The San Diego Padres completed their series with the St Louis Cardinals on July 27, splitting the series, while dealing with road fatigue combined with heat and humidity. They then came home and swept the New York Mets with a reignited offense and terrific starting pitching from four of their five starters. The bullpen again contributed with 13.2 innings pitched and no runs allowed. They finished the week 5-1 for a 60-49 season record. They retain the third Wild Card spot, three games up on the Cincinnati
Reds.
Most importantly, the offense has contributed throughout all nine spots. The team has improved to a .250 average and .698 OPS overall with Manny Machado leading the way with a .520 average for the week and a 1.331 OPS.
Trade deadline
The team had a day off to rest and watch AJ Preller work.
Starting at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday and continuing until 3 p.m., President of Baseball Operations/General Manager AJ Preller shocked baseball and Padres fans with five separate trades that filled every hole in the major league lineup, added depth to the bullpen and bench, shored up the rotation and depleted the minor league system of several top-rated prospects.
AJ Preller is in a definite win-now stance.
Preller took what was the best bullpen in baseball and added one of the top closers in Mason Miller. Using top prospect Leo De Vries as well as pitchers Henry Baez, Eduarniel Nunez and Bradon Nett, Preller added Miller and starter JP Sears to the staff.
He then depleted the starting ranks by trading away two of their young pitchers in Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek, both used this season, but then added two left-handed veterans to replace them.
The Padres desperately needed an upgrade in left field and catcher. They got both, with two sluggers added and a catcher that was stuck behind a possible future Hall of Famer.
With the addition of Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano, the Friars have a good defensive first baseman with O’Hearn and a good defensive left fielder with Laureano. Either can also DH and can switch out with Gavin Sheets for bench depth and the DH spot. The price was steep for the two sluggers. The Padres parted with six of their better prospects, including their top pitching prospect in Boston Bateman and reliever Tyson Neighbors, who would be close to major league ready very soon.
The Kansas City Royals have Salvador Perez, a probable future Hall of Famer, as their starting catcher. Freddy Fermin has been excellent as his backup and now has an opportunity to rise to the starting catcher position and show what he can do with increased playing time. Preller traded those two young starters to acquire Fermin.
Preller also got cash from both the Baltimore Orioles in the trade for O’Hearn and Laureano as well as cash from the Brewers in a trade for starter Nestor Cortes. The Brewers also included 18-year-old shortstop Jose Quintana in exchange for defensive outfielder Brandon Lockridge.
All in all, the Padres added two short-term rentals in O'Hearn and Cortes as well as pitching depth that is controllable for multiple seasons in Miller and Sears. Catcher Freddy Fermin has four seasons of control still and Laureano has another season under a team option.
A trade with the Blue Jays brought some more bench depth with infielder Will Wagner arriving in exchange for catcher Brandon Valenzuela. Valenzuela, who would have been lost this offseason if not added to the 40-man roster, was expendable when Fermin was added. Wagner was optioned to Triple-A after the trade.
According to FanGraphs, the Padres added a net of $4.5 million to their payroll for this season. Both Dylan Cease and Robert Suarez, who were rumored to be on the trade block, were retained.
Cortes has already been placed on the 60-day IL and will presumably have some more rehab time after missing a lot of this season with an elbow flexor strain. In his post trade press conference, Preller said that Cortes would be ready soon.
Roster changes and injury updates
Mason Miller and JP Sears have been added to the pitching roster. Reliever Ron Marinaccio was optioned to El Paso.
Catcher Freddy Fermin was added after the Padres DFA’d Martin Maldonado.
Ryan O’Hearn has been added to the infielders and Tyler Wade was DFA’d.
Ramon Laureano was added to the outfielders and Trenton Brooks was DFA’d
Michael King pitched three innings in a simulated game on July 28. He is making a rehab start this weekend per AJ Preller in his Friday morning interview on 97.3 The Fan with morning hosts Ben and Woods. An early to mid-August return is not out of the question.
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