The San Diego Padres are just 2.5 games out of a wild card spot in the National League but are still entertaining the idea of trading All-Star closer Mason Miller.
The San Diego Padres are two games under .500 (49-51) with just under two weeks to go before the Aug. 3 trade deadline and sit 2.5 games back from the final National League wild card spot going into play Tuesday.
After a promising start to the season, the Padres have done a lot of losing over their last 50 or so games and fell out of contention for the NL West. While it’s still very possible to make the playoffs with 62 games remaining, San Diego is listening to calls on a player nobody thought would be available for several reasons.
After trading the house for All-Star closer Mason Miller at last year’s trade deadline, the Padres are considering dealing the best ninth-inning guy in the sport. San Diego would rather keep Miller, whose resume speaks for itself, but the team could move him if they get a king’s ransom offer for the 27-year-old.
All teams should have interest in Miller, who has been outstanding in a Padres uniform. In 61 games with San Diego, Miller is 2-1 with a 0.84 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 120 strikeouts and 27 saves.
This season has been historic for the 6-foot-5 right-hander and he hasn’t blown a save in 25 chances. Miller was in the conversation for NL Cy Young as a closer, a feat that no closer has accomplished since Eric Gagne won the award in 2003.
Trading Miller goes against San Diego’s claim that they want to win, but it doesn’t look like that’s in the cards this year. ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel ranked Miller the fourth-best trade candidate on their top 100 and gave a potential trade a 40 percent chance of happening while listing six teams that would be the best fit to acquire the closer’s services.
The New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays would love to get their hands on Miller – but who wouldn’t?
The team that has the best chance of landing his services would be one that’s willing to take on shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ contract. San Diego would love to attach him in a potential Miller deal, but Passan and McDaniel don’t believe any team would be willing to take on the remaining seven years of his 11-year, $280 million contract.
“They would love to attach Xander Bogaerts' onerous contract to any trade, but that would severely limit their return and, frankly, nobody's going to take it,” Passan and McDaniel wrote Tuesday. “That leaves the Padres in a position to dangle the best reliever in baseball and see what kind of bites they get. There will be plenty.”
San Diego has 12 games before the trade deadline to decide what they will do – will they be sellers? Will Miller be in another uniform or will he stay put?
