An Early Padres’ Trade Deadline Preview
Source: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images North America
Here are some more names to keep an eye on as the trade deadline gets closer.
Like Brad Hand before him, Yates had never found much success before coming to San Diego early in 2017. He had always induced a large number of swings and misses, frequently posting high strikeout rates, but when batters did make contact, they hit the ball hard. Yates has added a splitter to his repertoire in his short time here and it has helped him to limit hard contact tremendously. Last season he finished with an above average ERA+ of 115, but so far this season he has one of 412, while also surpassing Hand’s record as the fastest Padre to 100 strikeouts. Yates did spend some time on the DL earlier this season with some ankle trouble, but it’s clearly showed no signs of slowing him down as he’s cemented his place in the 8th inning setup role, with Andy Green commenting recently that Yates may even see some more save opportunities coming up in the 9th should the right matchups present themselves.
Stammen is unique in this trio, as he does have a prior history of dominant performances out of the bullpen with the Washington Nationals before injury wiped out his 2015 season. He came to San Diego on a one year deal before the 2017 season as one of many candidates competing for a bullpen job. Despite some early struggles last year, Stammen quickly settled down an established a reputation as guy who could come in and quickly get the team out of jams while leaving runners on base. Stammen did reach the open market after last season, but didn’t seem to receive much interest from other teams as he ultimately signed a new two-year deal that brought him back to San Diego to continue being a steadying veteran presence in the bullpen. At 34, he’s considerably older than Hand and Yates, but his track record and cheap contract ($6.75 million through 2019) should be reassuring to teams shopping for veteran relief help come this July.
The three bullpen arms should all have the same group of likely suitors and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see two of them packaged together to the right team in order to bring back a greater prospect haul.
Potential fits: CLE, LAA, SEA, WSH. ATL
The Padres have two position players who have been getting regular playing time and have shown enough versatility to potentially be attractive to other teams looking for role players or trying to plug some injury holes come July.
Take a quick glance at Padres twitter, and you’ll see that Pirela has probably been the most divisive player on the team so far this season. Throughout his time in the Yankees’ system, both in the minors and limited opportunities on the major league roster, Pirela never showed much to suggest he was anything more than a nice peripheral piece that would be helpful on a good team. Simply put, his bat was never good enough to compensate for his abysmal defense. Pirela seemed to surprise many in by putting up a .288/.347.490 line through 83 games in 2017 and won the starting left field out of spring training this year. But so far through this season the power hasn’t been there as his SLG has dropped to .355 and he has no home runs through 235 at bats. He’s since shifted to second, drawing even more ire from fans as a barely replacement-level player is blocking star prospect Luis Urias from being called up. Pirela has maintained a respectable .272 average up to this point but he’ll have to get on a bit of a hot steak and start hitting for more power over the coming weeks to draw any interest from other clubs.
Potential fits: SEA, NYM
The quick footed, skinny outfielder has been known by Padres fans over the past few seasons for his elite defense and ability to steal bases. As a result of injuries to multiple Padres outfielders, Jankowski has gotten plenty of opportunities to play over the past few weeks and has seemingly made the most of it. After getting rid of his high leg kick during a stint at El Paso to begin the season, Jankowski has found himself leading off for the Padres most games and is currently hitting at a .309/.375/.394 line with 8 stolen bases in 10 attempts and spending time in all 3 outfield positions. It was previously reported that prior to their acquisition of Denard Span from the Rays, the Mariners had reached out to the Padres regarding Jankowski but A.J. Preller didn’t have much interest in Seattle’s system at the time. Jankowski is still only 26 but the Padres already have a very crowded outfield at the major league level with plenty of other options with superior skill sets working their way up through the system, now might be the best time to strike on a trade when teams are a little more desperate to find their last pieces for a World Series run.
Potential fits: PHI, STL, WSH
Growing up in Dodgers country, Bradley would proudly display his Padres fandom through the roughest years of non competitiveness and rebuilding. With the Padres on the verge of contending, he’s excited to get the opportunity to cover them on a regular basis along with their minor league system.
We aren’t serious contenders. No need to try and make a playoff run just to say “we tried.” That would set us back again. We didn’t trade Chacin or Upton and got nothing in return the last couple of years.
Brad Hand, Yates packaged w Tyson Ross should be able to get us Clint Frazier and Chance Adams
Or Preston Tucker/Forrest Whitley from the Astros.
Package as many players as we can for the best prospects. We don’t need anymore depth. Just the best prospects we can get.
We needed to stack the farm system to be legit. Now that it’s been done, you can see AJ is starting to spend ( Hoz ). I can’t see him moving anyone unless he gets a solid haul back or a proven mlb ready player to shore up this team for the NOW.
This is a good article because it highlights the dilemma of the franchise – fans want to see stability and a good product on the field while at the same time not willing to give up good prospects to get them because they are only prospects.
Assuming we have impact arms in the minors (and most baseball experts agree that we do in Gore, Baez, and possibly Espinoza, Quantril and Morejon) where are the impact hitters? In the higher minors there is only one, Tatis, unless you really believe Urias is equal to a Pedroia or Altuve (sorry, I don’t) and the only hitter without significant flaws on the current roster is Hosmer. Since we are not going to sign Machado or Harper, we need to land probably 2 impact hitters to be competitive and hope others we currently have or are in the lower minors progress more quickly. That’s where the trades, probably pieces of the bullpen and current starting pitching (along with minor league “surplus” pitching comes in. Do I give up a Quantrill, Lucchesi or even a Morejon if I have Lamet, Paddock and Patino behind them?
Is Kyle Lewis or Jo Adell they guy? What about Keston Hiura or Kyle Tucker? Look at the top hitters in the top minor league prospects and I’d be homing in on several of those going forward to mold that team that will be extremely competitive in 2019 and beyond.
The Padres do one thing really well – transform unsuccessful pitchers into successful pitchers (there are exceptions), but what they do poorly is identify great hitters. Therefore, we should know the targets and be aware that we are on the right path and that day will soon come.
Whoever Bradley Garland is, he hasn’t been watching the Padres play lately. So what if the NL West is weak ? This is where your team can make the playoffs with a little stability. We have some great performances going on right now. Yes, Preller does make some bad moves (too many to list here), but pulling the plug on this team that is starting to gel now, would be his worse.
Remember 2010 ? The NL West was weak, the Padres were in 1st most of the year, and we had a fraction of the talent that we have now. If he could somehow convince a team to take Myers for a solid pitcher, we might be playing October baseball.
Like Mark, I too am tired of trading established players for prospects/suspects. But I don’t trust AJ Preller to make the right deals. Has he shown the best judgment on trades and contracts? NO. Yeah, he’s made some decent trades but overall, who cares anymore about always restocking our farm system? I want to start winning NOW. That’s why unless someone “way over pays” for Tyson Ross, Brad Hand and Freddy Galvis, I want those players to remain Padres.
What is Preller going to do with the glut of outfielders we have? How much longer do we continue to experiment with lineups and players? We all know “who” should be out there now; Jankowski, Renfroe and maybe Margot.
LET THEM PLAY EVERY DAY! Send Reyes and Cordero back down to El Paso. The revolving door in our outfield has to stop.
Wouldn’t surprise me if AJ Ellis was traded. He’s having a career season, and a lot of teams could probably use catching help near the deadline. Plus, it appears that Raffy Lopez is having better luck with the pitchers, due to his framing skills.
Whether Brad Hand gets traded depends on whether another team is willing to pay the price, which is most likely two top 100 prospects.
Couple of points, if we’re in such a Gosh Darn hurry to dump Galvis, only 66 games into the season, why in heaven’s name did we trade de los Santos for him? Secondly, I see the writer indicates that Galvis is a good fit in Cleveland. Really? Lindor is going to be benched?
I don’t want any more prospects for good players, I want to see a freaking product on the field. End this crud of getting someone down the road that MIGHT work out. Evidently this draft is not expected to yield signees at the same rate as previous drafts. So the need for prospects seems to have evened out a bit. Now, if they are willing to give away the farm, we have to listen. But the time is now to begin the transition into a winner. 2019 will be the sixth year of ownership, and the 4th season of a complete restock of players.
The question really is, how do the Padres transition from this team to the team they expect in 2019? Who exactly is going to be on that team? Is there anyone on this team worth keeping? Will the division soften up (indications are that the Dodgers and Giants have missed their windows)….I’m really freaking tired of trusting the process. Show me something now.
I don’t care about the standings, the Padres need to trade players especially their one year deal people. This remains a rebuilding season and while the team is showing some nice progress in terms of development and success from players (e.g. Cordero pre injury, Renfroe making a few strides, Reyes looking good, Villanueva of course), the only reason they’re not 10-15GB is because the NL west sucks.
AJP needs to re-open the shopping mall and they have the players to make some real trades. I can’t imagine Hand’s trade value is going to get any higher than it is right now and should bring back a Top 50 prospects or maybe two Top 100s. Yates/Stanmen will be of value and there won’t be a glut of relievers this trade deadline.
Have you checked the standings lately or watched us play at all in the month of May? 4.5 games out sure seems competitive to me? This club is playing good baseball right now. I’m all for a trade if it brings an influx of talent, but I think we need to let this play out a little and see what happens with the current kids. If Myers can come back healthy and perform to his capabilities you never know what might happen.
I’m thinking Preller might actually add a pitcher and see what we can do to make a run.
Thank you Tom ..Finally somebody reasonable on this thread…I swear I get why San Diego fans get a bad wrap because of some off the stuff I read just in this comment section.. like did I hear somebody send down Cordero and franmil????? Lmao and saying AJP doesn’t make any good trades or signees?? Lmaooo When was the last time we had a player like hosmer on our team?? Or had a SS like Tatis in our system but AJP doesn’t have a clue of what his doing right? GTFOH