This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell's Padres Beat newsletter. This edition was written by MLB.com reporter Brent Maguire. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
In one of the most unlikely twists of the Padres’ 2026 season, Gavin Sheets has been San Diego’s best hitter ... by far.
The 32-26 Padres have been carried by a pitching staff that ranks near the top of the MLB leaderboards, but the offense has struggled to get going. Padres hitters have the second-worst OPS (.656) in the Majors and have scored the third fewest runs (227). That’s made Sheets’ offensive production that much more important.
The following numbers are entering Sunday’s games.
In his second year with the Padres, Sheets had recorded a .252/.343/.484 slash line. Among the seven Padres hitters with at least 120 plate appearances, Sheets was first in OPS (.827) and SLG (.484), while his nine home runs were second behind Manny Machado. Sheets has also provided a trio of late-game homers that have helped vault the Padres to wins.
That Sheets is in this position now is pretty remarkable considering that he was jettisoned by one of the worst teams of all time in 2024.
After posting a .660 OPS in 139 games for the White Sox in 2024 -- Chicago set the Modern Era record with 121 losses -- Sheets was non-tendered by the club that November. It was hardly a controversial decision, as Sheets had struggled mightily since a strong 54-game debut in 2021 (11 homers and an .830 OPS).
The Padres signed Sheets to a Minor League deal in February 2025 and saw the left-handed batter produce a .746 OPS and 19 home runs in 145 games. Sheets was a valuable player for the Padres, spending a bulk of his time either in left field or at designated hitter, but also playing some first base.
San Diego rewarded Sheets by essentially naming him the everyday first baseman coming into this season. It’s proven to be the right choice, given what he’s done at the plate so far this year amidst the Padres’ ongoing struggles at the plate. It’s not hyperbole to claim that Sheets has really carried San Diego’s offense so far -- Miguel Andujar and Ty France were the only other Padres with an above-average OPS+ in at least 100 plate appearances.
So, how exactly did Sheets turn his career around to become the most important hitter for a team in a playoff position? It’s remarkably simple, but Sheets has basically just hit the ball harder as a Padre.
After posting a 6.3 percent barrel rate in four seasons with the White Sox, Sheets was running a 9.5 percent barrel rate with the Padres. Ditto for his hard-hit rate: it went from a 36.0 percent clip with Chicago to a 46.5 percent rate with San Diego.
Some of that can be attributed to a sizable increase in bat speed since coming to San Diego. In his final year and a half with the White Sox -- Statcast’s bat tracking began monitoring this in the second half of the 2023 season -- Sheets had a 72.7 mph bat speed. That number has jumped to 74.8 mph with the Padres.
That’s a big deal, since every 1 mph of bat speed earns you approximately six more feet of distance, according to MLB.com’s Mike Petriello when the stat was first introduced. And it immediately produced results, as Sheets hit a career-high 19 home runs last year and is on pace to surpass that mark this year.
We’ve gotten this far and haven’t even touched on Sheets’ flair for the dramatic, which immediately began in his Padres tenure. On Opening Day 2025, Sheets hit a game-tying pinch-hit home run in the seventh inning in his first plate appearance with the Padres. Those heroics have been even more pronounced this season.
When the Padres debuted the second edition of their City Connects on April 10, Sheets capped the night with a walk-off three-run homer against the Rockies, San Diego’s second straight win with a walk-off home run. On April 23, Sheets hit a ninth-inning, game-winning homer in Colorado. And most recently, he hit a go-ahead three-run home run against Milwaukee’s Abner Uribe in the ninth inning of a Padres win on May 13.
Sheets leads the Majors with three go-ahead home runs in the ninth inning or later. Matt Olson and Colton Cowser are the only other players with multiple such homers.
Add this all up and it’s easy to see why Sheets has become something of a cult hero in San Diego -- you’ve surely heard the “Holy Sheets” chants from fans during Padres home games. That cult hero status and Sheets’ production have made him an integral member of the Padres, especially as they wait for their big hitters to get going.