Can fresh faces help revive Padres' offense? 

This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Nick Castellanos was struggling offensively. He wasn’t the only one.

On Tuesday, the Padres designated Castellanos for assignment. (In Philadelphia of all places.) Timing aside, it was a sensible decision. Castellanos wasn’t providing the bench production that the team needed. He struggled to acclimate to that role. The Padres already had Ty France and Miguel Andujar as part-time righty-hitting corner bats. They needed something different. So Castellanos’ Padres tenure came to an unceremonious end.

That move alone is not going to solve the current plight offensively.

Entering play Tuesday, the Padres ranked last in the Majors in runs scored and batting average. They were tied for 27th in wRC+ -- an all encompassing hitting metric. It’s going to take a lot more than swapping Samad Taylor in for Castellanos to bring this offense to life.

“Plain and simple,” said Manny Machado. “We’ve got to hit.”

That applies to the superstars -- Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill. It applies to the role players -- to new callups Jase Bowen and Taylor, to slumping catchers Freddy Fermin and Rodolfo Durán, to bench pieces Bryce Johnson and Sung-Mun Song. Heck, it applies to hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. and the hitting staff.

All of them, across the board, need to produce more offensively.

The Padres have never wavered in their belief that they will, even as the season progresses into its third month and the struggles continue.

“For us to get to where we want to get to, it’s going to take the big guys in the middle of the order to swing the bats hot, and we’re not doing that right now,” Machado said. “We’re trying to figure it out, trying to get going.”

No doubt, that’s the biggest change the Padres can make offensively: They can get their stars hitting like stars. But in the meantime, they’ve begun to change their overall philosophy, even if only slightly.

“We’re not changing the core of what our offense is,” said manager Craig Stammen. “The goal of the offense is to score more runs than what we’ve been scoring. And I know that’s going to happen, we’ve got good players.

“I think with the transactions -- with Samad coming up, and Jase -- they bring one thing that we haven’t really had. That’s some speed, some youthfulness, some good defense. Just trying to change it up a little bit, see if maybe that’s the right formula to get us kickstarted.”

Makes sense. While the Padres wait for their stars to hit like stars, they can at least try to get better on the margins:

• Taylor can play some second base. Maybe he platoons there with Song, allowing Tatis to anchor right field. That gives you solid defense at second and your Platinum Glover back in right.

• Bowen provides not only speed, but some measure of pop coming off the bench. And when he starts, he’s solid defensively, allowing you to bring a bat like France or Andujar off the bench.

• As the Padres get healthier, there’s now serious competition for roster spots. Luis Campusano, Jake Cronenworth and Ramón Laureano could all be back this month. Fair warning for Johnson, Song, Fermin and Durán. They’ll all need to fight to keep their places. (None of those bench spots should be viewed as safe -- with Wednesday’s move as evidence.)

The Castellanos move does not fix the San Diego offense. The problems run much deeper than one player. But it’s a notable step, a sign that the Padres are desperately searching for those fixes. Their offense has been disappointing for two months. Considering the personnel, it ought to be much, much better.

And if it isn’t -- as we saw Wednesday -- the personnel is liable to change.