Two things cannot be questioned any longer, if they had ever been up for debate in recent years.
The Padres are committed to winning the major championship that no San Diego team has ever claimed, and there’s no limit to what measures A.J. Preller will take to achieve that aim.
The franchise’s methodology can be debated, yes. But after another all-in push at the trade deadline on Thursday, there is no doubt the Padres intend to challenge for the World Series title.
“I think the expectation of this group is always to go win a ring,” Preller said after a fever dream of a day wheeling and dealing. “Last year, we got to the playoffs. We felt like we were a dangerous team. We were one of the teams that had a chance to win. Ultimately, we fell a couple stages short of what we tried to do. So this year, we kind of learned from last year, and we’ll take another run at it.
“If you’re gonna win a championship, you can’t have really any weak links. And that was a focus for us over the last few weeks.”
In a flurry of trades that were all somewhat shocking in their own way, the Padres on Thursday added two starting pitchers, an outfielder, an All-Star first baseman who can play the outfield, an All-Star closer to pair with the All-Star closer they already have and a catcher.
It was quite a haul.
And perhaps the most stunning thing they accomplished was making those additions without subtracting any significant pieces from their big-league roster.
In all, the Padres added eight players, including two minor-league infielders.
They sent away an astonishing 14 players, including their No.1 prospect and two pitchers who had started a combined 21 games for them this season.
“We understand you have to give up good players to get good players,” Preller said, leaning on one of his oft-stated mantras.
The Padres’ first move of the day dropped jaws throughout baseball, as Preller landed a reliever many believed wasn’t available by moving a prospect many believed was untouchable.
In a trade with the Athletics, the Padres added Mason Miller, who has thrown more than twice as many pitches at least 101 mph than any other MLB pitcher this season. They had signaled for more than a month that they were going to add to their league-leading bullpen, and this created what one team official called “a super bullpen” that can shorten games now and, most notably, in the postseason.
It isn’t known exactly how Miller, who has a 3.76 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 38⅓ innings, will split time with MLB saves leader Robert Suarez.
“I think it gives Mike (Shildt) an opportunity to mix and match with the ‘pen,” Preller said. “An opportunity certain nights to be able to go (with) one set of relievers and give guys an opportunity to get a little bit of a rest and a blow and be fresh for hopefully what’s a long run here for the rest of the regular season into the postseason.”
That trade also got the Padres left-handed starter JP Sears (7-9, 4.95).
The cost: No.1 prospect Leo De Vries and right-handed pitching prospects Henry Baez, Braden Nett and Eduarniel Nuñez. Nuñez is a reliever who made his major league debut for the Padres this season. Nett and Baez were in Double-A San Antonio’s rotation.
About three hours later, the Padres made a move they hope will improve the offensive production from the catching position by trading for Freddy Fermin and sending pitchers Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek to the Royals.
The Padres see Fermin, who is batting .255 with a .648 OPS this season, as solid behind the plate and believe he has the attributes of a good catcher in terms of being able to work with the pitching staff. They also point to the fact he has been stuck behind Salvador Perez, a perennial All-Star and Royals franchise pillar, and think Fermin can flourish with more at-bats.
In a corresponding move, the Padres announced they are designating Martín Maldonado for assignment. The 38-year-old Maldonado and fellow catcher Elías Díaz combined for a .596 OPS, which is fourth-lowest among all MLB catcher groups.
Bergert bounced between Triple-A and the big leagues. He had a 2.78 ERA over 35⅔ innings in the majors, and the Padres had won six of his seven starts. Kolek began the season in Triple-A and had a 4.18 ERA in 14 starts, which included a complete game shutout at Coors Field in May.
Early in the afternoon, about 90 minutes before the 3 p.m. deadline, the Padres addressed their biggest need of improving the offense by adding left fielder Ramon Laureano in a trade that also brought them All-Star Ryan O’Hearn.
O’Hearn, 32, has an .837 OPS, 13th in the American League. The 31-year-old Laureano, who spent 2½ weeks on the injured list with an ankle sprain but has otherwise put together his finest offensive season, has an .884 OPS in 294 plate appearances.
Left field was the area the Padres knew they needed to upgrade as far back as spring training. A total of 10 players have combined to hit .229 with a .613 OPS while cycling through at left field. The OPS is third-worst among all left field groups.
The arrival of the right-handed-hitting Laureano and left-handed-hitting O’Hearn creates myriad platoon opportunities at designated hitter and in left field with the left-handed-hitting Gavin Sheets, who has a .735 OPS. The Padres designated Alpine native Trenton Brooks for assignment.
Said Preller: “I think every night we talked about like being able to either rest a starter, maybe rest two starters, and then having weapons to come off the bench.”
What’s left in the Padres’ minor-league system after Thursday’s trades
The price of that improvement was minor-leaguers, all of them drafted in 2024. Going to Baltimore were pitchers Boston Bateman, Tyson Neighbors and Tanner Smith and infielders Brandon Butterworth, Cobb Hightower and Tanner Smith.
That brought the total of top-16 prospects (as ranked by Baseball America) traded from the Padres system on Thursday to seven. That included No.1 (De Vries). No.4 (Bateman) and No. 6 (Hightower).
Shortly after that trade broke, the Padres announced they had acquired infielder Will Wagner, who has split time between Triple-A and the major leagues the past two seasons, from the Blue Jays in exchange for catcher Brandon Valenzuela.
Less than a half-hour before the deadline, the Padres traded for Brewers starting pitcher Nestor Cortes, a left-hander who was an All-Star in 2022 and has spent almost all of this season on the injured list with an elbow flexor strain. The Brewers also agreed to pay down Cortes’ salary to the league minimum and sent the Padres 18-year-old shortstop prospect Jorge Quintana. The Padres gave up outfielder Brandon Lockridge, who batted .215/.258/.261 in 47 games for them this season before being optioned to Triple-A in late June.
The 30-year-old Cortes, who made two starts at the beginning of the season, has been pitching on a rehab assignment and is expected to join the starting rotation shortly.
Joining him in that rotation will be Dylan Cease.
A trade of Cease had been widely viewed as a possibility for weeks and had become anticipated over the past several days. The Padres were said to have been engaged in talks on Cease almost to the end on Wednesday before ultimately deciding against moving him.
“You’re always going to pick up your phone when people are calling,” Preller said. “… But for us, our best team starts with that starting pitching. You know, getting (Yu) Darvish back, hopefully getting (Michael) King back, (Nick) Pivetta and Cease, that’s a great place to start. We think we acquired some other pitchers that are going to add to that mix. … When we made the trade (for Cease) last spring training, it was designed towards multiple postseason runs. Our best team has Dylan Cease on it.”
Cease, who is having arguably his worst season but is considered to be among the toughest pitchers to hit when he is right, was a trade candidate in large part because unloading the remainder of his contract (about $4.4 million) would have helped offset other acquisitions.
It was perceived by many around the league that it was necessary for the Padres to finance the acquisition of a productive offensive piece. Team sources had indicated the same thing for weeks, though they were vague about how much money Preller and assistant general manager Josh Stein had to make their maneuvers.
After all the accounting, with Cortes having his contract paid down to the league minimum and factoring in the salaries of Bergert and Kolek, it appears the Padres committed approximately $4.5 million on top of the $211 million payroll they were carrying.
That number is the ninth-highest payroll in the major leagues.
Their Competitive Balance Tax payroll appears to be about $267 million. That is over the second threshold, which means their penalties will total approximately $6 million.
“We’re always cognitive of payroll and budget and what it looks like,” Preller said. “… With a lot of these deals, we did it for players we’re going to have for multiple years, multiple pennant races. It fits for our budget, it fits for what we’re trying to do (in) future years.”
Fermin and Miller are under team control through 2030. Sears is under team control through 2029. Cortes and O’Hearn are due to be free agents this offseason. The Padres hold a $6.5 million option on Laureano for 2026 that they consider affordable.
How everyone fits — particularly the six veteran starters they will have once King returns, which is expected by the middle of August — remains to be seen.
The Padres optioned Wagner to Triple-A. Further machinations are coming to make room on both the 40-man roster and the 26-man active roster.
Tom Krasovic: Deadline derring-do increases Padres’ chances of winning first World Series
The Padres believe the money and the prospect capital was worth it.
At 60-49, they sit 3½ games ahead of the Reds in the race for the final National League playoff spot and three games behind the Dodgers in the National League West.
Unseating the Dodgers, who have won 12 of the past 13 division titles, and earning a first-round bye in the postseason is now the clear goal for the regular season.
Said Preller: “I think we’ve taken a team that’s in position to play in the playoffs — and a very good team — and hopefully rounded it out, and given Shildty and the coaching staff an opportunity to do their thing.”
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