The San Diego Padres are two games under .500 after getting blown out in the series opener to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday.
The San Diego Padres are 1-5 this month after a rough June, losing the series opener to the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-0 and dropping further in the standings.
With under a month to go before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, it’s make or break for a lot of teams that are hanging around the wild card, like the Padres.
San Diego had a great start to the season and appeared like it was surely going back to the postseason but is currently 4.5 games back from the final National League wild card spot and 15 games back from the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
One game separates the Padres and Diamondbacks, making this four-game set a crucial one before the All-Star break, but San Diego doesn’t seem close to being a true contender despite having an elite bullpen and the best closer in baseball.
The expensive offense has been extremely disappointing, and the starting rotation is thin and underwhelming, so a lot would have to change for this current team to get back to being a playoff caliber one.
While it may seem preposterous to even flirt with the idea of trading All-Star closer Mason Miller, would it be a good move for the Padres to trade Miller for a haul bigger than it gave up to get him last year?
Former Major League Baseball general manager and current MLB analyst Steve Phillips believes San Diego has to trade Miller to upgrade the rest of the team and can get away with it because of how good the bullpen is outside of “The Reaper.”
“If the Padres think they’re in it and they’re going to go for it…they need starting pitching and offense,” Phillips said Monday on MLB Now. “Their surplus is bullpen and Mason Miller is the biggest chip that they have – there’s a team in the Bronx that would desperately give up what it would take to get him.”
Phillips mentions that the New York Yankees would give up a controllable starting pitcher like Ryan Weathers, who the Padres had at one point, or Will Warren as well as a young outfielder like Spencer Jones or Jasson Dominguez.
“[The Padres] could move [Adrian] Morejon to closer or [Jeremiah] Estrada to closer. I’m telling you right now, the Padres have to do that if they want to try and get back into it this year.”
19-year MLB pitcher Al Leiter quickly shut down the idea, claiming that this would be like if the Yankees traded closer Mariano Rivera in 1999 when the season was going sideways.
“He also doesn’t become a free agent until ’29,” Leiter countered. “I would not trade him. There is nothing more demoralizing than having a two- or three-run lead and you blow it in the ninth.”
Phillips stayed 10 toes down on the idea, stating he can’t keep someone who is great for 60 innings when he needs the club to be better in the other innings of every game.
MLB insider Jon Heyman, who hosted the segment between Phillips and Leiter, agreed with Leiter that the idea “was nuts” despite liking Warren and Jones as players.
