As A.J. Preller prepares another deadline blockbuster, memories haunt San Diego of the 2010 gamble that surrendered a future Cy Young winner for a disastrous postseason collapse.
The San Diego Padres are in the heat of a tight postseason race in the National League, one in which only two games and a half games separate the No. 5 and No. 11 clubs. Sitting just 1.5 games out of a Wild Card spot themselves, the Padres have no more room for error.
Next Monday will bring the trade deadline, one that the Padres are expected to play a big hand in. Winning seven of their last 10 games, the Padres are putting themselves in position to be buyers at the deadline, but there remains the possibility that star closing pitcher Mason Miller is dealt before the deadline concludes.
San Diego has been one of the most aggressive teams on the trade market in recent years, with general manager A.J. Preller pulling the trigger on blockbuster deals time and time again. With Preller still in charge in the Padres’ front office, you can expect a big move to come in the next few days in some capacity.
While the Padres will be focusing on making the necessary moves to brighten their future, let’s take a look back at how the trade deadline has treated them in the past – specifically what their biggest blunder was.
Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter named a three-team deal back in 2010 as the Padres’ biggest miss – one that sent right-hander Corey Kluber to the Cleveland Guardians (then the Cleveland Indians).
In the deal, San Diego received outfielder Ryan Ludwick, Cleveland received Kluber, and the St. Louis Cardinals received right-hander Jake Westbrook and left-hander Nick Greenwood.
At the time, the Padres held the best record in the National League with 60 wins to 41 losses, meaning they were heading into the deadline as buyers to gear up for a postseason run. Sending away an unranked pitching prospect in Kluber for an .827 OPS outfielder seemed like a harmless move.
The Padres ended up getting negative value out of Ludwick, however, who only managed a 78 OPS+ in his 59 games as a Padre the rest of the 2010 season. San Diego lost their division lead and failed to even earn the Wild Card spot that fall, missing the postseason entirely. Ludwick stayed in San Diego for another 101 games before being dealt at the 2011 deadline.
It may have taken time for Kluber to blossom, but by the time he had his first full season in 2013, there was undoubtedly some potential from the former Padres draftee. He followed that up with a dominant 2014 campaign in which he won the Cy Young Award thanks to his 18 wins, 2.35 FIP, 2.44 ERA, and 8.1 bWAR.
Kluber remained a star in Cleveland until the turn of the decade, winning another Cy Young in 2017 and making three All-Star rosters along the way. In his nine seasons with Cleveland, Kluber had a 98-58 record with a 3.16 ERA and 1.09 WHIP, putting up 32.5 bWAR.
In the 2010 move, the Padres dealt Kluber and Greenwood for Ludwick – a below-replacement-level player who played in less than a full season’s worth of time in San Diego.
Dealing away a two-time Cy Young winner for 160 games of mediocre outfield play certainly wasn't a good deal in hindsight, but Kluber’s burst onto the scene was unforeseen at the time. Padres fans can at least be at peace knowing they show up several times in the same article as the better-off team in what was the other club’s worst deadline deals.
