The Padres need pitching, especially in the rotation, and another outfield bat. Could a fellow 2024 playoff team be a trade partner?

With Joe Musgrove set to miss the entire 2025 season, the Padres’ starting rotation needs a boost. While the Padres have a solid trio in the rotation of Dylan Cease, Michael King, and Yu Darvish, the talent drop-off is stark after those three. Only options like Matt Waldron, Randy Vasquez, or Jhony Brito remain for the final two spots. Plus, we all know injuries will happen during the course of a season. San Diego desperately needs to add depth.

The Padres also enter 2025 with the same glaring hole in left field they started last season with before the emergence of Jurickson Profar. He is now a free agent.

The Padres and Phillies both made the playoffs in 2024 and also envision themselves as contenders in 2025. Yet, there are rumors that the Phillies are willing to shop a few of their veteran pieces. Two of these players would fill immediate needs in San Diego- starting pitcher and outfield. The Phillies likely want to shave off some payroll to spend it on bolstering other roster holes.

The Phillies have shopped Nick Castellanos, Alec Bohm and Ranger Suárez in trade talks this offseason, per @MattGelb pic.twitter.com/RlQU6Jh7xd

— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) December 5, 2024

A 2024 All-Star starting pitcher appears to be available via trade. Ranger Suarez is one of the Phillies reportedly being shopped by Philadelphia in a possible deal. Padres’ general manager and president of baseball operations, A.J. Preller, loves making deals. And he needs pitchers.

Not only do the Padres need starting pitching depth, but as of now, they have zero options that are left-handed. Suarez would add a wrinkle from the left side the Padres simply did not have last season aside from a last-minute addition of Martin Perez down the stretch.

With Perez a free agent, the Padres should add a left-handed option in the rotation. Suarez fits San Diego’s needs in several ways. His 2024 season was the best of his career. He made 27 starts, posting a 3.46 ERA and 117 ERA+ in 150 2/3 innings. His fast start to the season, which included a complete game shutout on April 16 against the Rockies, earned him his first career All-Star selection.

The Venezuelan lefty also comes much cheaper than any quality free-agent pitcher on the market. Yusei Kikuchi posted worse numbers than Suarez last season and just received a three-year, $63 million deal from the Angels, averaging out to $21 million per season.

Suarez made just over $5 million last season and is projected to make around $10 million in arbitration this offseason. Then, he is a free agent following the 2025 season. In essence, Suarez would be a rental starting pitcher for under $10 million. With the free agent market ballooning at nearly unsustainable levels for pitchers, the trade route might be best for the Padres to upgrade.

The Padres would get an instant upgrade if they added Suarez to the rotation. Plus, he would get to play alongside his fellow countrymen Luis Arraez and Robert Suarez.

Not only did Suarez have a solid 2024, but he has vast playoff experience. Over the Phillies’ run of success from 2022 to 2024, he pitched 37 innings of playoff baseball with a stifling 1.43 ERA. That includes a start in the 2022 World Series where he went 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball in Game 3 against the Astros.

The Padres’ window of contention is open in 2025, and they need more pitchers who know how to get outs in big games in October. Suarez has been that pitcher before. He also has been fairly durable, ranking 10th in pitcher WAR since 2022.

What if the Padres got both Suarez and Nick Castellanos? Could two playoff teams from this past season partner up in a megadeal involving multiple All-Stars? The Phillies appear open for business. 

The Padres need another outfield bat with the departure of Profar. As of now, options for left field consist of Tirso Ornelas, Brandon Lockridge, Oscar Gonzalez, or Yonathan Perlaza. Not exactly confidence-inspiring names for a team trying to win its first World Series.

Adding Castellanos would instantly lengthen the Padres lineup and give them a legitimate power threat in left field. Now, there are certainly concerns with the two-time All-Star. First, he is not good defensively. He posted an abysmal -11 Defensive Runs Saved in right field for Philadelphia this past season. That ranked him in the fourth percentile for Outs Above Average. However, if the Padres got to a point where his defense became a major liability, he also has experience as a designated hitter, something else the Padres lack. In fact, he’s a career .291 hitter with an .814 OPS in 69 games as a DH.

The Padres need more thump in the lineup. After you get past Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, Luis Arraez, Jake Cronenworth, and Xander Bogaerts, it gets really thin very fast.

The other issue with the Hialeah, Florida native (also Manny Machado‘s hometown) is his contract. He is set to earn $20 million per season in both 2025 and 2026. That is far too much money for a player who has averaging just around 1.0 WAR per season since arriving in Philadelphia in 2022. For reference, that is around the sum Fernando Tatis Jr. will collect in 2025.

To his credit, Castellanos is a perennial 20-homer hitter that puts the ball in play. He does not walk a lot, with a 6.2 percent walk rate, below league average. However, he has cut down on strikeouts in recent seasons. Over the last two seasons, he has a total WAR of 2.3 with a .765 OPS and 109 OPS+. He has been a slightly above average hitter with below average defense. He is one season removed from a 29-homer, 106-RBI campaign in 2023 that earned him an All-Star selection and down-ballot MVP votes. Simply, he hits the ball hard and puts it in play.

At Petco Park, the Padres would have him in left field, which is the least demanding of the three outfield spots in San Diego. Plus, as mentioned, he could alternate as a DH. He would have the benefit of the very speedy and athletic Jackson Merrill in centerfield, making up ground.

Either way, he is a costly asset compared to his somewhat average overall production. For this deal to be pulled off, the Phillies would need to agree to pay down some of Castellanos’ salary. Even still, the Padres could use more “average” at the bottom of their lineup. What they have available right now is not good enough to contend.

If the Phillies agree to pay half of his contract, the Padres could get Suarez and Castellanos at around $20 million total for 2025. Still, that puts the Friars in a bind financially without movement elsewhere.

Now to the matter of compensation for the Phillies hypothetically agreeing to such a megadeal for two All-Stars. Given that the Phillies also view themselves as contenders, they likely will ask for MLB-ready talent in return. This trade would instantly solve two big holes in San Diego. That is going to cost them something worthwhile for Philadelphia.

To get the Phillies to pay some of Castellanos’ deal plus deal away Suarez, a solid rotation piece, the Padres would likely need to part with part of their big league roster plus a prospect or two.

Yuki Matsui may have some appeal as a lefty reliever under team control for the next five seasons at around $5.5 million per year. In 2024, he posted a respectable 3.73 ERA and 110 ERA+ in 62 2/3 innings during his rookie year. Getting that $5.5 million off the books for San Diego would be ideal in this scenario. Given the Padres are acquiring a starting pitcher, perhaps they can offer knuckleballer Matt Waldron to bridge the gap left by Suarez in Philadelphia. He also is under team control for five seasons. Jhony Brito was another arm the Padres got in the big Michael King/Juan Soto deal. He only pitched 43 innings for the Padres this season, to mixed results. These three would provide depth in the back-end of the Phillies’ MLB pitching staff that they need, while offering some untapped upside.

Given that Philly will be giving cash to San Diego to help pay for Castellanos, they may ask for a prospect to be thrown in. The Padres’ No. 27 prospect, Kannon Kemp, could be just the lottery ticket the Phillies need to seal this deal.

In review, the Phillies get three MLB-ready, cheap, controllable pitchers and a prospect while shedding half of Castellano’s deal and dealing away Suarez, who will be due a raise. They would come out of this deal with more wiggle room in payroll and solidified pitching depth.

Even with the Padres parting with several arms from their big league crop in this deal, they still have a solid staff. In the bullpen is Robert Suarez, Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam, Wandy Peralta, Bryan Hoeing, Adrian Morejon, plus any other emerging prospects or acquisitions not yet realized. The rotation would have as deep of a top-four as any in baseball, with Cease, King, Darvish, and Suarez.

The megadeal, in review:

Padres get:

Ranger Suarez, LHP (1 year of control)

Nick Castellanos, OF/DH (2 years of control)

Cash ($20 million, $10M per season)

Phillies get:

Yuki Matsui, LHP (5 years of control)

Matt Waldron, RHP (5 years of control)

Jhony Brito , RHP (5 years of control)

Kannon Kemp, RHP (minors)

Nick Lee

Native of Escondido, CA. Lived in San Diego area for 20 years. Padres fan since childhood (mid-90s). I have been writing since 2014. I currently live near Seattle, WA and am married to a Seattle sports girl. I wore #19 on my high school baseball team for Tony Gwynn. I am a stats and sports history nerd. I attended BYU on the Idaho campus. I also love Star Wars.