Will Casey Mize and Rob Ray bring the Padres post-season success? How will these moves pan out?

Getting two solid starters from the Tigers and the Giants help the Padres bolster their rotation which is critical for the stretch run and for the short series in the first two rounds of the post-season when having two more ace pitchers give the Padres a chance throw a top of the rotation starter in each game.

AJ Preller, the Padres’ General Manager has been particularly aggressive at the trading deadline, but at the risk of gutting the future for the present.

In 2025, getting fireballer Mason Miller, starter JP Sears, catcher Freddy Fermin, and corner outfielders:  Ramon Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn, but these did not help the Padres get past the Cubs in the Wild Card round.

In 2024, the Padres focused again on pitching and got Tanner Scott from the Marlins, but could not get past the divisional round, losing to the Braves.

In 2023, the Padres again looked for a starter getting Rich Hill and closer Scott Barlow and offense with the platoon combo of Ji-Man Choi and Garret Cooper, yet the Padres finished at a lackluster one game above .500 at 82-80 and missed the playoffs,

In 2022, the big blockbuster trades of getting Juan Soto, Josh Hader, Josh Bell helped the Padres to the NLCS; only to falter against the Phillies and made the worse because of the failures of the two key stars in 2023.

In 2016, in possibly the most impactful trading deadline trade in the AJ Preller era, the Padres were sellers and traded pitcher James Shields and got in return Fernando Tatis, Jr., now a mainstay in the lineup.

How will the rest of 2026 progress for the Padres?