A World Series Champion with the Atlanta Braves in 1995, Ryan Klesko was traded to the San Diego Padres before the millennium.  Klesko was a decent power hitter with the Braves, and that is what he continued as a Padre. 

In the first two seasons with San Diego, Klesko continued his Home Run hitting with 26 and 30 respectively, but had 23 Stolen Bases in both years, an astounding achievement considering his previous high was six.  Klesko also went to his first All-Star Game that year.  Klesko had another two years with over 20 Home Runs but afterward began to miss games due to ailments and lost a bit of bat speed.

After missing nearly all of 2006 due to a shoulder injury, he signed with San Francisco as a Free Agent but retired after an unproductive season.  He smacked 133 Home Runs with the Padres, had 786 Hits, and batted .279.

One of the more versatile players that the Padres ever had, Phil Nevin played a bounty of Games for San Diego at Third, First, Rightfield, and at Catcher, but it looked for a while like Nevin would never become an everyday player in the Majors.

Nevin was a former Number One Pick, taken by the Astros in 1992, but they soured on him, and he was traded to Detroit in 1995, and two years later to Anaheim, with neither place seeing Nevin ascend to an everyday player.  The Angels sent him south to San Diego, and finally, he began to meet expectations.

Nevin had 24 Home Runs in 1999 and increased it to 31 in 2000, where he also had his first .300 season, with a .303 Batting Average.  He followed that with the best season of his career, with career highs in Hits (167), Home Runs (41), RBIs (126), and the three Slash Line components (.306/.388/.588).  Bevin was an All-Star that year, was 21^st in MVP voting, and had his third consecutive year with a Slugging Percentage over .500.

Nevin was injured through most of the 2002 and 2003 seasons, and he had a nice comeback year in 2004 (26 HR, 105 RBI, .289 BA), but he was getting older and was deemed expendable.  He was traded to Texas during the 2005 Season, leaving San Diego with 156 Home Runs, 573 RBIs, and had a Slash Line of .288/.359/.503.

As of this writing, Fernando Tatis Jr. has only been with the San Diego Padres for four seasons, but he is one of the most exciting players in the game and has so much more ahead of him.

The Chicago White Sox first signed the son of a 14-Year veteran, Fernando Tatis, Tatis Jr. as an Amateur Free Agent in 2015, but before he played an organized game in the ChiSox organization, he was traded to the Padres in a move that will haunt White Sox for years to come.  Tatis Jr. climbed up the Padres organization, making the Friars in 2019, finishing third in Rookie of the Year, voting off a .317, 22 HR year.  

COVID-19 ravaged 2020, but not Tatis Jr., who emerged as one of the best players in the NL.  He finished fourth in MVP voting, won the Silver Slugger, and the Shortstop batted .277 with 17 Home Runs in 59 Games.  2021 was better, as Tatis Jr. led the NL in Home Runs (42) with 97 RBIs and a Slash Line of .282/.364/.611.  Tatis Jr. won his second Silver Slugger, was third in MVP voting, and, as he did in 2020, was named to the All-MLB 1 Team.  The sky should have been what Tatis reached in 2022, but that was not to be, as he started the season on the disabled list and ended it with a drug suspension, leaving him with zero Games Played in 2022.  He began 2023 serving the rest of his suspension, and a lot of question marks were ahead of him, but he returned as San Diego's best player and an All-Star snub.  Tatis had 25 Home Runs, and had his best defensive year to date, winning a Gold Glove with a 2.3 Defensive bWAR.

Coming off an injury-riddled 2024 season, what will 2024 bring for Tatis Jr?  

All rise!

Aaron Judge is as of this writing the most exciting player on the New York Yankees, and since his rookie year, the team’s best offensive player.

Judge played in 27 Games in 2016, maintaining his rookie eligibility for 2017.  The First Baseman was named the Rookie of the Year, leasing the AL in Home Runs (52), Runs Scored (128), Walks (127), while winning the Silver Slugger and coming in second for the MVP.  An All-Star as a rookie, Judge was also named an All-Star in 2018 (27 HR, .278 BA), and had 27 Home Runs again in only 102 Games in 2019.  

In 2021, Judge had another great year, where he was fourth in MVP voting off a 39 Home Run year, but it was in 2022, where he made a claim for Yankee immortality, winning the MVP, and the Home Run Title with a 62-Home Run season, now making him the single-season leader Home Run leader for the Yankees, the most important team in baseball to have a claim on.  Last year, Judge lifted the Yankees all the way to the World Series (though they lost), but he won his second MVP, third Home Run Title (58), and second RBI Title with a whopping 144.  He also won his second OBP (.458), Slugging (.701) and OPS Title (1.159) all of which were career highs.

Judge continues to rocket up the hardest ladder to climb, and could potentially be an all-time top-five Yankee.  That is how special a player Aaron Judge is.