re Mike Shildt.
He struck out 3+ batters in five of his seven big league appearances in the regular season. I’m looking forward to the possibility of him being used more next season.
Negatives From This Season
Jacob perhaps was an underutilized weapon in that bullpen. I thought he could’ve been used a little more in the postseason with his funky arm angle against a righty to end an inning. The 26-year-old only pitched in Games 2 and 4 of the NLDS (both were blowouts).
Wandy Peralta: -0.5 fWAR, 46 G, 38.1 IP, 3.99 ERA, 1.200 WHIP, 22 K, 13 BB, 6 HR, 5 HBP
Baseball Savant
Positives From This Season
Right-handed batters hit .215 off him with an OPS under .700. Peralta didn’t allow an earned run in the month of May (11 games). He took up less than $5 million of payroll.
Negatives From This Season
Peralta spent almost two months on the IL with an adductor strain so that limited the impact he could have on this team. He got pounded pretty good in June (4 HR, 1.039 opponent OPS) and July (.375 opponent AVG) before going on the IL.
Fans were probably expecting a little more from a veteran coming over from the Yankees who had a sub-3 ERA the last two seasons coming into 2024.
Peralta has three player options left on his deal starting in 2025.
