It wouldn’t be trade deadline season with Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller exploring a variety of creative deals. San Diego is reportedly open to offers on right-hander Dylan Cease while simultaneously showing interest in other short-term veterans to backfill his spot in the rotation. They’re also getting trade inquiries on young righties Stephen Kolek and Ryan Bergert, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Pitching prospects Henry Baez and Braden Nett are also among the names on which other clubs have expressed interest.
Kolek, 28, was a Rule 5 pick back in 2023 and stuck with the Friars in a bullpen role all last year. He’s moved into the rotation this season and given San Diego 13 starts and 73 2/3 innings of 4.28 ERA ball. Kolek doesn’t miss many bats (17.3% strikeout rate, 7.7% swinging-strike rate) but has good command (7.4% walk rate) and keeps the ball on the ground (50.4%). He’s given up plenty of hard contact, but his lack of fly-balls has helped to keep the home runs down.
It’s not the flashiest profile, but if another club buys into Kolek as a roughly league-average starter in his second pre-arbitration season — with four years of club control remaining after the current campaign — there’s some value in that skill set. Controllable starting pitching is always in demand, and while he’s not necessarily an electric young arm with big velocity and strikeout numbers, Kolek has more than held his own in 2025 and still has two minor league option years remaining after this season.
The 25-year-old Bergert is younger and also in the first of three option years. He entered the season ranked among San Diego’s top 15 prospects or so and has elevated his status with a nice showing in Triple-A El Paso and a promising start to his big league career.
In 44 2/3 Triple-A frames, Bergert carries a 4.03 ERA with a 22.6% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 45% grounder rate. The Padres gave him his big league debut in late April, and he’s since appeared in a total of 10 games — six of them starts. Bergert has impressed with a 2.84 earned run average, 23.1% strikeout rate and 10.8% walk rate. He’s primarily a fastball/slider pitcher with a show-me changeup and sinker that he’s used less than 8% of the time each.
Trading either Bergert or Kolek could help the Padres reel in a veteran bat in left field or behind the plate — or it could simply bring back multiple prospects who could be redirected to those trade efforts. Bergert, who was optioned earlier this month, has spent enough time in the minors that he still has a full six years of club control beyond the current season. As with Kolek, he’s not necessarily the potential high-end young starter teams covet, but he has the makings of a useful back-end starter who could in theory be plugged right into a new team’s rotation.
As for the 22-year-old Baez and 23-year-old Nett, they’re both pitching in the Double-A rotation and posting strong numbers. Baez doesn’t throw as hard or miss as many bats but has better command with higher ground-ball totals. He’s already on the 40-man roster. Nett has more velocity and a strikeout rate that’s a couple percentage points higher than his teammate but also a walk rate pushing 11%. He’d be Rule 5-eligible this winter and seems likely to be selected to the 40-man before then. Either could be a plausible option for a big league club by next season, so it’s hardly surprising to see teams poking around both pitchers.
Is…every pitcher in the Pads system being discussed in trades?
Everything except DeVries lol. Preller likes shopping and trying to find value and seeing options.
Of the padres 16 prospects 10 are pitchers. Also 10/14 if you minus their top two prospects
Kolek and Bergert were prospects in the Padres top 20 entering the season.
Yes
I would like them to keep Bergert.
I would too. Be interesting to see what he could do with an mlb rotation spot next season.
Trade Cease and keep Bergert and Kolek. They along with Vazquez make a solid 4/5/6 group for a few years.
Yeah you want to have a solid 3 in-front of them but they are all major league pitchers. Secondary stats don’t always do them justice.
They are like the opposite of cease. His secondary stats always look better than the results. These cats results look better then the secondary stats.
Kolek is a ground ball machine.
Joe, Nick and Yu wouldn’t be that bad but would like to extend or re-sign King or someone similar.
Using Yu as a 5 with Bergert a 4, Kolek / Hart / Vazquez and a few other up and comers as the end / depth.
I’d rather trade Cease for salary relief and whatever prospect might get a C or LF upgrade.
I can live with trading Suarez – Morejon / Adam are closers in 26 so might as well roll with them now and call up one of the ready BP arms.
I would hate to see them let Bergert or Baez go. They are cheap and ready to go
Yeah, I like Kolek more than most do. I think we still had more upside with development.
This dude barely pitched before the majors and didn’t pitch much last year. He has come a long way this year. He kind of reminds me of a poor man’s king. Just need to make him a king.
Simm, I feel the same way. I would prefer them to not touch Bergert or Kolek in trades (not that they’re can’t miss, but they are cheap/controllable and haven’t realized their full MLB potential, so it feels like they’re not capitalizing on their full value). I love a GB pitcher even if the K rate is lackluster. Solid recipe to pitch into the 6th and an excellent base to build from.
Pads fan- is also right that Bergert has been overall better so far. Kolek has gotten blown up a couple of times.
Both have a place in the padres future rotation either as a 3-4-5 guy or a fill in guy.
Which either way has real value. Especially on a team that has darvish. Who is never pitching a full season again. Heck he may not even pitch next year. If he doesn’t turn it around I could see Darvish hanging the cleats up after the season.
Bergert has much better swing-n-miss stuff than Kolek, Vasquez, or Hart. Without the ability to get guys out by forcing them to chase, MLB players eventually figure a pitcher out and start hitting them.
Rather the Padres keep Bergert and Baez than Kolek and Hart. They both have better stuff.
Bergert is a stud.
Not sure I want to see him go, aa I just have this feeling that moving him will come back to haunt the Pads.
I think he is still more of a mid level starter at best. Stuff looks pretty good but not great.
Seems like a 4-5 type to me, with 3 upside.
Nett has higher upside if he can find his command. Good news his walk rate has improved each year.
Baez has some strong numbers in the minors. Good control and keeps the ball on the ground. Little less velo but has also touch 97.
Padres have a lot of quality arms in their system.
It may not be 20+ deep but the systems has quality guys in the top 16. Including a few guys that aren’t far away from the majors. Padres don’t dump players into aaa until after they make their major league debut. Likely because they El Paso sucks to pitch at.
So I get a kick out of many saying their farm sucks.
They had Bergert as a 40fv until the recent update moving him to 45fv.
Yeah I’m not seeing what others are seeing with Bergert. He’s a fine internal option on the back-end, but I think people are overhyping him based on the shiny ERA.
Opponents have hit .193/.287/.333 off him so far so the shiny era isn’t surprising.
Mid rotation upside is probably his ceiling. That said,they’ve won 5 of his 6 starts and I’d definitely keep him at this point. A quality back end starter making the league minimum is pretty damn valuable to this team.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Michael King in the off-season. He’s made 10 starts on the year (Cease has made 21 for comparisson). Pre IL he looked like he’d easily get 120m+ on the FA market. I imagine teams will be weary of giving him that kind of deal now if he ends up with around 18 starts. Do the Padres offer him a QO and does he possibly accept it? Would he rather stay in San Diego for a year and re-enter FA hopefully coming off 30 starts and no QO? His alternative might be one of those two year deals with an opt-out as a FA.
Looking back on the structure of the deal he signed this past off-season, I think he just might choose SD given those scenarios. Having some cheap insurance like Bergert definitely helps If they were to gamble 21m on King. Who knows if they’ll even be able to swing that financially, but it got me curious. Maybe King shocks us again they both just exercise the mutual option. I didn’t think he’d play in 2025 for half of what he had coming with rest paid the following year.
King will reject the QO if healthy down the stretch. He is likely going to get 125-200m in the offseason. 5 years 25+ per is my guess.
He has been that good and just needs to be healthy the rest of the way. If not then yeah perhaps he would take the QO.
Bergert stuff doesn’t look like dominant stuff but he does have a decent strikeout and batting avg against. His only issue has been given up a random homer here and there. He has a pretty nasty curve or slider what we that pitch is.
I’d be pretty shocked if King got 125m this off-season after he missed around half of the season with nerve issues. Teams can be pretty risk adverse when it comes to free agent pitching and their health especially when its that recent.
In terms of getting anywhere close to 200m this off-season, I’d put that in the no chance in hell category. He needed two healthy 30+ start seasons for teams to even consider that.
To me he seems way more likely to get shorter term offers with a player opt out, like Blake Snell and Carlos Rodon had to take before they got their big bag.
All depends on when he returns and how he performs when he returns.
He’s pitched 30 innings. It’s a promising start, but there’s more than a few signs of regression.
Yeah regression is almost guaranteed, I mean they’ve won 5 of his 6 starts. But if I were this team I would be hording as much mlb ready starting pitching as possible.
125-200 feels rich with Kings lack of track record and injury history.
My prediction is he’ll resign on a 9 figure deal with a lower AAV than you’re predicting, but he’ll get an opt out in exchange for a lower salary in year 1
Personally, I think the padres and Red Sox match up here
For instance
Red Sox get Cease and Suarez
Padres pick up
Rafaela or Jhostynxon Garcia
Tolle
Ealy
Luis Perales
Take back Yoshidas contract
Red Sox pick up SP help and pen help for a playoff run and clear 18 mill off the books in 26 and 18 mill off the books in 27.
Padres pick up their cheap LF, cheap pitching, essentially paying Yoshida to go away and Yoshida replaces Arraez next year at DH hoping Yoshida rebounds offensively with Sheets moving to 1B full time.
Zero chance anyone takes Yoshida’s full contract. The Sox would need to pay down at least half of it.
Teams will if you throw in some cheap cost controlled players to offset having to pay him.
Zero chance padres take on that money…zero
They should if it means getting Tolle and Perales. Taking back 36 mill for two years compared to full team control 6-7 years over Tolle and Perales is a no brainer. With Cease, Suarez. Arraez coming off the books they can afford to buy some pitching prospects by taking a bad contract short term.
Nah they can’t. As money comes off the books tatis and manny’s money starts to go up.
Padres have a bunch of pitching prospects as well. They could use that 18m to help resign king. I’ll take that over any pitching prospects.
There’s no guarantee king resigns. And longer he’s out even riskier it is to try and win a bidding war to keep him.
Same with cease
And Darvish and Musgrove are wild cards at this point that can’t be relied upon for meaningful innings
Pivetta has one more year before he prices himself out if he pitches in 2026 like he has 2025
Kolek Berget Vasquez Pivetta Baez Nett isn’t enough starting depth for an entire season in 2026. Not even close. The next crop of pitchers isn’t ready till 2028 or 2029 so padres need to find cheap pitching for minimum 2026 and 2027 seasons cause they already paid Tatis Jr, Merrill, Bogaerts, Cronenworth, Machado, and need cheap production from LF, 1B, C and SP.
Tolle, Ealy, Perales helps more than paying king does coming off injury. Last thing padres need is a Joe Musgrove Yu Darvish 2.0 pitching contract.
King will make a controlled rehab assignment start Monday. So he very well maybe back in the next couple of weeks.
Been gone 2 months going on 3 due to a shoulder injury. He’s missed significant time. Over 60 days. And who knows if rehab is even going to work. That’s another month minimum before he’s worked his way back up to growing in games. So 3 months missed and you want to sign him to market value contract?
Says he feels good
What’s he suppose to say? Hey my shoulders feels like it might require season ending surgery and I’ll miss most of 2026?
Course he’s gonna sound positive.
He’s been doing bullpens and is doing a sim game in the next few days. By all accounts things are trending well
no,no mam&s
Padres may trade Cease but probably not Suarez.
(Especially innthe same deal.
They can get more if they trade those playersxseparatelyn.
Padres are not taking Toshida.
Duran and others for Cease might work.
Bit, other teams are bidding on Cease also.
I think they would move them both in the same deal for a controlled good plug in player. Otherwise yeah they would trade them separately.
My guess is neither goes. They let Suarez walk and Arraez. QO cease and king. Both of them leave and they get a couple of 4th round picks back. It’s a shame the system rewards teams under the tax with 1st round picks while a team like the padres spends all they got and end up with a 4th round pick. System just seems broken.
Sports fan-The Res Sox already apparently turned down Duran for Cease, Salas, and another prospect.
That says to me that they’d have to be absolutely blown away to deal Duran.
I feel strongly that report was not accurate
Hard to believe that.
Doubt it.
Is that an unsubstantiated Red Sox fan venue site?!
Padres want more than that for Cease.
Duran’s numbers have fallen way down
OR
He is overrated….
Duran had one decent year in ’24 bookmarked many mediocre years.
He has been in the league for what 6 years?!
The Padres don’t need another bad contract…they have enough of those.
Padres and Preller need to back away from the bar.
Too many players looking for big contracts on the Padres roster could be a set up for a future fire sale.
It is, not sustainable long term in the. San Diego market.
The Padres. need a sustainable, high quality pipeline of cost. controlled players graduating to the big leagues from their farm ñsystem on a yearly basis to compete long term with the Dodgers, Giants, D Backs and other teams.
Otherwise, some day down the road, Seidler’s heirs may sell, all those big contracts will be the sheet hitting the fan and then Padres fans could experiencethe wheels coming off the team like the scary rebuilds of the:
Phillies, Tigers, White Sox, Marlins, A’s (multiple times)…
No. It was on MLB.com yesterday.
They just repeated the initial report.
More reputable reporters have since refuted it.
So there we go
I would be hesitant to move either. Kolek has had some up and down, but he also leads MLB in double plays induced despite not being anywhere near the innings of the top startes in that department. The last thing this team should be giving up is cheap cost controlled starting pitching.
They’ll be paying Pivetta, Musgrove and Darvish 56m next year. Who the heck knows what you’ll get from Musgrove and Darvish or if Pivetta will be as good as he has been this year.
I agree. They are both at the least serviceable back end guys. Both still have some upside as well. Koleks numbers are only that high because of the marlins beating up on him.
These types of players have a ton of value on a team either as a starter or a guy you can call up when someone goes down.
Padres have had 4 terrible starts from darvish and have had a start from king in over 2 months. These two guys have filled in nicely or the padres would be out of contention by now. They both keep you right in the game most starts and then the 4 horsemen have finished it out.
Yeah, without looking at the raises, it’s something like 7 guys eating up $175M in payroll next year I think (Manny, X, Tatis, Darvish, Musgrove, Pivetta, Cronenworth). You really have to hit on some cheap talent to make this roster work.
Arb raises on Adam, morejon. Also Yuki gets like 7m next year. If they go over the tax it will be the second straight year, that cost more. Merrill will start making more soon enough.
They have some money coming off the books but they may not want to spend as much as this year. Especially if they don’t get some playoff revenue.
Preller is in a tight spot right now. He could trade some pending free agents to plug some holes for the future. Or he can trade away more farm hands to plug holes with rentals this season. My guess is he will try and get guys with more than a year of control. Perhaps while not trading any one on the roster.
Here are the numbers
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hUvYNZODpusJEJQm41…
Padres have said over and over that this level of payroll is sustainable. That means they will have $70 million to spend this offseason to replace Cease, King, and Arraez. If Suarez opts out they will have another $9+ million to spend.
Somehow, I think they will be not be shopping in the bargain bin.
Please don’t trade Bergert. Unload Cease.
If Pads want to complete THIS YEAR, might want to hang on to Cease especially the way Darvish is pitching and King’s uncertain return.
Brew – Yu is concerning. My trade Cease philosophy comes with the caveat that they believe King is good to go in 2-3 weeks.
If King doesn’t make it back, if Yu continues to stink, might be a quick exit on playoffs anyway.
I like the Vazquez for 2 turns and then Hart for 1 turn piggyback.
Long- king is making a controlled rehab assignment on monday. So he is on his way back fairly soon…likely in a couple of weeks
All this talk about the padres being thin in the rotation. Look at the team ERA. This team has great pitching. Including their starters. This team doesnt score enough runs. Preller will make deals to get bats and wouldn’t surprise me if he finds a way to get another bullpen arm to shorten games after improving the lineup. Wouldn’t be surprised to see any of Vasquez Kolek hart or Bergert go in a trade. Nothing would surprise me with preller. Gallen to the padres wouldn’t even surprise me. The padres either go for it now completely or just be sellers and retool for 2027 and beyond. Their bullpen is that good
The only thing they will surprise me is if AJ does NOT make a trade.
Stephen Kolek has 5 more years of control after this one. Not 4. He spent enough time optioned to AAA in 2025 that he will not accrue a full year of service this year.
Wouldn’t that make it 5 lol.
Do not trade Steven Kolek.
I like Kolek more than most padres fans. He has shown he can go deep in games. He just needs some fine tuning. You look at where he came from in his career it’s pretty amazing how far he has come.
I like Kolek, he has a diverse arsenal and if he can consistently control his location will be a successful SP. Of Kolek, Bergert, Hart and Baez, Kolek probably would command the greatest return as a trade piece, which also means he’s likely to be traded.
Bergert may have the highest trade value. He has an extra year of control plus better results. Nett who isn’t listed has the most upside.
Almost no doubt a number of pitchers will be traded soon. I think there is still a decent chance Salas gets moved as well.
I feel like Salas is falling into the snelling/lesko category. Where they were traded a year late. Preller is trying to use him as the headliner but he currently doesn’t have the value he did. If he can’t land a headline guy with him he will keep him.
Not surprising that Salas doesn’t have the value he had, he’s hurt and still a teenager. I’m not sure the comp is Lesko/Snelling. Assuming his stress fracture isn’t a chronic issue, I would think AJ would be more patient and let Salas mature as a prospect. Maybe the comp will be Mackenzie Gore, who had major setbacks in the minors.
Yeah, Nett has higher upside than the four pitchers we’ve discussed, though personally I’m pretty high on Baez as a solid #4/5 MLB SP. But one could argue that Mayfield, Schoolcraft, Bateman, Mendez and H. Cruz do as well, they’re just much younger. They all do have decent trade value though.
I rather have the Padres look forward to 2026 and beyond. They look like an average team at best. The Padres couldn’t even beat the marlins 2 out of 3 matchups. Trade Arraez, Cease, and Suarez for cheap close to MLB talent and be ready for 2026. The future of the Padres look pretty good with Salas, De Vries, Tatis, Merrill, and Machado. Don’t gamble the future for this years run. Don’t trade Bergert it’ll probably haunt us in the future.
Marlins are playing great baseball. Currently busy whooping up on the brewers on the road.
Starting to look like losing to them was just playing them at the wrong time.
Also you can’t wait two years until those guys are ready. Manny and company are getting old.
Padres already screwed up their future by trading for Soto. Imagine if the Padres still had Woods, Abrams, and Gore.
Outfield:Woods, Merrill and Tatis
Infield: Machado, Abrams, Cronenworth, and Sheets
DH: Arraez
Pitchers: Gore,Darvish, Musgrove, etc.
we could have used that money that we gave Xander on more pitching or other areas.
Yeah Soto helped the Padres get to the playoffs but they didn’t win anything. Success is measured by winning. Wow you get a participation trophy for participating in the playoffs.
@JudgementDay
“Success is measured by winning.”
How much success have the Nationals had since the Soto trade?
With most of the core over 30, there is no tomorrow. The time is now.
The Marlins are one of the hottest teams in baseball. They are 18-8 over the last month.
Make that 19-8 after today’s win against the team with the best record in baseball
Finally,
As I have stated numerous,times on MLBTR and a few other baseball forums,
MLBTR
is doing the required,”deep dive”
into the many multiples of Padres minor league starters
Athat are very valuable starters and relievers with huge upsides.
Other teams’ Front Office, GMs and Scouting Departments see the high value in the Padre pitching prospects stockpiled on their farm.
And, three of the Padres “crown jewels” pitchers have not even been cited in this article.
Cruz, Bateman, Mayfield, Mendez etc
..
Padres have an excellent 2026 Rotation presently:
1) Darvish
2) Privett
3) Musgrove
4) King (if resigned)
5) Kolek
6) Bergert
7) Nett
8) Cruz
And more…
Room to trade for LF/DH, catcher, bench help, cost controlled rotation help.
Would likely take some of those dudes and the group behind them to do so.
Pivetta as your one, Dharvish as your two (39 yrs with injuries), Musgrove (two TJs), Bergert, Kolek, Vasquez, Nett, Baez, Cruz
I’d think you will be adding some starters in the off season because that ain’t gonna work.
King gonna get a rich deal, you’ll be looking for a pair of low cost upside plays, a pair of bullpen arms into the rotation type of deals.
BW, you have never gotten anything right in any of your posts, so with 100% certainty I can say that that is not what the Padres will do.
I’m just pissed that Musgrove already needs another Tommy John surgery since he hasn’t even come back from his first one yet.
Lmao what are you talking about.
Musgrove is playing on pitching this year
Padres could sign King to a rich deal after he missed three months this season. There are some good pitchers UFA, maybe they will be in the running for Framber? Would be a bad move spending money on pitching with Dharvish, Pivetta and Musgrove all collecting 20M+ — Bergert, Baez, Nett, Cruz, Kolek, Vasquez — plenty of cheap pitching but how about Brad Keller and JV on a 1yr / 5M dollar deal with incentives.
Can you find the next Patrick Corbin? Great season from Corbin.
Musgrove started throwing off the mound for the 1st time July 9th. He is playing catch from 120 ft. He is progressing a head of schedule from his TJ surgery last October, but he is not expected to pitch this season. Personally, I would rather see him come back 100% healthy in 2026 than try an early come back in 2025.
UFA or Unrestricted Free Agent is in football. That you think that is baseball explains so much. Try Pro football Rumors.
Darvish is making $15 million next season. Pivetta is making $19 million. Only Musgrove is making $20 million. legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/nl…
Its REALLY easy and quick to look this stuff up before you comment, but you choose to get it wrong time after time after time? Why? Do you LIKE getting shown you are wrong?
The Padres obviously have the money, so why is spending money on pitching a bad idea? They also have $70 million coming off the payroll so plenty of money to spend to replace Cease, King, and Arraez
Vasquez and Bergert have been better than Corbin this season. Obviously you missed that fact.
Talked to him after he threw a bullpen prior to the Saturday game with the Philllies. He said he was feeling great. Padres website says he “Played “aggressive catch” off the mound on July 18″.
Where did you see that he needs another TJ surgery?
Musgrove said he is on track to pitch out of the pen 1-2 innings in the playoffs if the padres make it.
Now neither may happen but that’s what he said.
King 8m, cease 14m, Arraez 15m, Suarez (likely 10m (8m add if stays), Hosmer 13m (rounding on these), omg 3m, couple other 1m ish guys like Heyward, maldy, Diaz, types Darvish money goes down 5m.
Think that’s every one of note. So that’s about 73m ish before arbitration raises and current player increases.
Manny increase of 8m in 2026
Pivetta increase 15m 2026
Arb raises for morejon, Adam, sheets some others
Increase in tax penalties if they go over again
So the padres will have more like a net of 45-50m off the books after all said and done. Actual payroll not tax payroll. They will likely be over the tax again next year barring a trade of a big contract.
Pivetta, darvish, Musgrove Vasquez as locks for the rotation if healthy. Several 5th starter options.
Holes LF/DH, C, 1b and bench as of now. Preller may trade for a controlled player this deadline removing a hole.
Either way you add it up the padres will have enough money to fill holes if they keep payroll around the same as this year. Getting some playoff money this year would be helpful to secure commitments.
Pads- Musgrove doesn’t been another TJ, that was just made up.
What the padres really need to do is find a Catcher. Even if we keep Salas he is likely a couple of years away at this point. The Braves don’t seem inclined to trade Murphy but he would be a good fit. LF/DH/1b should be easier spots to fill next year. Also trading for a guy like Laureano makes sense, he is controlled next year while making 6.5m.
I didn’t make it up exactly, I had thought Musgrove had a TJ when he was in the minors, after reaearching it a bit further, he missed most of the 2013 season with UCL sprain. I did shoot from the hip on that one.
DeGrom had two TJs and he could win the Cy Young so Musgrove I’d say is likely to return strong. DeGrom was out 20 months after his second TJ. Musgrove will be about 16 months out from Surgery when pitchers and catchers report in ’26. I’d say he should be good to go.
Preller has never paid big dollars for a catcher and Murphy is making 5 times the highest paid Padres catcher in the Preller era. I don’t see any possibility of Preller trading for him.
Just now on MLB Network they were talking about Adley Rutschman possibly being on the trade block. That would be more like it. A switch hitting backstop that plays excellent defense and 2 more seasons of team control at a very affordable price.
I agree about Laureano. What would it take to get both Laureano and Rutschman?
Your problem is you ALWAYS shoot from the hip. Only after being called out on your BS do you bother to look up the facts.
Adley would cost a ton and his last year has been down offensively. Maybe he goes for Jeffers.
Spotrac shows players as UFA when their ARB is up, thats where I get the term, the reason I use it when referring to a player’s status.
Some kind of fazool you are always grinding my nuts.
This is the comments section, I’m not writing for the Post.
I don’t have any problems. I don’t want any either. Take your ballbusting routine somewhere else.
At a 96 OPS+ Rutschman is major step up offensively without being a downgrade behind the plate. At $5.5 million he is eminently affordable compared to options like Murphy. Jeffers is a good call. RHB. Some power. His defense is pretty bad and the Padres tend to value defense over offense at catcher.
There is your problem, you pay attention to Spotrac. I point out facts, something you obviously always ignore.
Get things right occasionally and you won’t get called out for being wrong when you are commenting.
Musgrove/Pivetta/Darvish/Vasquez/Kolek/Bergert/Waldron/Baez/Nett/Cruz
That is if they don’t resign King or spend money in FA or pick up a starter in trade this trade deadline or in the offseason.
The Padres are not lacking in pitching.
And Miguel Mendez, who is going to make an impact maybe not this season but definitely in 2026
Mendez will get a look with the Missions before the season is over and possibly a cup of coffee before the end of 2026.
He has a 96-97 mph 4 seam that can touch triple digits and a nasty slider. If he can start getting more vertical movement on his changeup he could make it as a starter. If not, I don’t see him pitching as a starter for the Padres any time soon. Possibly out of the pen late in 2026.
Yes, he’s projecting as a RP, maybe LRP similar to Hoeing.
Every dominating playoffs team this year has had slumps/ hiccups this season including:
Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Mariners, Astros, Brewers, Padres, Tigers, Rays. Jays…You name it.
It goes with the territory.
The teams
Yeah this year more than even some others it feels like.
Not really enthused about trading Kolek or Bergert, but it’s probably one of the few realistic trade targets they can dangle. Of the two, I like Kolek a bit more. I tend to like pitchers who show good command of their pitches and control of the zone and trust Ks will creep up as they become more confident in their sequencing. Kind of like the parallel of hitters with middling power but good bat-to-ball skills.
Kolek looks like he should get more K’s than Bergert but he doesn’t. He does get a million ground balls. Think I saw a stat that he leads the league in double plays produced. Which is incredible given his innings.
Exactly. I would be loathe to punt that GB production.
Pull the pin AJ!!! This team has no heart, not sure where you’re going to find it, but it sure as hell isn’t in that locker room!!
They need bats, in a bad way. 2-3 minimum. Once Darvish and King get back to 100%, the playoff rotation is fine with that bullpen. But, without some offense from their 6-9 hitters, no way they are in the postseason.
Sheets falling off a cliff this month is killing tjrm. Went from worse 789 to worse 6789. With Xander actually hitting now this offense should be really good. Yet it’s not.
Playoff talented teams that get hot in Sept-Oct
Will earn Chmpionship flags, trophies, rings.
Others, go home until next year.
Kolek feels like a good fit for the Orioles for Laureano
Perhaps, little risky considering the health concerns of Darvish and king. Plus he maybe needed next year with Cease and king both likely gone.
I’d probably try and get him with prospects.
I like Laureano but would keep Kolek. Maybe they’ll take Isiah Lowe and Tirso Ornelas instead. Probably not.
Yeah, I don’t think so. Laureano has a bit of extra value since he’ll be on a cheap 6m option next year.