Which Padres Players Are for Sale In Potential Trades for Starting Pitchers?

[Randy Holt]

It's a silly exercise to do at the beginning of November, but if the season were to begin tomorrow, the San Diego Padres rotation would read something like this: Joe Musgrove, Randy Vásquez, JP Sears, and some mixture of Kyle Hart, Jhony Brito, and Yu Darvish. To say that this group is the most important to address this winter would serve as a massive understatement. 

The Padres need starting pitching in a way that is more pressing than that of any individual team in any individual phase of any roster. Actually acquiring help in the rotation, though, is easier said than done. The free-agent market is incredibly top-heavy, and it's not as if the Friars are going to be alone in their pursuit of starting arms. As the team also works with a depleted farm system, they're going to have to leverage at least a couple of names from the current big-league roster to satisfy their needs via trade.

But who exactly is up for sale? The immediate assumption is that the team would look to move a catcher in such a deal. Ethan Salas arrived at the top level in September and considering the amount run he got down the stretch, it seems like a safe assumption to think that he'll begin 2027 as the No. 1 catcher. That means that, just as they finished 2026, the team would have three catchers on their roster when you take each of Freddy Fermin & Luis Campusano into account. 

That formula did, technically, work down the stretch. As Salas adjusted to the top level, the team ran him out until the late innings when Craig Stammen turned to Freddy Fermin. Campusano was mixed in as a regular starter too as he demonstrated significant defensive improvement and the most offensive upside of the trio. As such, it's not a situation that the Padres would necessarily want to rid themselves of. You have a blend of defensive and offensive upside in Salas, defensive excellence in Fermin, and reaching-average defensive quality combined with big power upside in Campusano. They don't have to move one. 

From a roster construction standpoint, however, it's going to be the best option. The catcher position is a rather starved one throughout the league. While Salas won't be included as part of any discussion, each of Fermin & Campusano present plenty of value for prospective teams that need help behind the plate in some form. Perhaps a team with solid organizational infrastructure can help Campusano take the final steps in his defensive growth while desiring to add his bat. Or the inverse, wherein a team needs to boost their glove work behind the plate and turns to someone like Fermin. Either way, this is where the Padres are going to be able to derive immediate value. One of them alone isn't going to net a starter for the front of the rotation, but someone who can handle innings in the latter half of it? Probably. 

The only other spot in the positional sense where the Padres could leverage their active roster is at second base. Jake Cronenworth feels like a prime change-of-scenery candidate; he hasn't realized the offensive upside he set forth in 2021 but still has a good approach and a bit of versatility to his game. His contract is far more reasonable than he gets credit for, with an $11.43 million AAV through 2030. 

The caveat with a Cronenworth deal is that where you're getting certainty in an addition like Fermin or Campusano, you're not getting it with him. He missed a chunk of time with a concussion last season and never really gained his footing afterwards. His approach is his hallmark, with power manifesting only occasionally. A team that takes on that contract isn't going to want to part with much. If anything, this would be something like your classic change-of-scenery swap wherein a pitcher with some upside and some team control could see Cronenworth on his way out. You have to squint far more to see this work than you would with the catchers, though. 

It also stands to reason that the Padres should utilize their relief arms to garner some help on the starting side. The bullpen isn't quite as robust as it was last winter given the imminent departures of Adrian Morejon & Jason Adam, but there are still some intriguing trade candidates. Don't forget that the Padres have been able to repeatedly develop arms for the late innings, which makes trading a leverage reliever now a little easier to stomach.

There's a nuclear option here in Mason Miller that could yield a far more notable arm than the others. However, it's also possible that Jeremiah Estrada or David Morgan or Bradgley Rodríguez could be leveraged in some way as well, if not alone then as part of a larger package. This isn't nearly as obvious a route to take as it was last winter, but it remains possible nevertheless. 

That's kind of the whole list. The Padres aren't going to trade any of their core bats (nor is a team going to take on Xander Bogaerts, the one they actually would). Whether or not the Friars would be able to execute a 1-for-1 swap with any of the names that could, conceivably, be available is unclear. It may require a packaging of MLB players and prospects, depending on the caliber of arm.

In any case, given just how many starters they need, the Padres will more than likely have to go through the trade market to acquire at least one. Their thin cache of assets will make that pursuit a little bit tougher than usual.

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