The San Diego Padres will be on a quest to find an ace-caliber arm to replace right-hander Dylan Cease, who signed a massive seven-year, $210 million contract, and right-hander Michael King, who elected free agency.
After a disappointing finish in the National League Wild Card Series against the Chicago Cubs, the Padres will have to reconstruct part of their starting rotation and their lineup, but finding an anchor for the rotation is likely at the top of general manager/president of baseball operations A.J. Preller’s list this offseason.
The Padres could bring King back, but the expectation is that King will move on and join another team. That leaves All-Star lefty Framber Valdez as the top free agent pitcher available, and while he would be a nice addition to this Padres unit, there may be better options available via trade.
The Cincinnati Reds have a plethora of young pitchers with high upside and there’s a slim chance they make ace righty Hunter Greene available. If the Reds decide to listen to offers on Greene, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan believe San Diego would be the best fit.
“Cincinnati's cadre of excellent arms -- Greene, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, Chase Burns, Brady Singer, Rhett Lowder -- has opened the door for the best of the bunch to move,” McDaniel and Passan wrote Tuesday. “Don't bet on it, though. The Reds have Greene for four more years at $60 million, and in a world where Dylan Cease is getting $210 million over seven years, frontline pitchers on inexpensive contracts are extremely valuable.”
Given that the Reds are reportedly going to spend in free agency and made the playoffs as a Wild Card team in 2025, they probably don’t want to trade their best pitcher away, especially to another NL team. But the Reds are unpredictable and if the right trade package falls into their lap, they may be inclined to take it because of the surplus of young pitching.
“Greene's heater averages 99.4 mph, which was by far the best in baseball among starters. The pitch was effective, too: the second-best fastball among starters on a per-pitch basis.
“Greene has just two other pitches -- a slider and splitter -- that both sit in the upper-80s. He somehow started throwing his slider 2.9 mph harder in 2025 but with almost exactly the same amount of movement, so it's now a plus pitch, too. He can work on fine-tuning his splitter locations and/or adding a fourth pitch, along with trying to exceed his career high of 150⅓ innings in a season.”
San Diego knows a thing or two about velocity, they have a slew of pitchers who throw as hard as Greene in the back end. Going from Greene to Mason Miller to possibly Robert Suarez (if he re-signs) would be tough for any lineup to generate offense against.
McDaniel and Passan have Greene’s trade probability at 10 percent, but Preller is a mad man and is no stranger to blockbuster moves.