The Padres don’t have much time to figure out their next move, and the answer is staring them right in the face: starting pitching.
With the Aug. 3 trade deadline approaching, San Diego is sitting at 46-46, too far behind the Los Angeles Dodgers to think seriously about the NL West but still within reach of the final wild card spot, 4.5 games back. That’s the kind of position that forces a front office to choose a lane, and for the Padres, the lane looks pretty clear. If they want to stay in the October conversation, they need help on the mound.
The offense has been a problem all season, and not a small one. San Diego has had the worst offense in baseball, which makes the first-half struggles from Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts even more glaring.
Those are the stars expected to drive the lineup, and they haven’t delivered enough. Still, the Padres are unlikely to chase an impact bat at the deadline.
This team has to find a way to hit better internally.
That leaves the rotation as the urgent fix.
Former MLB executive and current Athletic columnist Jim Bowden pointed directly to that need in his latest trade-deadline breakdown, saying the Padres should be hunting for a frontline starter. He even floated the possibility that San Diego would be willing to part with top prospect Ethan Salas for the right arm.
“The Padres’ top priority should be to land a top-of-the-rotation starter, and it won’t surprise me if they target Tarik Skubal and Joe Ryan and are willing to swap their best prospect, Ethan Salas,” Bowden wrote Monday. “Why?
Because that’s what they do. However, it’s probably more realistic they land either Freddy Peralta, Sonny Gray, Robbie Ray or Reid Detmers instead.”
That’s where the reality of the Padres’ situation comes in. After dealing away their top prospects to land All-Star closer Mason Miller - who has already shown up in trade rumors himself - San Diego may not be eager to pay the kind of price it would take to get Skubal or Ryan.
Detmers could be tough to pry loose, too. The Angels may not want to move a 27-year-old left-hander with years of control. Gray’s contract situation is unclear, and Ray doesn’t sound like the cleanest fit for what the Padres are trying to do.
That makes Peralta the most sensible name in the mix.
“Rather than swing for Skubal or Ryan, the Padres are more likely to take a chance they can get Peralta back on track, given that the prospect price to acquire him will be much lower than it was before the season.”
And that’s the heart of it for San Diego: the rotation needs a jolt, and it needs one badly. Peralta may be the most realistic path, especially if the Padres are looking for a deal that doesn’t gut what’s left of their prospect capital. If not, he’s set to hit free agency after the season anyway.
In Other News...
Padres May Be Facing Another Brutal Big Contract Decision
Xander Bogaerts has become the latest reminder of how quickly a long-term deal can turn from a franchise anchor into a payroll puzzle. Since arriving in San Diego in 2023, the veteran infielder has not matched the level the Padres expected when they committed to his 11-year, $280 million contract, and his recent production has only added to the uncertainty around one of the clubs biggest investments.
For a team that has already shown a willingness to move high-profile names to keep competing while managing costs, the idea of revisiting another massive contract is hardly trivial. Any path forward would be complicated, since a trade would almost certainly require San Diego to take on a hefty share of the money still owed, leaving the Padres to weigh flexibility against the risk of giving up on a player they once viewed as a core piece. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Deadline Problem Is Bigger Than One Move Can Fix
The Padres keep running into the same issue as the deadline approaches: the roster has too many holes for a single splash to cover. The offense has been inconsistent, the rotation still needs help, and the bullpen has been asked to carry too much of the load, which is not a great place to be when the schedule tightens and every contender starts shopping for the same upgrades.
What makes the situation trickier is the shape of the market. San Diego needs multiple answers, but the farm system is thinner after recent trades, so the front office has fewer easy ways to chase them. There is at least some hope that ownership will be willing to push payroll higher, but even with that kind of backing, the Padres are staring at a deadline where the hardest part may simply be finding enough available help to make a real dent. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Fans Know This AJ Preller Habit Never Really Goes Away
Since AJ Preller arrived in August 2014, the Padres have lived with a front office philosophy that treats first-round draft capital as a currency to be spent when the right deal comes along. The list of players moved in those trades stretches across different eras of the roster build, from prospects who barely got their footing in San Diego to others who were still working their way through the minors when they were packaged elsewhere. Some of those moves helped land established big leaguers in San Diego, while others were smaller swaps that still reflected the same willingness to keep turning over premium talent.
What makes the pattern stand out is how often it has repeated, and how little it seems to depend on the stage of the franchise at the moment. Whether the Padres were chasing a star, reshaping the bullpen, or trying to patch a roster need, Preller has never seemed especially attached to the idea of holding first-round picks just for the sake of it. For fans, the familiar question is not whether he will move another one, but which prospect becomes the next name to disappear from the organizational ledger. [Read more 🡒]