MLB insider reveals San Diego Padres trade target, top prospect GM might be willing to deal

The San Diego Padres already made one of the biggest MLB trades in 2024, acquiring starting pitcher Dylan Cease before Opening Day. With the MLB trade deadline approaching, new Padres rumors are suggesting that the team could be just as aggressive this summer.

San Diego has plenty of issues it can address. Entering MLB games today, the Padres lineup ranks 11th in slugging (.404) while the pitching staff is 12th in quality starts (31) and 22nd in batting average allowed (.248) through 83 games.

Sitting around the .500 market, San Diego is fortunate that shakiness on the National League side of the MLB standings has created a wide-open race. With several sub-.500 teams competing for Wild Card spots, it has also seemingly provided an incentive for general manager A.J. Preller to be more aggressive this summer.

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet is among the Padres trade targets this summer. He also notes that San Diego would face competition for Crochet from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As for which of the Padres top prospects are available to trade, Rosenthal notes that the belief around MLB is that catcher Ethan Salas and shortstop Leodalis De Vries are the only untouchable prospects in San Diego’s system. However, it’s been theorized that Preller might be leaving the impression that De Vries is untouchable in order to make him more enticing if the right player is made available.

San Diego could also have added reason to be aggressive ahead of the MLB trade deadline. Rosenthal spoke to multiple people around the league who speculated that Preller might be trying to save his job. If that’s the case, he would have even more reason to part with some of the Padres top prospects in a win-now move.

At least for now, though, there doesn’t appear to be a caliber of talent available ahead of the MLB trade deadline that San Diego would move one of its blue-chip prospects for. Instead, the Padres are expected to pursue trades where pitching prospects like Dylan Lesko Robby Snelling or Adam Mazur can be a centerpiece.