Padres Not Inclined To Trade High Leverage Relievers

The Padres are getting calls on their high leverage relievers, according to to a report from Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday afternoon. Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada, and David Morgan have all drawn interest from rival clubs, per Acee, though the report emphasizes that while the Padres have fielded calls on those players they aren’t inclined to move anyone from that group.

“There’s a lot of teams (from which) we have taken incoming calls,” president of baseball operations AJ Preller told reporters, as relayed by Acee. “…It’s nice when people are calling you, and they have interest in your players. At least then, you have some options. But I think the focus has been on the starting pitching and how do we fill that without taking away from the bullpen or from the lineup.”

Preller went on to double down on his desire to keep his team’s elite bullpen together.

“Anytime you have multiple people in one spot, you at least can listen to those types of conversations,” Preller said, per Acee. “But it’s not easy to find impact players, so you don’t take that for granted. And we have a lot of performers in our pen that have been impactful here the last couple years. It’s probably been why we’ve been in the playoffs the last few years. There’s a lot of reasons, but that’s been a big one. … So we don’t take that lightly. It’s not like, ‘Hey, we have a lot of really good pitchers, so we can afford to kind of take our level down in the bullpen.’”

That’s an understandable stance to take. San Diego had MLB’s best bullpen by ERA, xERA, and fWAR in 2025. Granted, that’s with Robert Suarez in the fold, but it also only accounts for half a season of Miller’s impact. While trading from that strength could make some sense to improve a rotation that’s losing Dylan Cease and Michael King, it’s worth remembering that none of the team’s top relievers has an especially high salary; Estrada and Morgan will play next year on a pre-arbitration salary, while Morejon and Miller are projected to make a combined $7MM total via arbitration in 2026 by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. With such negligible salaries, trading any of that quartet wouldn’t open up the sort of payroll space necessary to land an impactful starter.

Reluctant as the club may be to trade from its bullpen, the Padres do find themselves in a bind at this point. Acee notes that San Diego needs to add at least two starters this offseason to replace King and Cease, and the club is known to be planning to spend at a similar level to last year. Perhaps the team’s reported willingness to move players making more significant salaries like Jake Cronenworth and Nick Pivetta will allow them to shed the sort of salary needed to add a starter or two in free agency.

Failing that, however, it’s not inconceivable that the Padres could trade a reliever for a starter. The Marlins notably have starting pitchers (including Edward Cabrera and former Padre Ryan Weathers) that they’re willing to trade this winter, and are known to be in the market for a closer this winter. Bringing someone like Morejon or Estrada into the fold as the primary piece of the return for a starter’s services could allow Miami to bring in the closer they’re looking for without having to pay a premium for someone like Suarez or Pete Fairbanks on the open market.

As the Padres look to upgrade their rotation mix, Acee continues to report that Preller’s front office is working on a “blockbuster” trade. Neither the names involved in those discussions nor the other team (or teams) Preller is negotiating with are named, but Acee does emphasize that the Padres will not be trading Fernando Tatis Jr. this winter. While a Tatis trade would clear significant salary off the books and surely bring in a massive return, Tatis has shown himself to be a consistent five-to-six win player when healthy and losing him would be a brutal blow to the Padres’ goal of keeping their competitive window open headed into 2026. Tatis may not be on the move this winter, but Preller’s willingness to get creative and aggressive on the trade market make it impossible to completely rule out a trade involving virtually any other player on the roster or in the farm system.