The San Diego Padres’ surge before the trade deadline was enough to persuade general manager A.J. Preller to take yet another couple of huge swings at a postseason push.
The Padres acquired left-hander Robbie Ray from the San Francisco Giants and right-hander Casey Mize from the Detroit Tigers on Monday, giving up three of their highest-rated prospects in deadline trades
for two proven starting pitchers.“We’re trying to win,” Preller said. “We don’t
apologize for it. We’re trying to win championships. We’re trying to get to the postseason, and do it year after year.”
San Diego sent right-hander Miguel Mendez and 17-year-old shortstop Joniel Hernandez to San Francisco, which will pay part of Ray’s $25 million salary.
The Padres also got infielder Gage Workman from Detroit while giving up left-handers Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf.
Ray and Mize can become free agents this winter, so they could wind up being only late-season rentals for San Diego. But after stumbling into the All-Star break at .500 following a 15-28 skid, the Padres (58-54) have won eight of nine to move one game back of the final NL wild-card playoff position despite a patchwork rotation with an ugly 4.66 ERA.
That prompted their ever-aggressive GM to go into buyer mode again, shipping out yet another chunk of his severely depleted farm system to fill his obvious need for quality starters.
“We’re definitely excited to have them,” infielder Xander Bogaerts said in the Padres’ clubhouse in Arizona before they opened a key four-game series against the Diamondbacks. “We’ve been playing some good ball as of late. I think we showed them enough. We’ve got to continue doing that, obviously, with the nice additions that we have. Adding two guys of that caliber definitely boosts everyone in the clubhouse.”
Ray and Mize should slot in immediately for the Padres, who could also get back injured starters Nick Pivetta, Joe Musgrove and Lucas Giolito within the next month.
“We have a team that can compete and win,” Preller said. “(The thinking was) if we can supplement, that would be great, but there’s a lot of belief in this current team.”
Ray is 10-6 with a 3.08 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 122 2/3 innings this season, his third with San Francisco. He has been largely outstanding over the past two months, posting a 1.65 ERA since May while allowing one earned run or fewer in nine of his past 11 starts.
Ray is the only starting pitcher to beat the Padres in the past 10 days, throwing six innings of four-hit ball at Petco Park in the Giants' 4-1 win last Thursday. Ray won the AL Cy Young Award with Toronto in 2021 and had Tommy John surgery in early 2023 while with Seattle, but has returned to be a dependable starter for the Giants, who are retooling late in another disappointing season.
“We feel good about the moves we made back from a few weeks ago in the draft, and then now we feel like we’ve got some position players and pitchers that hopefully will have a bright future in San Francisco, but that still remains to be seen,” Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey said. “It doesn’t really matter until you do it out on the major league field.”
Posey wanted Giants fans to know the club isn’t satisfied with the results of recent years. San Francisco has made one playoff appearance since 2016.
“I guess you can characterize it how you want, (but) I wouldn’t necessarily say a rebuild,” Posey said. “Obviously we moved six major league players off of our roster today. I guess the message is we’re not satisfied with the way we’ve played this year and the last few years, and we’re trying everything we can to continue to build a product that we can all be excited to come and watch.”
Mize, the No. 1 overall draft pick by Detroit in 2018, is 4-6 with a 2.70 ERA and an 0.99 WHIP in 16 starts for the Tigers this season despite managing a groin injury. He also overcame Tommy John surgery and became an All-Star last season before starting two playoff games last fall.
The Padres' recent success has been driven by an offense that has awoken from its first-half slumber, making up for a starting rotation that was perilously thin due to injuries.
San Diego's only regular starting pitchers are Michael King and Walker Buehler, forcing the team to throw three bullpen games per rotation turn with Griffin Canning, Randy Vásquez and Germán Márquez anchoring the outings.
Dominant closer Mason Miller and elite left-hander Adrian Morejon were the subject of innumerable trade rumors this summer while the Padres struggled last month.
Instead, Preller kept his star relievers — and more help is on the way, with Pivetta, Giolito and Musgrove all taking steps toward their returns this month.
Preller made it clear he got no offers he couldn't refuse for Miller, a player he had coveted for years before acquiring him just 12 months ago from the Athletics for a package highlighted by blue-chip prospect Leo De Vries.
“We’ve let it be known, with any one of our players, it’s a very clear bar,” Preller said. “We’re going to listen at all times to any conversation that a team wants to bring up, (but) ultimately it was a high bar for all of our players.”
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AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco and AP freelance reporter Jack Thompson in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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