The time has once again come for the San Diego Padres to explore the trade market. Seemingly every year, Padres GM A.J. Preller casts a wide net at the deadline and in the offseason.
Time time, it began early as the Padres acquired hot-hitting Luis Arraez in a deal with the Miami Marlins. The pitching staff has been hit hard by injuries with both Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove going to the IL, which could force Preller to examine the pitching market.
With the month of June here, that means MLB hot stove season, and Preller is reportedly “burning up phones” ahead of the deadline, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
“As usual, San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller is burning up the phones, this time in search of a starting pitcher, but he’s not the only one. This is likely to be a deadline with a plethora of teams looking to add and only a few willing to ship out players. So the contenders are doing their diligence now, sources said, fully understanding that the only hope for the desirable-player inventory to grow is borderline teams acknowledging that their players’ value might never be higher than this summer. Preller was on the hunt for starters even before Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove wound up on the injured list, and the Padres are operating like an organization that believes it’s closer to its 19-12 road record than its 13-19 stinkfest at home.”
