Padres outfielder Hunter Renfroe has come up in trade rumors this week, and the club is indeed willing to deal the 27-year-old slugger, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. However, Renfroe’s not the only Padre who could end up on the move before the July 31 trade deadline. The team’s willing to give up “virtually” any of its position players except for shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., third baseman Manny Machado and first baseman Eric Hosmer, according to Acee.
The Padres’ goal in dealing from its current position player cast would be to upgrade offensively at two spots – catcher and center field – and add “young arms,” per Acee. Their desire to pick up controllable pitching has long been known, though it’s interesting they want a better offensive backstop.
Major leaguers Austin Hedges and Austin Allen haven’t hit, but Triple-A catcher Francisco Mejia rode his potential at the plate into high rankings on prospect lists not long ago. As recently as last summer, when the Padres acquired Mejia from the Indians for relievers Brad Hand and Adam Cimber, Keith Law of ESPN regarded Mejia as one of the game’s top five farmhands. While Mejia has struggled mightily in the majors since then, he’s still just 23 and has tallied a mere 134 plate appearances in the bigs. It’s unclear from Acee’s report whether the Padres would be open to parting with Mejia, who has raked since they optioned him to the minors last month, or if they just don’t think he’s ready to make an offensive impact at the game’s highest level yet.
The 26-year-old Hedges has made an MLB impact, meanwhile, but almost solely behind the plate. Hedges rates as an elite defender, and though he was a respectable offensive player just last season, he otherwise hasn’t hit much since his 2015 debut.
Likewise, center fielder Manuel Margot has seldom hit since the Padres first promoted him in 2015. There has been talk of San Diego demoting him to the minors to help alleviate its outfield logjam. But as a 24-year-old speedster who has excelled in the field and won’t reach arbitration until the offseason, he’d likely draw interest on the trade market.
Perhaps aside from Renfroe, right fielder Franmil Reyes stands out as the Padres’ most valuable trade chip among position players. They offer similar offensive skill sets, and Renfroe’s a much better defender, though Reyes is three-plus years younger. Set to turn 24 in July, Reyes has slashed .263/.320/.520 (123 wRC+) with 35 home runs in 516 PA since he first came up last season. Further increasing Reyes’ appeal, he’s earning a minimal salary and isn’t scheduled to reach arbitration until after the 2021 season.
If the Padres keep Renfroe and Reyes, perhaps they’d consider trading fellow corner outfielder Josh Naylor. The 21-year-old Naylor hasn’t gotten off to a strong start since the Padres promoted him May 24, but he’s a top 100 prospect or close to it. Franchy Cordero, yet another of their young corner outfielders, seems likely to stay put when considering his recent injury issues. Cordero, 24, has missed most of the past season-plus with right elbow issues, and he suffered a mild quad injury while rehabbing this week.
As for the rest of San Diego’s roster, outfielder Wil Myers and second baseman Ian Kinsler jump to the fore as players the team would probably like to move. The trade value is minimal in both cases, though.
Myers, 28, hasn’t lived up to the six-year, $83MM contract the Padres gave him in January 2017. They backloaded the deal, meaning he’s owed almost $63MM through 2022 (including a $1MM buyout in ’23). Although Myers was a 30-home run hitter as recently as 2017, he’s still just a .242/.324/.450 batter (106 wRC+) dating back to then.
Kinsler, 36, joined the Padres on a two-year, $8MM contract in the offseason. While Kinsler has long been a quality major leaguer, the Padres haven’t gotten much return on their investment so far. Kinsler has hit .204/.264/.387 (72 wRC+) with minus-0.3 fWAR in 201 PA., though he has fared much better following an ice-cold April (.262/.309/.505 since May 1). Regardless of whether the Padres find a taker for Kinsler, it seems like only a matter of time before he loses his starting spot to standout prospect Luis Urias.
After a surprisingly competitive start to the season, San Diego has begun fading from the National League playoff race. Losers of five straight, the Padres sit 33-36 and 5 1/2 games out of wild-card position. However, with the talent already on hand and the high-potential players baking in the minors, the club may not be far away from contending on an annual basis. It seems general manager A.J. Preller will operate aggressively over the next month-plus in an effort to better position his roster to accomplish that. With that in mind, the Padres should be a compelling team to watch leading up to the deadline.
I’m sorry I know most people will disagree but Will Myers would be perfect for the brewers at first base
A light hitting righty 1st baseman who is owed another 60 million after this year?
Gross, no thanks. Might as well just roll with Thames.
Light-hitting?? The guy hit 28 and 30 homers respectively 2016-17 seasons. The only reason he didn’t repeat in 18 was because he got injured.
He STILL had an OPS under .800 both those seasons, which is basically the minimum passable benchmark for an adequate 1st baseman offensively.
If he was a rental for nearly free, sure I’d take a shot but for his contract amount and length, no way. Not unless the Padres are eating a huge portion of the rest of his salary.
And who decided that benchmark? Are you just pulling that out of the air? Besides, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Uh no, it’s pretty well known that offense is generally expected out of 1st basemen, relative to every other position.
Myers has a career OPS+ of 109, which would be slightly above average but in the context of his position, it’s not really worth a strong pursuit.
Repeat, the Brewers are not going to go for an average 1st basemen bat that costs 20M per year for the next several years. They are smarter than that.
Myers would hit 30 in his sleep in Milwaukee.
Lmao what? There’s more than one way to skin a cat? So what are you saying here you’ll take end of career Joe Mauer with a .700 OPS? If you’re a 1B and your OPS isn’t lets call it 780+ Odds are you’re not helping your team much. It’s the lowest position on the defensive spectrum.
If your on base + slugging is below .800 and you play first base that’s a huge problem lmao.
You just disproved 800 ops as the minimum. A 109 ops+ makes Myers a little better than average but his OPS is bellow 800.
An OPS of 800 is usually the benchmark to be considered “good” with the bat and not average or the minimum
LOL! Per Fangraphs, the average OPS for all 1B is .798. Since that includes some bench ABs, then the average starter probably rquires an OPS of > .800. No one is paying $20M for an average 1B.
So if you could trade for Myers plus 20 million cash to offset his salary for let’s say Wilkerson, Aguilar, and Marcos Diplan. Now you could DFA Thames. That would still give you a platoon with Shaw and Myers at first. Can bring Huira back up. Plus it opens up 3 spots on your 40 man roster that can be given to pitchers who we can shuffle back and forth with options. Myers can play anywhere in the outfield in a pinch. Then the 20 million takes care of his salary up until Brauns contract is done.
I doubt whether anyone is interested in trading for Myers to use him in CF. Padres are only using him there because they are stuck with him and they can’t play him in the corners without taking PA’s from Hunter Renfroe and Franmil Reyes (although they seem determined to take PA’s from Renfroe regardless lol).
I agree with this completely especially about taking at bats away from Renfroe. He should be in the lineup everyday and he plays better defense than Reyes. Would have been great if they never signed Hos and left Myers at 1st. I also would have preferred a 2-3 year rental of Moustakas over Machado. Would have been a lot cheaper and would give more time for Hudson Potts to develop.
So you want to trade $43 million dollars and three players for Will Myers? The Padres would kiss you and jump so fast.
Myers is not worth it. Not at his contract.
That’s why I never liked the Hosmer signing. I thought he was overrated to begin with, but if you’re handing out huge contracts, it should be for a player at a position where you have no alternatives. So they paid $18M to sign a mediocre+ 1B to replace another mediocre+ 1B making $14M, with the hopes that they could find a spot for him?
I said the same thing about my RS when they signed Gonzo. I liked Gonzo a lot, but we already had a 1B in Youkilis. The upgrade of replacing Youkilis at 1st wasn’t nearly enough to offset the prospects and additional salary.
People on here haven’t figured out teams aren’t taking on huge commitments to a lot of good to great players they certainly aren’t going to take on Myers contract when he is at best average
Myers is on pace for 28 home runs. That is light hitting?
Given the ball is different and everyone hits 25 HRs it seems, yes.
He can’t field also. That’s the last thing smart franchise like Brewers would do
Last time he was good he played solely first base. He’d come cheap too, either prospects or cash. Wouldn’t take much to get him at a serious discount.
Please take him… PLEASE!
NOBODY swings through a 90-mph c*ck high fastball better than Wil Myers.
Or right down the middle
you mean right where his nutznboltz are?
Aguilar??
No surprise here. Who actually thought the Padres would be contending for the postseason? They screwed up signing the low life Machado.
Really? So you predicted Machados total effort so far would be an average hitting short stop? I think the situation deserves more than a few 100 AB’s. They have a lot of years to cash in bub. The Padres are a young team.
I’m not gunna lie he would be a good fit especially if his power plays up at Miller Park , I just don’t know how the brewers would make that work salary wise they’re already going to have to resign Yeli, grandal, Hader if they’re smart and moose
inb4 burns claims acee knows nothing and gets triggered about seeing the hand/mejia trade lsited
Lmao you called it
Let’s be honest, the Padres would trade Hosmer in a second if they could.
Yeah that was a bit odd that he was included with Manny and Tatis in terms of players they want to keep. Want to trade and can’t trade are two different scenarios.
They couldn’t trade Manny if they wanted to but they don’t want to.
100% agree, but they need to keep him happy, so they threw his name in there to proactively head off any talk of moving Hosmer bc then they’d have to talk about his negative value bc of that ridiculous contract that is still a huge mistake.
Let’s be honest.. they don’t have anyone good on their roster and have a few unmovable contracts (Hosmer,Myers,Machado)
In the worst shape of any major league roster.
At least Marlins aren’t hampered by big contracts.
This season Hosmer is exactly the type of player they thought they were getting when they signed him. .284/.331/.448/.779 with 10 HR through 69 games.
You’re effectively saying the Padres are terrible at valuing free agents – if they’re happy with a sub .800 OPS first basemen for 8/$144mil, they should all be fired.
The Hosmer signing would be OK if they didn’t already have 2 other guys in house that could play 1st base (more if you think Franmil Reyes could successfully make the conversion).
6 errors are nice also Padres were expecting that before All Star break
if the indians trade bauer i would love to see franmil or renfroe come back
Except that’s kinda the opposite of what the padres are trying to do …
Trevor Bauer…not Jake Bauers
Trevor Bauer has one year of control. The Padres are looking for young arms with long term control. Bauer is the opposite of what they are looking for.
Why? Their pitchers are almost as bad as their batters.
Padres need a CF who can get on base and hit for average. Urias to replace Kinsler and Mejia to replace Hedges. Trade Renfroe for a right handed starter. Get a nice return for Yates.
Nearly every team could benefit from a CF who can get on base and hit for average, as there are more glove first CFs than anything else out there. CF and C who are above avg hitters with avg defense are few and far between…at least in regard to guys who would actually be available via trade.
The only one that was available in trade was Realmuto. That ship has sailed.
Mejia is not a solution for any team at catcher. He is one of the worst in baseball. Great bat. Terrible catcher.
Are they sure they dont want to trade Manny or Hosmer? You’d think theyd want to get as far away from those contracts as possible. Especially Hosmer.
Yes, I’m pretty sure they don’t wanna trade Manny who has been a Padre for 2 months.
They aren’t trading Manny. The stats don’t justify what they are paying him but the atmosphere in San Diego feels different since he was signed and they have literally no other third basemen unless you count Ty France. That is the cost of signing a 26-year-old All Star to upgrade a position that desperately needs it.
If someone is willing to take Hosmer or Myers however, they’d be stupid not to pounce on it.
Problem with Hosmer is he has full no-trade protection from 2018 to 2020, limited no-trade protection thereafter (earns 10-and-5 rights after 2022)
@Cat Mando this is true but I wonder how intent he would be on blocking a trade if the opportunity arises. I mean, it’s not like someone offered him a better contract and he took a discount to sign with SD for personal reasons.
Most of the possible playoff teams either don’t need him or are up against the CBT. Doubtful he would want to go to a team with bleak future.
Many would call the Padres a “team with a bleak future,” #1 ranked farm system nonwithstanding.
At first I read that as “Manny”…and I was confused, lol. I’d actually argue that the Padres are better positioned than most all of the rebuilding or soon to be rebuilding teams….KC, Marlins, O’s, Tigers, SF, SEA, etc. While paying Hosmer and Manny half a billion dollars will be problematic for many years going forward, they have a *ton* of talent either just promoted or soon to be promoted in <2 yrs. They should be a fun team to watch if they can upgrade their SP and BP.
Who the heck would want Hosmer?
I disagree. Padres young talent is overrated and they’re in cap hell
Hosmer has created his own no-trade protection by sporting a .738 OPS with SD. He’s kind of the equivalent of Moreland. Nice enough, mediocre kind of player. Normally a dime-a-dozen, but in Hosmer’s case, $144M a dozen.
It’s not problematic “because” of the Farm system.
They signed both Hosmer and Manny for stability knowing full well they will be able to field a winning team around them without paying top dollar.
Either by promoting top prospect talent or trading it for proven “young” talent.
Either way….the Padres future is as bright as any of the non mega payroll teams.
Plus everyone seems to completely disregard defense and intangibles.
Machado has been stellar in the field at both 3B and SS and having him in the dugout and clubhouse legitimizes the entire Organization.
He also has 12 hr’s and with one good hot stretch would be right back to his norm offensively.
They would trade manny if they could too.
But off-season proved no one wants him, so there goes that.
If I’m Hunter Renfroe I’m demanding a trade. The way they bench him all the time is just insulting.
Demand? And then sit more because you’re being an ahole?
I’d take Josh Naylor and stick him down in Buffalo as a Jays fan…..Can’t get enough Canadian prospects
Have you figured out how to obtain Josh Naylor?
Stroman
And?
If Stroman had more years… maybe but padres are not going down that path again pitching for offensive first baseman
Mejia for Inciarte
Yates for Inciarte & Allard
As a Braves fan, please don’t give them Allard. That will burn bridges with them for years to come. He is terrible. I’d argue he wouldn’t be top-15 in SD’s lauded system — and you’re giving up one of your best trade pieces for that?
Yates is practically free and is lights out.
You get him for 2 more years, Inciarte has some money owed still which drives the value down to the point where Allard makes it a strong deal.
I could see the Padres adding an additional reliever like Erlin or Stammen as well to bolster the return for ATL.
I’d think a realistic package would start with Drew Waters/Bryse Wilson with SD intent on driving it up to Pache/Ian Anderson forcing AA to hang-up and go after the remnants of Shane Greene with his tail between his legs.
That is actually a realistic return for Yates.
Nice proposed package.
Agreed. That is surprisingly fair for a win now deal. Inciarte is sneaky good, similar to Pillar. I’ve had both guys on multiple MLB fantasy teams, so I’ve watch a ton of their games over the past 2-3 years. As a Mets fan I’d hate to see ATL upgrade anywhere, but that’d be a solid deal for both clubs. I wish the Mets would move Diaz for a haul if they continue to languish around .500 bc he is just going to get more and more expensive.
Sneaky good? Inciarte has had a below-average bat and an average glove in CF. I feel like I should be biased with my homer goggles on, but this is blatant. He has little power in SunTrust – he’d have zero power at Petco – and to think that his defense will get any better through the end of the contact in that wide expanse of a park his hopeful, at best.
Pillar is sneaky good?
The question is, why would the Padres trade a closer with 2 more seasons of team control that they have no replacement for? If they Padres were still rebuilding and not expecting to contend before 2021 or 2022 that would be fine. Is that the case? Signing Machado and Hosmer does not show that.
Yates isn’t under control for 2021 or 2022. He has the same problem Trevor Bauer has.
Average glove? The only NL center fielders near him are Cain and Pillar. Inciarte glove is great if not elite. When the bat is doing anything he’s a quality player and the contract is pretty team friendly.
Oh boy, let the ridiculous trade scenarios get started…Myers for Kershaw? Mejia for Yelich? The bat boy for Scherzer?
With all the deferred money he is owed. I wouldn’t trade the bat boy for sherzer.
Kelly leak for a 6 pack of duff beer
lol
lol
Manny to the Yankees. Write it down.
Ridiculous
They wouldn’t pay him all that money in the offseason, why would they wanna do it now that he’s sporting a .758 OPS!?
Yates should get them a haul back, but the way the rest of the pen has produced this year, hanging onto him for when the Padres are hopefully contending in 20/21 might be the better route.
As far as the OF, it would be great for the NL to adopt the DH for no other reason than for the Padres to have a spot for Reyes’ bat every day. With sure fire plans on the DH, he may need to go to an AL team. Renfroe seems to be figuring some things out and needs more at bats, I would hate to see him go now. Margot? No one will take Myers’ contract unless the Padres take back as bad a deal, don’t see him going anywhere. A platoon of Margot and Cordero may be the way to go in CF. Neither is great, but they are both still young.
It should be an interesting month and a 1/2 for Padre fans.
Yates will get nice haul but he’s never pitched in high leverage game so not as big as you think
Strahm for Starling Marte
No. Who? Why? No.
The Pirates wouldn’t not trade a very good outfielder who still has promise for one pitcher.
Or would they?!
I seem to remember some people on here describing other teams as mismanaged garbage…so what does that make the Padres these days? I’m expecting crickets here.
So the Padres are willing to trade any of their underperforming, overpaid players. Sounds like a plan.
And they’ll keep suggesting the trading of those people to cash strapped teams. If I had a dollar for every Myers trade scenario suggested to teams like Cleveland who wants no part of a big empty contract coming back, I’d be rich.
How in the world are Renfroe and Reyes “underperforming and overpaid”?
Why would you hold tight to Hosmer? Except for ego about not making a mistake? A consistently mediocre player on a huge contract.
They will keep Hosmer.
The same guy now in charge signed him.
Most posters on this site said For who?For What!
No one would take him for near that money.It seemed to me that Preller bid against himself.
He may be a fine first baseman and decent hitter,but strong hitting first basemen are relatively inexpensive and fairly common.
The only way out of the Hosmer deal (assuming they don’t put him on waivers and hope someone foolishly takes him) is to pay down his salary by at least half. Then you are asking yourself what the cost of new first basemen might be to fill the slot–and you are right, he’s not a bad player, just not a standout. So, if you wanted to trade him, you’d have to hope for a lot of luck: A contending team loses it’s first baseman, doesn’t have a viable alternative on the roster, and doesn’t have a high-level prospect that Hosmer would block. That’s a lot of luck.
The cost of a new first baseman for the Padres is nothing. They have Josh Naylor in house already.
My guess is he’s talking about Hos’s no-trade clause
Any shot they’d have interest in Chance Sisco from Baltimore? I wouldn’t expect top talent like Franmil but Baltimore is trying to fill a farm. Sisco would be a cheap shot at an offensive catcher. It really comes down to if SD is looking for a sure bet or wants to take a flyer.
I wonder if the tigers would take Kinsler and Meyers? Tigers have an immediate need at first and second. Maybe send farmer and hardy? Padres send Kinsler, Meyers and 2 top prospects because of the huge cost.
You spelled maze weird
Why the heck would the Tigers want Kinsler 2.0 and Meyers at his ridiculous salary?
If anything, the Tigers are probably looking to trade players away for prospects and do a complete re-build….taking on old (and that’s what Kinsler and Meyers are) players, who are definitely on the downside of their careers and paid way over what they are actually worth…..the Tigers aren’t that stupid!
Because the Padres would include “2 top prospects”. That’s why they’d do it. Wouldn’t you like to pick up Josh Naylor and Logan Allen for just adding a couple bad contracts? Kinsler would play his one more year at second… he wouldn’t be blocking anyone. Meyers could finish this year at first and maybe take over right when Nick leaves. He could play there the next 3 years. We don’t have a 2B, 1B, or OFer knocking on the door to come to the majors. Naylor could start at first next year. Allen could slide into the list of young starters we have coming up.
Upgrade offensively at catcher and center field? I thought that’s what the Mejía trade was for? Thought Myers in CF was to “get that bat in the lineup”…..
AJ Preller is truly lost. Newsflash, that whole “teams with the top farm system make the playoffs within two years”…… yyyyeeeeaahhhh….. that’s not happening here.
The Padres are two years away from being two years away.
Funny
Acee seems to be truly lost.
He’s amateur
Hopefully the indians get in contact.
Of course they’d be willing to trade most of them. Doesn’t everyone want to get rid of inferior products? I mean, except Cleveland, obviously. How else do you explain continually playing Kipnis, Martin, Bauers, Ramirez………
No way the Tigers acquire Ian Kinsler or Wil Myers. Neither fit their needs and their salaries are too high.
If the price is right, I would like to see the Tigers acquire OF Hunter Renfroe then extend him along with RP-L Robbie Erlin. Renfroe is a great defender in RF and deserves to be as a full time player. I just don’t see the greatness in the Padres’ MiLB.
The Padres should just move Franmil Reyes to LF, keep Wil Myers in CF and Hunter in RF. Catching is not their problem. They need relief pitching. .
Why would you want to extend Renfroe? He’s already controlled through his age 31 season. That’s his entire prime without having to guarantee anything.
Padres business plan:
Be bad
Acquire lots of big name players.
Still be bad
Trade big name players at a loss
Still be bad
Repeat process
Rock Star GM!!!!!
I think the Mets front office copied the Padres’ biz plan….
Ha
Is this trade viable to you?
NYM sends Wilson Ramos and Noah Syndergaard to SDP for Franmil Reyes, Francisco Mejia and Luis Patino
If the Padres make bad Major League level player trades, why would the Mets want prospects from that same system?
Go find somebody else to take the garbage!
Myers must be first on the trade bus out of town
No one will take Myers for the same reasons that you want to get rid of him.
Padre fans don’t understand that
You’re only willing to trade “most of your position players” if they suck or they’re overpaid and they suck.
The Padres are right on schedule with their never-ending journey to nowhere……
Rock Star GM baby!!!!!!
“Is it too late to back out of this deal“-Manny Machado
Manny will rue the day he said “the Padres are my choice”! He’ll be another A-Rod that itches to go somewhere else after signing a ridiculously rich contract and doomed to never be a perennial playoff team!
You know what I thought when Manny signed with SD….it’s Robbie Cano v2.0. I’m the farthest thing from a Yankees fan, but it was a great move to avoid overpaying for Cano. Cano basically agreed to be exiled to SEA for a boatload of money…sound familiar?
Great move by Mariners GM Dipoto. Preller isn’t capable of doing this with Myers
Taking your comment absolutely literally, the answer is no. He has an opt-out after 2023.
LOL at Preller having ownership this snowed. The team is “rebuilding” yet ownership has still kicked down a franchise record contract 3 off seasons in a row? $527 million committed to 3 players and the team is tail spinning below .500 again.
Preller traded all-star closers 2 of the last 4 years and what has it netted him? Yet here he is trying to convince ownership and a fan base that they need to send Yates packing.
Preller is your real problem San Diego, he was a snake oil salesman from the get..
Twice suspended by MLB
Hopefully you get suspended by MLBTR
Send Kinsler to Texas for Odor.
LOL.
Outside of Yates, I think anyone else on the roster might only be traded in a package deal. While Myers might not be desirable for teams, package him with prospects (depending how much money the Padres eat, less money for more prospects) and he will get traded.
Because of the back ended nature of Myers deal, I think the AAV for luxury tax purposes is much lower than what he is due. I might be wrong on that, but if it is true, they could try a deal with a team that is luxury tax strapped.
His AAV is close to 14M v his actual salary which is 20M. I can’t really see teams that are actually strapped having much of a need or want for Myers( I.e. Red Soxs, Yankees, Cubs). Even on a like term bad salary swap. So it comes down to actual cash owed.
The Redskins of baseball. Sign everything we can and then just get rid of them all when nothing works.
The Padres need to be opportunistic buyers and sellers as the trade deadline approaches. It was a nice start to the season, but we all knew that 2019 more about evaluation and development. Paddack and Strahm are on an innings limit, and the pitching staff as a whole looks shaky, so the forecast for the rest of the season does not give me a positive outlook on the chances that the Padres will make the playoffs this season.
Stole this from a baseball blog. Rather than typing out an answer, I am going to cut and paste this.
I am going to call BS on this Acee article. The Padres ownership has made significant long term investments in the club to the tune of $444 million in the past 2 years and they are not going to be trading away any valuable major league pieces that are under long term control. That would include Renfroe. Reyes, and Hedges.
Franchy Cordero is striking out at an alarming rate in the minors after striking out at a 43% rate in the majors. He is not a long term solution for the Padres. They certainly would not trade Renfroe or Reyes to make room for him.
While the Padres do need a backup catcher that can hit, Mejia is not the answer at catcher, although he might be in the OF. He leads the PCL in passed balls even though he has only been there a few weeks. There are 7 teams in the PCL that have the same or less passed balls in 67-68 games this season than Mejia has in just 16 games. His CERA is nearly 2 runs higher that of Rivas or Austin Allen while Allen was in AAA. He had thrown out just one of 7 runners in AAA and 2 of 12 in the majors going into last night’s game. In his time in the majors he was one of the worst pitch framers in the game. That is a player that is destined for the OF or DH. What Mejia might be is a good trade chip. He was a top 25 prospect to start 2019.
The guys that should be/need to be traded, probably can’t be moved right now. Wil Myers is struggling and has a NL high strike out rate of 36%. Interestingly enough, entering last nights game he led the Padres in strike out rate and OBP. He has played quite a bit of CF, but is better suited to LF. Kinsler, while he has been hot in June (.313/.353/.500/.853), is hitting just .210 for the season. Margot is struggling and has no extra base hits since April. He needs a change of scenery, but it would be hard to trade a player with a .572 OPS.
What the Padres do have a surplus of and what they will have to part with to get the top of the rotation starter they need and to get a LHB to play CF is prospects. The Padres came into the season with 55+ prospects that were considered at least a possibility to make the majors. 55 prospects that would make any teams top 30 prospects lists. No other team had that many valuable prospects.
There are a few prospects that they will definitely not trade. Tatis will only be considered a prospect for a few more games. He is untouchable. Gore and Urias are likewise untouchable. I saw Gore in his last two starts and if he was called up today, he would be the best starter on the Padres. Mid to upper 90s FB from the left side with impeccable command. 2 other plus plus pitches and a developing change up. Urias has a 70 grade bat that is matched by few in baseball and he plays plus defense at both middle infield positions. All that is in his way today is regular playing time in the majors, which the Padres cannot give him with both Kinsler and Garcia on the roster.
The Padres may also be reluctant to part with 19 year old Patino (high A) and 20 year old Morejon (AA). Two pitchers that would be in the top 2 or 3 on most teams prospect lists. To get a top of the rotation starter the Padres may be forced to deal one of Patino or Morejon.
Even if they choose not to include Patino or Morejon in trade talks, the Padres have 5 other prospects in the top 100. Pitchers Logan Allen, Michel Baez, and Ryan Weathers plus Xavier Edwards and Josh Naylor. Quantrill is not in the top 100 prospects, but was the 8th overall pick in 2016 and has already shown promise in a handful of starts in the majors this season. Mejia started the season as a top 25 prospect and certainly would be on the trading block now as well. The Padres have enough top notch quality prospects to trade for the pieces they need. They do not have to rob Peter to pay Paul by moving any of the long term controlled, better players they have in the majors.
You are the op of this. It was on your websoulsurfer page. Yep.
This is the Mariners perfect opportunity to undo the damage and buy a whole new team and really compete! There are 5 teams in both leagues with worse records so you’ll never get the number one pick in the draft! Great plan! You couldn’t even tank the season successfully!