The Padres are heading into the trade deadline with more questions than answers, and that uncertainty is shaping everything about how A.J. Preller might approach Aug. 3.
San Diego would love to act like a buyer, but the club’s uneven play has left the front office in a tricky spot. The deadline arrives at 6 p.m. EDT, and there still isn’t a clean read on whether the Padres will add, subtract, or try to do both at once.
A recent offensive uptick has helped keep the conversation alive. The Padres have been swinging the bats better over the last few weeks and are trying to play their way into a buying position. Even so, they’re only one game over .500 and sit two games back of a wild card spot.
There’s still time to make up that ground, but the biggest issue is obvious: the rotation needs help, and it needs more than one arm. San Diego’s starting pitching has been thin all season and hasn’t done enough to stop it from being a major concern.
That’s why an add-by-subtraction path has come into focus. ESPN’s Jeff Passan laid out the possibility that the Padres could move a couple of relievers from their strong bullpen to land a couple of starters, though that kind of maneuver could come with real consequences.
“One day, the Padres look like a team that can compete with anybody, and the next day, they resemble a 100-loss outfit, and it's this duality that makes figuring out San Diego's deadline so difficult,” Passan wrote Thursday.
“A.J. Preller, the Padres' president of baseball operations, is creative enough to thread the needle on a simultaneous add-and-subtract play. Flip a reliever or two, add a starter or two, and maybe there's enough to sneak back into the postseason.”
The names that matter most in that conversation are Mason Miller and Adrian Morejón. Both are among the bullpen’s most dependable late-inning arms, and both have surfaced in trade rumors. Moving either one would help fetch pitching, but it would also take away from one of San Diego’s biggest strengths.
That’s the tension for the Padres. Their bullpen can be a weapon, but dealing from it weakens the very group that gives them a chance to win tight games.
And after years of pushing chips in, including the trade that brought Miller from the A’s last year, the farm system is already stripped down. San Diego sent away Leo De Vries, the No. 2 prospect in all of baseball, to make that deal.
The context around that move matters, too. When the Padres got Miller, they were 11 games over .500 with a plus-32 run differential. As of July 31, they’re just one game over and sitting at minus-21.
A full-scale deadline splash doesn’t look likely. A softer buy, with the Padres targeting lower-tier starters and maybe middle relievers with leverage upside, feels more realistic. Preller may still try to patch together a path forward, but a major spending spree doesn’t appear to be on the table.
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Mason Miller only added to the intrigue by talking openly about the deadline and the rumors that inevitably follow a pitcher of his stature. His comments came with the kind of perspective that matters in late July, when San Diego is looking at starting pitching upgrades, possible bullpen movement and even outfield help, all while trying to decide how aggressive it wants to be without losing sight of the cost of doing business. [Read more 🡒]
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Padres Cannot Afford Another Deadline Mistake With Rotation Help Desperate
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Peraltas current numbers do not exactly scream certainty, but that has not stopped contenders from weighing the upside against the possibility of paying too much. San Diego is not alone in the chase, with Arizona also in the mix, and the real test for the Padres may be whether they can resist turning a thin market into another deadline overreach. [Read more 🡒]