General manager A.J. Preller bolstered a depleted rotation by landing the former top pick alongside Robbie Ray, fortifying San Diego’s postseason push without parting with his best prospects.
The San Diego Padres needed to add some pitching at the MLB trade deadline, and A.J. Preller did exactly that.
On Monday, the first move San Diego made was acquiring San Francisco Giants left-handed pitcher Robbie Ray in exchange for two top-10 prospects in the San Diego farm system.
Then, nothing else happened until right at the 3 p.m. trade deadline. Jon Heyman of The New York Post posted on X that the Padres were acquiring Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Casey Mize in a last-second acquisition.
Minutes later, the return came in from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. It is Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf going to Detroit in exchange for Mize and Gage Workman.
Robbie Ray and Mize are both on expiring deals, but they will be a much-needed boost to a Padres rotation that has been using bullpen days regularly and has German Marquez, JP Sears, and Griffin Canning starting games at the end of the rotation.
Mize has a 4-6 record with a 2.70 ERA in 16 starts for the Tigers this season, and he went 14-6 with a 3.87 ERA in 2025, so he is a quality addition to the rotation that now has Michael King, Ray and Mize arguably as the 1-2-3 at the top.
There is also a chance that Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta return at some point this season, and if that's the case, San Diego's rotation might have enough firepower to make a Wild Card run and perhaps some noise in the playoffs.
The Padres had been rumored to trade Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller, but once they won eight of nine games going into Monday, things changed, and now they fill two holes with a pair of quality, veteran relievers, although both are on expiring contracts.
Kash Mayfield is the big loss here for San Diego as he was ranked as the No. 2 prospect, but he has gotten off to a mixed start during his minor league tenure.
The Padres managed to keep star catcher prospect Ethan Salas and Kruz Schoolcraft, another talented pitching prospect, while adding Ray and Mize to fill a huge need.
All in all, it figures to be an excellent deadline by Preller and the Padres as they didn't give up too much and have a chance at making the NL Wild Card, especially if the offense continues to play as well as they have over the last few weeks.
