With AJ Preller doing what he does and making a bunch of trades at the trade deadline, some musings on all the moves:

• Going into today, the only player I didn’t want to see the Padres trade was Leo De Vries as he has the potential to be a superstar. Just seeing what he’s doing in the minors at 18 makes me think he’ll be in the majors no later than at 20 years old in 2027. So when I saw in the morning that he was part of the trade to get Mason Miller and JP Sears, that was disappointing to see. I get that both Miller and Sears have a ton of control (Miller won’t be a free agent until after the 2029 season and Sears 2028) so the A’s wanted it to be worth their while but still. Every other player they traded today I didn’t have any issues with.
• Trading for Freddy Fermin for Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek who both did admirable jobs taking their turns in the rotation around the #5 spot seemed a lot but I get that one. Even with how the catchers have been playing the past few games, the offensive production at catching has been pretty bad and Fermin has solid metrics for both offense and catching. As well he’s also under control through the 2029 season so another reason why I see the Padres trading for him.
• I really like the trade for Ramon Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn. Both guys have high OPS and fill needs at LF and DH. Laureano at .884 would be the highest on the Padres at the time of the trade, above Manny Machado’s .872 that currently leads the Padres and O’Hearn would be third at .837, above Fernando Tatis Jr’s .818. Laureano is mixed for defense in LF as he has a 3 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) but -4 in Outs Above Average (OAA) while O’Hearn is 3 DRS and 6 OAA at 1B so he rates well there. Adding these two solid batters in the lineup just lengthens the lineup so much more and gives options for different pitching matchups. For example I would go with the following lineup on most days:
  • Tatis (R) RF
  • Arraez (L) DH
  • Machado (R) 3B
  • Merrill (L) CF
  • Laureano (R) LF
  • O’Hearn (L) 1B
  • Bogaerts (R) SS
  • Cronenworth (L) 2B
  • Diaz/Fermin (R) C
    And then you can rotate Sheets in there between DH, 1B and LF as well as move guys around since there are so many hitters in this lineup.
• I’m still not sold on Dylan Cease figuring it out this year and Robert Suarez being the one to close. So when there was talk of trading them I actually saw some potential there depending on what other moves were made. For example, if they had traded Cease but kept Bergert and Kolek to continue pitching in the regular season on each turn through the rotation, I don’t think that would have been much of a drop off though I get that you wouldn’t count on them in the playoffs. But in that case, assuming Yu Darvish and Michael King are available (and that could be a big if), you have Nick Pivetta and those two and can go bullpen games like what the Dodgers did last year.
• I like having Mason Miller on the team but I feel Mike Shildt will continue to have Suarez close instead of considering matchups and going with the best one to close the game or else we would have seem Jason Adam close games this year versus always going to Suarez.
• It was surprising that the Padres made moves without having to shed any salaries such as trading Dylan Cease, Robert Suarez or Jake Cronenworth. All the trades sent out prospects and they did get Milwaukee to pay Nestor Cortes’ remaining salary so they’re only responsible for the league minimum but still, the Padres’ tax and payroll numbers went up and the tax number currently sits about the second tax threshold of $261 million:

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/tax/_/year/2025

And their payroll number is currently 7th:

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/_/year/2025

I expected them to try and go below the second tax threshold (which I didn’t have a problem with considering their lack of a real TV deal, playing in a bottom third market and the fact that they’re already spending substantially more than many other teams) so it was a pleasant surprise to see them not totally restrict themselves on payroll.

Overall, AJ continues to find ways to trade prospects to try and make the current team better, regardless of people saying the Padres don’t have prospects to trade. You do have to start getting more young guys to contribute (can’t just be Jackson Merrill as the only young guy recently) especially as some of these guys getting paid a lot start to really age but AJ’s taking that as something to kick the can and worry about later and something I’m sure we’ll discuss further in the offseason. For now, this will be exciting to see what the team can do the rest of the year.