The Clock is Ticking: Will the Padres Give a Team a “Hand” or Not?
Credit: AP Photo
Here we are. After a month of speculation and rumors, it is finally July 31st.
With the trade deadline coming quickly at four o’clock Eastern Standard Time and one o’clock Pacific Standard Time, Padres fans will finally get an answer to the big question:
Will the San Diego Padres trade Brad Hand or not?
Over the last week, there has been an immense amount of speculation with a variety of teams supposedly interested in Hand.
However, the Padres have reportedly had a very large asking price that the team has been unwilling to budge from to this point.
According to various reports, Preller has been asking for players at the top of teams’ farm systems, while teams have reportedly countered with players in the 10-15 range of a single team’s farm system.
Brad Hand price “insanely high, ” says one evaluator.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 30, 2017
#Padres no longer seeking top-tier prospects for Brad Hand. But teams have been offering “limited ceiling,” 15-20 ranked types. Not enough.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 30, 2017
Whatever #Padres are asking for Hand, there’s still a disconnect between what they want and other teams are willing to give up for him.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 30, 2017
At this point, there have been some varying reports on both what the Padres are asking for Hand, and what teams have reportedly been willing to give up in a trade for Hand. However, the events of Sunday night have made this whole situation a lot more interesting.
The deal would be Justin Wilson and Alex Avila for Jeimer Candelario, Isaac Paredes and a Player To Be Named Later or cash, I’m told.
— anthony fenech (@anthonyfenech) July 31, 2017
Not only did fellow left-hander Justin Wilson get traded, but he also got traded to a team who wasn’t initially in the hunt for a left-handed reliever. This now leaves the Padres in a great position for two reasons: 1) Brad Hand is now the best relief pitcher left available, that is unless you think the Orioles actually find a suitable deal for a Zach Britton trade, which I don’t, and 2) there are still plenty of teams looking for relief help that could pull the trigger on a trade. With the Cubs sneaking in and acquiring Justin Wilson, that leaves the Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, and maybe even the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays as teams who could still be looking to upgrade their bullpens. Of those teams, the Astros, Nationals, and Dodgers appear to be the most serious, as all three have shown interest in not only Wilson and Hand but also Britton.
So where does this leave the Padres a mere hours before the 2017 trade deadline? At this point, the Padres are in a great position. With at least three teams vying for relief help, the Padres not only have their choice of who they want to trade with, but also a variety of teams to hopefully drive up the price in a deal. More importantly, if the Padres don’t get an acceptable package from any of the three, they could still end up keeping Hand, which may be a risky proposition that could still pay off big in the offseason. It remains to be seen what happens, but this could be a very interesting last few hours before the trade deadline has passed.
Editorial and Prospect Writer for East Village Times. Twenty-five years young, Patrick has lived in San Diego for his entire life and has been a Padres fan nearly as long. Patrick lives for baseball and is always looking to learn new things about the game he loves through advanced stats.
One problem worth noting in that assessment–what DET got in return was actually not all that impressive. Means other teams more likely to dig-in their heels, imo.