The Padres traded second baseman Luis Urias to the Brewers a couple weeks ago, and now they’re attempting to replace him. To that end, they’ve “been trying to” swing a deal for Royals second baseman/outfielder Whit Merrifield, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports.
The soon-to-be 31-year-old Merrifield has been the subject of trade rumors for a while, but even though they haven’t been in contention, the Royals have refused to trade him thus far. Merrifield’s a favorite of Royals general manager Dayton Moore, though (per Feinsand) he admitted that the team must “be open-minded” in regards to any potential deal.
If the Royals are holding out for a haul of young talent for Merrifield, no team may be better equipped to put together a package than the farm-rich Padres. And finding a way to reel in Merrifield would be the latest sign the Padres are serious about breaking their long-running playoff drought in 2020.
On paper, Merrifield would be an enormous upgrade over the Urias-Ian Kinsler–Greg Garcia trio the Padres primarily relied on at second last season. Merrifield’s coming off an All-Star showing in which he slashed .302/.348/.463 with 16 home runs, 20 stolen bases and 2.9 fWAR in 735 plate appearances. Adding to Merrifield’s appeal, he’s only due to earn $15.25 through 2022 (including a buyout for ’23). However, that affordability could further encourage Kansas City to keep Merrifield.
Beyond second base, catcher is among the positions the Padres are focused on dealing with right now. They remain motivated to trade backstop Austin Hedges, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Though the team continues to provide public statements of support, it’s working to find a “new regular starter” behind the dish. Francisco Mejia is also still available, per Acee, though he’s less likely to be dealt. Trouble is for the Friars, it is difficult to identify quality backstops that could realistically be acquired. Willson Contreras of the Cubs is perhaps the most intriguing possibility.
Acee already squashed the Merrifield rumor. He said they tried and then pivoted to Profar instead.
Acee is a joke. Take him with a grain of salt. I trust reddit users predicting cozart to SF more than Acee.
For sure, he’s usually not worth paying attention to, but if he says this rumor is weeks old and the price was too high that’s likely true.
Going after Whit would only make sense if they flipped Profar and that’s clearly not going to happen.
they could include Profar with Patino. Obviously Preller has been given the initiative to win now. They’ll part with a top prospect for whit
Uh, … no, they will not.
Royals would have no interest in Profar. Negative interest even.
They absolutely would if he was packaged with the right prospects. Drop in replacement for Merrifield (who cares if he’s terrible. They suck.) If the change of scenery leads to him finally playing to his potential, trade at the deadline.
Profar would cost them $4.7m and hurt their draft position. Since they suck, it really don’t matter who plays 2nd base for the Royals next season.
They’re not going to part with Patino. Preller has already said Patino will be part of the rotation of the future. The Padres can’t afford to deal a great starting pitcher for a second baseman. Even if he’s still a prospect. They need to be more patient and wait for their prospects to develop.
Though, fans are not patient at all. The fans are very tired of rooting for a losing team.
Another ace hole
Imagine if the padres could somehow pull off the following for 2020, similar to 2015 while keeping Gore/Patino/Campusano..
Bryant/Contreras for Mejia, Lucchesi, Trammell, Miller, Myers + 20 mil
Merrifield for Lamet, Profar, Hedges
Sign Mad Bum 5/100
None of these are realistic.
It’s unrealistic trade proposal season on mlbtraderumors, “tell you what we will give you 2 all stars and we only want the worst contract in baseball for a guy below 30 years old”
I think that both the Cubs and Royals would say no…emphatically.
Yup.
100% Even the trade machine on a PS4 would laugh at those proposals.
Royals wouldn’t want players already at the MLB level.
Fine, make it Potts + Hedges + Lamet. Potts blocked by Machado anyways.
Why would the Royals want your #10 prospect who struggled mightily at AA as the headliner? It’s gonna be more along the lines of Patino, Owen Miller, and then maybe Potts or something similar as the 3rd guy. Otherwise Dayton will not trade Whit.
He can keep him then. Have you seen what high-end pitching is going for right now? Padres can’t afford to part with Patiño.
Both offers are light and I don’t think the Padres are interested in moving Lamet
Pipe dream my friend.
It’s fun to pretend
@harpchado
I dont thinkneother of those trades are enough. I could be wrong but if you want both Bryand and Contreras plus get them to take Will Myers back then you will have to give up A LOT more then that.
No one wants Myers, given his contract. You can’t give him away. You’d have to eat nearly all his salary to get any takers.
Yes I imagine flapping my arms and flying to the moon all the time! (Why would the Cubs do anything but laugh at that offer? For Bryant and Contreras the Pads would have to put up half of their top ten prospects, starting with Gore.)
Less then zero % chance of any of those trades happening. Not even remotely close to what those teams would want.
These are some really bad trade idea. Really bad. Why other teams willing to trade all-star player for Padres garbage?
Say no to drugs
Myers? lol
I’m sorry Mrs. Myers but no one wants your son on their team.
Steve Phillip burner account (harpchado).
Dude c’mon…
Don’t be stupid GMDM. If you’re building for the future, and a team is willing to help you load up the farm again for a guy who is already 30, do it. As much as I like Whit, by the time this team is ready to compete, he’s going to be on the back end of his hayday. It’s a business and you pull the trigger.
Agreed. Trading Whit could be the jumpstart the rebuild needs. Similar to the Greinke to Brewers trade.
Wow, one can dream.
TIL Austin Hedges was a worse hitter last year than Chris Davis. Wow.
Rather give Quiroz or Vosler a shot in St for 2b. Or roll w profar.
Catcher I’d trade Mejia and hedges and sign chirinos to a 2 year deal as a stop gap.
I feel like a Merrifield trade will blow up for the acquiring team as it will cost a fortune to get Kansas City move him and he’s the type of player that doesn’t age well. Not a good mix.
I think at worst he ends up in the Ben Zobrist super utility category batting 275 with a good OBP low SLG and around 8-10 SB. But that’s a couple years away, still has good appeal to any team needing a player that can fill in anywhere.
I agree I think Whit could wind up being just an average player in a year or two. Still a solid enough UT/Big-leaguer but not worth what the Royals are demanding in trade for him. Also if you’re the Royals — why are you acting like Merrifield is Mike Trout — he’s 31 years old… if a team is willing to offer a couple of top prospects for him make the trade!! It doesn’t make sense to be holding onto a solid, albeit not superstar 31 year old 2B when your team is otherwise made up of scrubs.
mondesi is a scrub?
The AL leader in home runs, and Mondesi Jr. along with Salvadore Perez play for the Royal’s. Your comment is stupid as you probably are.
Careful with Whit, Padres (and everyone else). Great story and (apparently) great guy, but his numbers were already down a bit last year and he’s a speed based player. He may go round the corner really quickly. Not sure he’ll be better than Profar for long.
He’s not really a speed based player
He isn’t really a speed based player. He’s a hit tool based player. That will play a bit longer
Give me Whit, one more starting pitcher, another ourfielder (left-handed) and a veteran backup catcher for now.
What a stupid team. Should have gave Strasburg $250M. If you have cheese for trash like Hosmer then you have it for the local hero too.
Strasburg wasnt going to sign here anyway. He mentioned DC being “Home ” in his post game interview, and was going to stay there all along.
I would be curious to see what type of trade value Mejia has left.. still very young but I wonder if anyone considers him as a potential starting catcher any longer.
Are you saying he was not worth an all star closer plus a pre arb bullpen piece? LOL PrellerFail
That’s Preller traded Kimbrel for 5 players when Kimbrel was best closer in game. Sad far not 1 good player out of bunch
Traded Pomeranz for nobody straight up Espinoza
Then resigned Pomeranz to a 4 year deal that no other team would have done.
Ha.. yeah, that one isn’t lookin’ so good. Still time though.
Hedges could be a target for the Red Sox now that they’ve dealt Sandy Leon — but my guess is they’re going to prefer to go with someone cheaper as Vasquez is clearly going to receive the bulk of the playing time (and rightfully so) but still – the Sox could use a backup catcher known for his game management and defense as that’s what Leon’s provided as the backup for several years now. Vasquez defense is good too, don’t get me wrong, especially his cannon of an arm. But ERA-wise Leon has always ‘dominated’ Vasquez in terms of pitcher ERA with him vs not.
If you were the Padres why wouldn’t you be willing to go with Mejia behind the plate for the majority of games next season. He’s been (or was until last year) a super-prospect and put up respectable numbers in limited action last season. And at only 23 years-old he looks primed to have a breakout season next year. Unless they aren’t convinced of his defensive/game-calling ability I would think he should get an opportunity for ABs given how highly touted of a prospect he was in CLE before the trade.
His defense is just not very good. The Indians had this figured out, apparently they did not tell Preller.
Pitch framing and pitch calling are pretty bad. And when you will be relying on a young pitching staff, you need someone behind the dish to guide them along.
Who needs Whit Merrifield when you have Profar. #Winning
The Padres need to target Adam Frazier from the Pirates roster. Frazier can platoon at 2nd w/ Profar and be super utility every where else.
The Padres had all those “ Prospects” for years and were “ on the verge” now Preller who hasn’t a clue is unloading a bunch of them. Wow what a train wreck
That pretty much sums it up.
You cant win with 20 prospects on the major league roster. You need to use some to get a mix of proven talent…….
On the verge of what, there all suspects until they can stick in the Bigs for at least three yrs running. Only 1 in 10 prospects stick in the Bigs for three yrs. or more. I don’t believe AJ knows talent they may look ok in the farm but when they come up there for the most part bad. Mejia would not be on any teams 25 roster he calls a bad game, his W L record behind the plate was well below . 500
We spent years building up a farm system and now rather than wait to see what we have we are going to trade them all away for proven players. Gore isn’t even up yet. What is the point of going all in for next year?
Yea because Preller is only concerned with himself. He never has a plan he sticks with
AJ needs to make .500 or he’s gone, he’s rolling the dice. I personally don’t think this team now even with the rooks called up will make .500 in 2020. The new GM will have a ship wreck to work with another 10 yrs of next to last place
One of the worse teams in baseball along with the Royals and Marlins.
Merrifield’s speed might dissipate, but bat to ball skills tend to last a bit longer. Given all the shifting and the fact nobody cares about IF defense anymore (you can’t come up with 3 real infielders in the entire AL East, e.g.), Rod Carew could probably leave the retirement home and hit .300. In Carew’s prime? .450….for low.
KC should move him, but for a LOT. Let’s not forget that contract is RIDICULOUSLY cheap.
I’ve spotted a trend. Preller is looking for anyone 31 years old to save his bacon.
seasoned perhaps
Robinson Cano to SD for every contract they want to dump. Maybe expand to a three team trade in order to get enough bad contracts involved.
Sigh.
I don’t know… the verbage around a possible trade for him, doesn’t sound solid. If it was possible the rumor would ssu something like “Padres met with royals about trade scenarios”..
Whit for Naylor, Weathers, Margot, Lucchessi – who says no??
Who wants Naylor and Margot two guys who at best will hit .245 on ave. for the next five yrs.
What are the next drawing Powerball numbers
Acee said 10%…. Too bad Acee ain’t in charge no more!!
I think it’s funny that so many people are complaining about trading away prospects. You build a team of prospects like this to use some of them to get established Major League talent, because you can’t have a team of 20 prospects running around on the field. It’s a guessing game which ones will turn out to be the best, and sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. But you can’t keep them all.
Zaaactly.
Royals should move anyone of value. For a rebuilding team, they seem to be keeping too many players with trade value. I get Gordon and Perez, but move Soler and Merrifield as well as Duffy even if it means eating some salary.