4) A fifth horseman?
The Padres’ bullpen has been one of the best in baseball. Their quartet of Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam and Robert Suarez -- dubbed “the Four Horsemen” by manager Mike Shildt -- has been lights out.
But asked to assess his Deadline strategy earlier this month, Preller told MLB Network Radio: “We’ve got a lot of different weapons in the ‘pen. You could add to a strength.”
Indeed, no bullpen is ever too deep come October. Preller has lived that philosophy before. Within the last three Trade Deadlines, he has added Josh Hader, Tanner Scott and Adam to already-strong bullpens.
Plus, while there are obviously bigger concerns than, “Who’s your fifth most trustworthy reliever?” it’s at least a question the Padres should be asking.
5. Buying and selling?
One issue the Padres face is the salary they’ll be taking on in any deal. They’d prefer to limit that number -- which leaves open the possibility they’d look to trade from their current big league roster in addition to adding to it.
But where? That’s trickier than it seems. Dylan Cease, Luis Arraez and Suarez are all in their final seasons before free agency, making at least $10 million. But they all play important roles on the current team -- and, with Cease and Arraez at least, the Padres would be selling low on two obviously talented players.
Cronenworth is a relatively high earner, but also plays an integral role. In the bullpen, the Padres couldn’t move off of Wandy Peralta and/or Yuki Matsui without also giving up prospect capital to do so. And the Padres’ prospect capital -- compared to past Deadlines -- isn’t as strong as it has been.
All of this illustrates the tricky nature of this year’s Deadline for Preller and the Padres. They need to make additions, but they don’t have much wiggle room to do so.
This is a roster with a World Series-caliber ceiling. How does it reach that ceiling? The next week will have to go a long way.
