Randy Jones might be one of the most unexpected and forgotten Cy Young winners in history, but this was not a one-season wonder, as many might misremember. 

Jones broke in the Majors with the Padres in 1973, going 7-6, but his sophomore year was abysmal.  While it was evident that Jones had talent, San Diego was not very good, and he lost a league-leading 22 Games against only 8 Wins and a 4.45 ERA.  He remained on the rotation going into 1975, and while the Padres brass knew the potential was there, what Jones put forth had to feel like it came out of the sky.

Jones' 1975 campaign saw the lefthander lead the NL in ERA (2.24) and ERA+ (156) and was second to the legendary Tom Seaver for the Cy Young.  He had an even better 1976, leading the league in Wins (22), Complete Games (25), Innings Pitched (25), and WHIP (1.027) with a healthy ERA of 2.74.  That year, Jones won the Cy Young, becoming the first Padre to win a major individual award.

Jones might not have been able to have another monster year, as he was up and down over the next four years, never regaining an All-Star form but remaining a serviceable starter.  He was traded to the Mets after the 1980 Season, and while Jones had a losing record with San Diego (92-105), he was an integral part of the growth of the franchise.

In 1999, the Padres enshrined Jones into their inaugural Hall of Fame Class two years after they retired his number 37.

A two-sport star in Minnesota, Dave Winfield easily could have had a career in professional basketball.  Instead, he opted for the diamond, and the Padres used their Fourth Overall Pick to take the prodigy.

Winfield started immediately for the Padres, bypassing the minors.  While he was a good Pitcher, San Diego wanted his bat, and he was used in Rightfield, a position he took too quickly.  Winfield hit 20 Home Runs in 1974 and was gradually improving and made his first All-Star Game in 1977, the first of what would be 12 straight.  He belted 25 Home Runs that year, 24 the next, and in 1979, he had his best year in a Padres uniform with 34 Home Runs, a league-leading 118 RBIs, and a .308 Batting Average.  Winfield led the NL in bWAR for Position Players and was third for the MVP.  He played one more season for San Diego before he signed with the New York Yankees as a Free Agent.

With the Padres, Winfield amassed 1,134 Hits, 154 Home Runs with a Batting Average of .284.  The Baseball Hall of Fame inducted Winfield into their Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and the Padres retired his number 31 the same year.  San Diego also inducted Winfield into their Hall the year before. 

Jake Peavy debuted in the Majors in 2002, roughly three years after he was a throwaway pick (15^th Round) in the Amateur Draft.  

A righthanded starter, Peavy never left the Padres rotation for the entirety of his seven-year stay, with him emerging as the staff ace in 2004.  In that season, Peavy led the NL in ERA (2.27) and would be named to the All-Star Game the following season, this time finishing the year with a 2.88 ERA and a league-leading 216 Strikeouts.

After a disappointing 2006, Peavy had the best year of his career, winning the Pitcher's Triple Crown (19 Wins, 2.54 ERA, 240 SO) while also topping the NL in FIP (2.84), WHIP (1.061), and SO/9 (9.7).  Naturally, Peavy won the Cy Young, and he was an All-Star for the second time.

Peavy failed to reach those heights again, and he would be traded to the White Sox at the 2009 trading deadline.  With the Padres, Peavy posted a 92-68 record with 1,348 Strikeouts, which as of this writing, is the franchise record.

The San Diego Padres raised concerns in the summer of 1993 when they traded Gary Sheffield to Florida, but one of the players they received in return was Trevor Hoffman, a rookie reliever who would become the best Relief Pitcher in National League history.

Hoffman would become their closer the following year, and he would soon prove himself as a dominating presence.  He would enter the game to the ominous opening of AC/DC's "Hells Bells," and in 1998, he led the NL in Saves (53) and took the Padres to the World Series.  They fell to the Yankees, but they would have never have gotten there without Hoffman.

Hoffman continued to be the top closer in the NL, with another league-lead in Saves in 2006 and nine 40-Save seasons.  He was the first player in baseball history to reach 500 Saves and 600 Saves (though he was with Milwaukee at the time), and he accrued 552 of his 601 Saves as a Padre.  

San Diego retired his number 51 in 2011 and inducted Hoffman to their franchise Hall of Fame three years later.  In 2018, Cooperstown came calling, inducting Hoffman in the third year of his eligibility.  Appropriately, the player considered the best reliever in the NL now wins the Trevor Hoffman Award.

Sometimes, when we do our top 50 in a franchise, it is challenging to determine the man who tops the list.  This is not one of those times.

Tony Gwynn is not only the greatest San Diego Padre ever; he is one of the best hitters the game ever saw.  Gwynn's dedication to plate discipline and studying film would become a template for others to follow, and it yielded a bounty of hits.

Gwynn debuted for San Diego in 1982, and two years later, he was the Padres' regular Rightfielder and firmly established as one of the National League's premier hitters.  Gwynn helped lead San Diego to the pennant in 1984, and that year he won the Batting Title (.351), led the NL in Hits (213), and was an All-Star and Silver Slugger.

Gwynn’s 1984 would become par for the course for him over the next 15 years.  With the exception of his first year in 1982, Gwynn never had a year where he batted less than .300, and he won eight Batting Titles, including a .394 year in 1994, in the strike-halted season where he could have potentially batted .400.  He would finish first in Hits seven times, win the OBP title once, was a 15-time All-Star, and a seven-time Silver Slugger.  The MVP might have elided Gwynn, but he had seven top-ten finishes.

The power game of Gwynn was not his strength, but it was not a weakness either.  Gwynn smashed a respectable 135 Home Runs and had a lifetime Slugging Percentage of .459.  While he would later struggle with weight, Gwynn still swiped 319 Bases and was good defensively, accumulating five Gold Gloves.

Gwynn would amass 3,141 Hits with a .338 Batting Average over a 20-year career.  The Baseball Hall of Fame called him in his first year of eligibility in 2007.  As for the Padres, they inducted Gwynn into their Hall of Fame and retired his number 19 in 2004.

A First Overall Pick in 2000, Adrian Gonzalez was drafted by the Florida Marlins, but a wrist injury in the minors convinced the team that he would not become a bona fide Major League player.  Gonzalez was traded to Texas, where he eventually made the main roster, but the Rangers deemed him expendable, and he was traded to San Diego, the city he grew up in.

Gonzalez would quickly take over for the injured Ryan Klesko at First Base, and he proved the Marlins assessment wrong.  The First Baseman had 173 Hits, 24 Home Runs, and batted .304 in his first year in San Diego, and he followed that with a 30 HR, 100 RBI season in 2007.  Gonzalez was named to the All-Star Team the next three years, all of which were good power years with 36, 40, and 31 Home Runs, respectively.  

Gonzalez was also developing a keener batting eye, leading the NL in Walks (119) in 2009.  Gonzalez earned MVP votes in all three of his All-Star years, peaking with a fourth-place finish in 2010.  Defensively, Gonzalez also added two Gold Gloves to his trophy case.

At the conclusion of the 2010 Season, Gonzalez would be traded to the Red Sox for four players.  Gonzalez blasted 161 Home Runs with a .514 Slugging Percentage as a Padre.

Gene Tenace made his mark as a vital member of the Oakland Athletics three consecutive World Series wins (1972-74), but like all of their stars, he was off to another team in 1977.  For Tenace, he stayed in the state, joining San Diego as a Free Agent.

Tenace was with the Padres for four years, and while he was never a feared hitter, he was an intelligent one.  The Catcher knew how to get on base, drawing over 100 Walks in his first three years in San Diego, including leading the National League with 125 in his first year as a Padre.  Tenace had a .415 OBP that year, all the more impressive considering his Batting Average was only .233.  Within the four years as a Padre, Tenace never had an OBP lower than .392 and only batted over .250 in one of those campaigns.  Tenace did have respectable power, accumulating 68 Home Runs over his time as a Friar, and his handling of a pitching staff was incalculable.

Dealt to the Cardinals after the 1980 Season, Tenace had a .403 OBP with San Diego, a number higher than what he did in Oakland (.374).  Amazingly, he had more Walks (423) than Hits (384) as a Padre, but as Moneyball tells you, “he gets on base."

Terry Kennedy played the first three years of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals before he was traded in 1981 to San Diego.  It was a great opportunity for the Catcher, who now had the chance to play every day.

In his first season with the Padres, Kennedy batted .301 and was named to the All-Star Team.  Kennedy was not an All-Star in 1982, but he had his best power season, posting personal bests in Doubles (42) and Home Runs (21) while again flirting with .300.  He would show moderate power, hitting at least 10 Home Runs from 1983 to 1986, adding two more All-Stars to his resume, with a Silver Slugger coming his way in 1983.  Kennedy finished tenth in MVP voting in 1983, also played a large part in the Padres National League Pennant in 1984.  He made history in that year's World Series, as after he drove in two runs in Game 1, he joined his dad.  (Bob) as the first father-son combination to have RBIs in World Series competition.  Kennedy was also a respected defensive Catcher who had a couple of years in San Diego that would have been Gold Glove worthy.

Kennedy was traded to Baltimore in 1986, with the Catcher leaving behind a .274 Batting Average, 817 Hits, and 76 Home Runs.

Taken number one overall in the 1975 Amateur Draft, Gene Richards debuted two years later for the Padres with a solid rookie year, batting .290 and setting a then-rookie record for Stolen Bases (56).  

Richards kept it up for the Padres as a decent leadoff hitter, swiping more bases and batting over .300 twice, 1978 and 1980.  He would also notably lead the NL in Triples in 1981 (12), Singles in 1980 (155), and defensively led all the NL Leftfielders in Assists.

Richards bolted San Diego for San Francisco as a Free Agent in 1984, but he never performed as well for the Giants as he did as a Padre.  With San Diego, Richards batted .291 with 242 Stolen Bases.

An original Padre, Nate Colbert, was plucked from the Houston Astros in the Expansion Draft. 

Colbert became the Padres starting First Baseman, and while he was not the best contact hitter, he was good with the power aspect.  Over his first five years in San Diego, Colbert hit at least 22 Home Runs, with seasons of 38 in 1970 and 1972.   Colbert was an All-Star three straight years (1971-73) and finished eighth in MVP voting in the middle year.

Back problems reduced his effectiveness, and after a poor 1974 season, he was traded to Detroit.  Colbert accumulated 163 Home Runs with the Padres.

Ken Caminiti made his first All-Star Game in the strike-shortened 1994 Season, his eighth in Houston.  In a push to get younger, Caminiti was part of a 12-man trade to San Diego in the winter, and with the Padres, he embarked on the best run of his career.

Caminiti’s power game exploded (he later admitted to using PEDs), and he had his first 20-plus Home Run year, belting 26, while also batting over .300 for the first time.  His second year as a Padre was his best in Baseball, winning the MVP with career-highs in Home Runs (40), RBIs (130), and the Slash Line (.326/.408/.621).  He would also win the Silver Slugger, and defensively, he won his second straight Gold Glove, with a third following the year after.

Caminiti kept his power numbers strong, over the next two years, with seasons of 26 and 29 Home Runs, respectively.  He rejoined the Astros as a Free Agent in 1999, leaving the Padres after 121 Home Runs and a .295 Batting Average.  The Padres inducted Caminiti into their Hall of Fame in 2016.

Andy Benes began his Major League career with the San Diego Padres in 1989, a year after they took him with the First Overall Pick in the Amateur Draft.

Benes was fifth in Rookie of the Year voting, going 6-3 with a 3.51 ERA in ten Starts, and over the next five years, he was the Padres top Pitcher.  He won 15 Games in both 1991 and 1993, the latter year earning him a trip to the All-Star Game.  After struggling in 1995, Benes was traded to Seattle, and as a Padre, he won 69 Games against 75 Losses with 1,036 Strikeouts.

One of the most underrated players was Brian Giles, who played for three mediocre teams (Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and San Diego) and did not see as much love as he should have.

Born in the United States, but raised in Mexico, Adrian Gonzalez would have a very good career playing First Base in the Major Leagues.

Gonzalez first debuted for the Texas Rangers, but it was in San Diego where he first came into prominence.  With the Padres, he was a three-time All-Star and would secure four consecutive 30 plus HR seasons, including a career-high 40 in 2009.  That year, he led the National League in Walks (119).

Many baseball players are known for the clutch performances with their bat.  Graig Nettles certainly had many clutch hits in his long career, but he may have been known for having more clutch performances with his glove.