The San Diego Padres are on one of their worst stretches to date.

At the moment, the club is below .500 with a 44-45 record and four games behind a wildcard spot. By the looks of it, they don’t seem like buyers in 2026. There’s still plenty of season to go, but it’s safe to say that if the club continues in the direction it’s heading in, the playoffs, let alone a winning record, are out of reach.

There are a multitude of factors that have led them to this unfortunate position. However, it’s not completely hopeless. While the current Padres team is not October-ready, there are ways they can change that. The most pragmatic solution would be to play better baseball. Hunker down, make good adjustments, and work through their demons. Despite their strongest efforts and flashes of brilliance, it won’t be everything.

Fundamentally, the Padres lack some of the bare necessities in MLB. The Padres are the worst in batting average and OPS, and the second-worst in slugging. The Padres’ starting pitching is equally terrible. FanGraphs’ rest-of-season projections predict the Padres will have the second-worst starting pitching rotation in baseball.

The one thing keeping the Padres afloat has been their bullpen. Star players like Yuki Matsui, Bradgley Rodriquez, and Mason Miller have kept the team from complete collapse. They’re expected to hold together one- or two-run ballgames, a strategy that’s failed them recently.

The All-Star break and trade deadline are looming over Major League Baseball. These last two months of summer are going to be make-or-break for the Friars.

While the Padres don’t look like buyers in 2026, with A.J. Preller at the helm, anything is possible.

The Padres have almost no capital after the last two trade deadlines; that much is clear. This is despite the MLB draft happening in a few weeks. What we’ve learned through the Padres’ recent struggles is that trading valuable prospects every season is not a winning long-term strategy. Realistically speaking, three Padres prospects hold strong value right now: Ethan Salas, Kash Mayfiel,d and Kruz Schoolcraft. There is a world where they could sweeten a deal or two. However, Preller digging a deeper hole for the Padres’ already thin farm system could set the team back years.

The club desperately needs one thing more than anything else, and that’s starting pitching. Luckily, there may be a few options coming to market soon.

That said, the only way the Padres will be buyers is if they also become sellers.

What seems reasonable is a complete retooling of the current Padres team, taking advantage of where they know they have reasonable depth and redistributing it around the roster. For the Padres, there’s only one place where they do have depth.

A good bullpen is hard to come by, but it’s something the Padres have had for years. With many teams struggling in this department, the club has the rare opportunity to distribute some of its arms to high-ERA teams willing to give up a starter.

The Kansas City Royals should be at the top of their list. They’re in the bottom five in ERA and possess one of the best bang-for-your-buck starters on the market. That is, former Padre Michael Wacha.

Wacha has worn many hats throughout his career and adapted to most of them. Since 2022, he’s been with 3 teams, collecting a 3.44 ERA between all of them. He leads the American League in innings pitched and might be the workhorse the Padres need. Wacha is signed through 2027 with a team option in 2028. For the Padres, it’s a starter they can hold onto, not a rental.

The Royals’ bullpen is depleted and often spread pretty thin. In return, the Padres could send out two to three of their high-leverage and setup men who are controllable assets. This means players like Adrian Morejon and Wandy Peralta are much less likely to fetch a high price. The real names on the list would be people like the aforementioned Rodriguez, David Morgan, Jeremiah Estrada, and Matsui. Miller should also be considered an expendable player. He naturally possesses high value as an elite closer with a near 1.00 ERA.

The Padres can put up runs, but they can’t hold games down. If this is the strategy they want to go with, they need pieces that will reinforce it. Even if the bullpen were to get low, a reliable starter would make their abundant usage obsolete.

Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado, and Jake Cronenworth are on the hot seat right now. It doesn’t help that three are owed a significant amount in the coming years, too. The only way they would go is if the Padres could eat most of their contract and get them to waive their no-trade clause. This is precisely why future success outweighs winning now. The goal is to work with what they already have and build the team around it.

While the 2026 season has been a nightmare for the Friars, there is certainly a way for them to wake themselves up from it. It might require some sacrifices, but there’s a world where AJ Preller can make it work as he has for over a decade.

Fabian Garcia