The Padres have the one of the best bullpens in baseball, but president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is seemingly never content with his roster and always in the process of searching for upgrades. To that end, Dennis Lin of the The Athletic reports that Preller is already poking around for bullpen help, hoping to strike up an early deal with a team open to parting with some relief pitching.
It might sound counterintuitive, given that San Diego’s relief corps includes Mason Miller, Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada, Adrian Morejon and Bradgley Rodriguez (1.66 ERA in 21 2/3 innings). San Diego relievers rank seventh in the majors with a 3.32 ERA, second with a 25.5% strikeout rate, first with a 50.8% ground-ball rate, third with a 3.23 FIP and third with a 3.27 SIERA. However you measure it, manager Craig Stammen (a former reliever himself) has the nucleus of an elite relief unit in place.
The Padres have also gotten good work from lower-leverage arms like Ron Marinaccio, Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta. The main reason they’re not pacing the majors in most bullpen categories is shaky work from players who were promoted for brief looks. Alek Jacob, Kyle Hart and David Morgan have posted ERAs north of 5.00 in a combined 33 innings. Out-of-options knuckleballer Matt Waldron made three relief appearances (two behind an opener) and was tagged for seven runs in 9 2/3 “relief” innings before landing on the injured list.
The core of San Diego’s bullpen is as strong and deep as any you’ll find in the game, but injuries are an inevitability, and the team is presumably wary of overworking its top arms. Padres relievers rank seventh in the majors with 200 1/3 innings pitched.
The Padres are one of just three teams with five true relievers who’ve already topped 20 innings this season. They lean heavily on their go-to contingent of ‘pen arms, and their starters don’t work deep into games. Michael King and Randy Vásquez are both averaging about 5 2/3 frames per start — King a bit more, Vásquez a bit less. None of their other starters are averaging even five frames per appearance (save for Lucas Giolito, who’s only pitched one game since signing and went exactly five frames in that debut showing).
Few teams are likely open to sell-side trades at this point, but it’s nevertheless of note that Preller & Co. are actively seeking arms. They’re rare, but there have been a handful of early-season trades of note over the past couple seasons, as the Padres know first-hand. They picked up Luis Arraez in an early-May swap with Miami back in 2024. Last year, we saw the Brewers acquire Quinn Priester from the Red Sox in April and the Giants acquire Rafael Devers from the Red Sox in June. Earlier this month, San Francisco traded Patrick Bailey to Cleveland.
There’s no shortage of teams looking at extreme longshot playoff odds by now. Many were expected to be in this position, but the Giants, Astros, Royals, Tigers, Orioles and Mets all entered the season hopeful of contending. All are at least seven games under .500. The Angels and Rockies have baseball’s two worst records. Not everyone from that group will wave an early white flag. Most won’t, in fact. The Tigers aren’t going to sell early in their final guaranteed year with Tarik Skubal. The Mets have been playing better ball of late and are trending in the right direction. The Orioles aren’t likely to sell off any notable pieces this early, either.
One element to consider when looking at any Padres trade scenarios is the looming ownership change. The Seidler family has a deal to sell the franchise to billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones. Lin reports that the incoming ownership duo is willing to spend to bring a title to San Diego, though the extent to which that’s true isn’t clear. Still, the Padres operated on a tight budget late in the offseason, so any inkling of a possible budget increase is welcome news for their fans.
Lin lists Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman as an arm that has long been on the Padres’ radar, but there’s no indication the Red Sox are looking to sell any pieces yet despite a poor 22-27 start to their season. Lin also speculates on possible interest in a Josh Hader reunion. With a $19MM annual salary on a Houston club that’s 11 games under .500, Hader makes a sensible target. That’s doubly true given the Padres’ thin farm system. If Hader hits the market and new ownership is indeed willing to boost the payroll, the Friars could offer to take on the majority or entirety of the Hader contract in order to reduce the prospect cost. Hader hasn’t pitched this season due to biceps tendinitis and ended last year on the shelf with a shoulder injury. There’s nothing to suggest the two parties have actually discussed parameters of a trade, but on paper, the match makes sense.
Other relief names who could hit the market at some point in the next couple months include Antonio Senzatela, Steven Okert, Bryan Abreu, Brooks Raley, Matt Strahm, Anthony Bender, Taylor Rogers and Andrew Kittredge, to name just a few. The market will begin to take clearer shape in the weeks ahead, but if any club decides to signal an earlier-than-usual willingness to part with some veteran talent, it sounds as though the Padres will be willing to engage in discussions to strengthen an already potent collection of relievers.
