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San Diego Padres General Manager and President of Baseball Operation A.J. Preller is known as an uber aggressive front office executive. He seems to live for the trade deadline when he can use the players from the San Diego minor league system to find players to fill holes in the major
league roster. Preller will not have the same type of player pool to deal from at the 2026 deadline, but that does not mean he won’t have opportunities to make deals, but the question is, “Should he?”
The Padres just completed a miserable eight-game losing streak and followed the win to break up the streak with another lifeless loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, losing 8-0 in the first game of their four-game series to start the week. The loss dropped San Diego two games below .500 and had them on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. The losing streak saw the Padres, who had been the top Wild Card team throughout the majority of the season, slip out of playoff contention while falling behind the division leading Los Angeles Dodgers by double digits.
The offense was the problem for San Diego throughout the season with the team ranking last in MLB in several categories. The thought at the time was the Padres could look to add to the offense at the trade deadline especially after losing Ramon Laureano for the season. In recent weeks, and especially during the eight-game losing streak, the starting pitching for San Diego has become erratic and problematic with multiple starters failing to complete five innings in an outing. The struggles of the rotation accentuated the laundry list of starters on the injured list. Yu Darvish was lost for the season prior to the start of Spring Training. Joe Musgrove landed on the IL before the end of Spring Training and Nick Pivetta joined them both on the IL not long after the season started. Matt Waldron, German Marquez and now Randy Vasquez have missed time with injuries.
Despite all of that, the Padres entered the game against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night just a game below .500 and were looking to win their second game of the series in back-to-back days. Considering their current record and their current level of play, the trade deadline could prove tenuous for the Friar Faithful. San Diego could go on a run and play itself into the playoffs, but the Padres could just as easily continue to slide and play themselves out of the playoff picture. The Gaslamp Ball Padres Reacts Survey question this week is, “What should the Padres do at the trade deadline?” There is still a lot of baseball between now and the deadline, but it’s never too early to start planning for the future. Whether or not that future is in major league talent for this season or in prospect capital for the future remains to be seen.
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