San Diego Padres Trade Deadline Preview

The 2019 MLB trade deadline is less than three weeks away. The San Diego Padres could be buyers, sellers or do a little bit of both by the end of July.

Welcome to the 2019 San Diego Padres trade deadline preview, where I’ll go over just about every trade target, outgoing and incoming, that you’ll need to know for the next three weeks.

This is a long piece, but this deadline could very well be the most important in franchise history, so I really do think this one is worth sticking out.

It’ll be broken up into four sections, all explained below.

Identifying where each team stands on the buyer-tweener-seller scale is the first order of business. Once that’s established, I’ll get into some major league Padres who could, if the right deal presents itself, be on the move. Piggybacking on that will be some minor leaguers in the San Diego system who are most likely to be coveted by the sellers, and as a result, could be on the market. Finally, I’ll get into the non-Padres who Preller and company could be looking at to help usher in the first year of the true contention window. Sound good? I say we get started.

BUYERS, TWEENERS, AND SELLERS

For buyers, controllability is less of a priority. These teams are near-locks to make the postseason and are willing to part with significant pieces of their future to win it all this year. Players moved to this tier are usually veterans with no more than one year of control remaining. The list of teams at this level looks something like this:

-Dodgers
-Yankees
-Astros
-Twins
-Braves
-Red Sox
-Cubs
-Brewers
-Cardinals

Two types of teams constitute the next tier of what I like to call tweeners. They either, one, have an outside chance of making the postseason with a hot second half but don’t want to sacrifice what they deem to be a greater chance to compete in the future, or, two, their organizational philosophy simply doesn’t allow for aggressive buying at the deadline regardless of their placement in the standings (think Athletics and Rays here).

There technically is another type of team here, and that’s the team that just refuses to blow it up. But this is a bad strategy. Don’t do this. I’m looking at you, 2017 and 2018 Giants. Anyway, if teams in this range buy, they seek controllable, long-term pieces with typically smaller salaries and arbitration-eligible deals. If they sell, it’s typically at position surpluses and salary dumps (which can get expensive). Buy-low candidates are also fished for at this level if a team feels confident in being able to turn someone into a reclamation project. This, by the way, is where the Padres stand. They won’t be all-the-way buyers or all-the-way sellers, but most likely could do a little buying and a little selling if the deals make sense. The complete list of tweeners is as follows:

-Rays
-Indians
-Athletics
-Nationals
-Rangers
-Phillies
-Padres
-Diamondbacks
-Pirates
-Rockies
-Angels

The final group is the sellers, and for the first time in a long time, the Padres aren’t members of this not-so-prestigious club! These are the teams with no chance to be good this year, and likely little-to-no chance to be good next year. Veterans with value do nothing for these teams, so any buyer or tweener with interest can strike a deal with a healthy package of prospects. Teams that should – or have already started – rebuilding find themselves here. Those teams are:

-White Sox
-Reds
-Mets
-Giants
-Mariners
-Marlins
-Blue Jays
-Royals
-Tigers
-Orioles

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Brady Lim

Born and raised in San Diego, CA. Currently living in Eugene, OR as a junior at the University of Oregon. Journalism major, Padre fan, music lover. Attended my first Padre game at the Q in 1998 when I was three months old. Follow me on Twitter: @BradyLim619.