All time Padres shortstop really comes down to two guys: The Wizard and Jumpsteady (Ozzie Smith and Garry Templeton, respectively). This debate is a surprisingly underwhelming statistical analysis - both were pretty terrible hitters as Friars.
The Padres traded Ozzie Smith for Garry Templeton in 1981 after Templeton had a Milton Bradley-esque (circa LA Dodgers Milton) moment, flipping off the fans in St. Louis. The trade worked out better for the Cardinals than it did for the Padres, but Templeton did wind up being the Padres all-time leader in games played at shortstop. Prior to the trade, Templeton had won another Silver Slugger award and made 2 All-Star appearences in 6 years with the Cardinals. The Wizard of Oz merely went on to win 11 Gold Gloves and make 11 All-Star teams in a row (and 3 more All-Star teams after that) with the Cardinals. Nice move, Padres.
As a Padre, Ozzie Smith hit an abyssmal .231 with only 1 home run, although he did steal 147 bases in his 4 years with the club. Smith was the runner-up NL Rookie of the Year in 1978 (probably would have won it if he had hit a damn thing), won Gold Gloves in both '80 and '81, and made the All-Star team in '81.
Templeton fared a little better at the plate, hitting .252 with 427 RBIs over 10 years. He won the Silver Slugger award in 1984, and was an All-Star in 1985. Templeton is by far the longest-tenured Padres shortstop, playing 1224 games at the 6 spot - 543 games more than the runner up, and 642 more than Ozzie.
I've got to go with Garry Templeton here. Both had above-average-but-less-than-stellar careers as Padres, but I've got to give the nod to the guy who played here for a decade. I would have gone with Smith, but amazingly, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find good highlights of Smith's barehanded play as a Padre. All I found were a bunch of lame tribute videos posted by sycophantic Cardinals fans. What kind of fan base wears all red because they're told to? It's not charming or particularly advantageous. Cardinals fans are almost on par with Cubs fans, BoSox fans, and, yes, even the most-hated Giants fans. Just giving a friendly heads-up. There's still time for them to salvage some dignity.
Also, fun little side note that had no bearing on the outcome of this posting: I worked with Garry Templeton's son, Garry Templeton, Jr. for a while.
All Time Padres Recap:
All Time Padres RF: Tony Gwynn
All Time Padres CF: Steve Finley
All Time Padres LF: Ted Williams
All Time Padres 3B: Ken Caminiti
All Time Padres SS: Gary Templeton
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