With the trade deadline approaching I have been hearing a lot of chatter about what the Padres should do. The main question being, should they trade Kirby Yates. I will break down both sides of the discussion and give you my opinion. First off, the Padres are in a much different position at this trade deadline then they have in recent years. They have always been big time sellers. Now this year they are in limbo. Do you sell and acquire more young talent? Do you sell and try to acquire major league ready talent? Or do you go all in and sell your young talent for impact players for this year and years to come.
Noah Syndergaard, I would not go in that direction. It is intriguing because he has a ton of talent and he is only 26 years old, but the asking price has got to be crazy high, and I don’t think it would be in the Padres best interest to give up the farm for a pitcher that is a little unknown at this point. He may put it all together and be a stud ace for the next 4 years but I haven’t seen it yet.
The other name that has been coming up is Trevor Bauer. Not sure if the asking price on Bauer is as high as Syndergaard, Bauer is 28 years old and has a career ERA of 3.88, but I think he is a better pitcher. He is free agent eligible in 2021, where he should get paid big time. I’m just not sure what the Indians want to do. Do they want major league ready help for their playoff run this year? Or do they want to get young cheap talent for their future. If they wanted Kirby Yates or Hunter Renfroe and were willing to part with Bauer I would be listening.
As far as trading Yates I can see both sides. The Padres are at a point where they want to win now, or at least next season, so they really have to think about what they are giving up, what they are getting in return, and how it will make an immediate impact.
YES trade Yates. Of course it all depends on what you get in return. It would have to be a return that would involve major league ready help at a place where it is needed. Which coincidentally the Padres biggest needs are top of the rotation help and middle relief. This is why it is tricky. Teams that are wanting to trade for Yates most likely will not give up top end major league ready SP’s or valuable relievers, they will need them this year. There are are few places I think this could work. The before mentioned Bauer, but I’m not sure if the Indians want Yates for Bauer. The two most likely places for Yates would be Boston and Atlanta. So let’s see how this could work. From Boston I would want the talented underachieving arm of Eduardo Rodriguez. Or from Boston I would want Matt Barnes and a prospect. Darren Balsley could make Barnes a Yates like closer by next year. From Atlanta I would want one or two of their young arms. They have a ton of them. They have some guys that could make an impact next year. The two I like the most are Kyle Wright and Ian Anderson but guys like Kyle Muller, Luiz Gohara, Bryse Wilson and Touki Toussaint would work as well.
NO don’t trade Yates. The clear thought on this is if we are in win now, or win next year mode, why would we trade our All-Star closer. You only have to go back as far as last season to find where the Padres may have shot themselves in the foot with this thinking. Brad Hand for Francisco Mejia is not looking very good. Hand may have been a huge piece to the puzzle that the Padres were missing this year to make a legit playoff run. While Mejia is a struggling back up catcher. Now Mejia is a 23 year old catcher that can really hit, which is a major asset, so I don’t think the Hand deal was a bad one, but we could look back next year and say “DANG if we just had Yates and Hand.”
With that being said I would trade Yates if the Padres got offers similar to the ones that I mentioned. If they don’t, I would be fine with the Padres staying put and bringing back most of the same team next year. What would that look like???
- Fernando Tatis SS
- Eric Hosmer 1B
- Manny Machado 3B
- Franmil Reyes RF
- Hunter Renfroe LF
- Luis Urias 2B
- Manuel Margot CF
- Austin Hedges C
- Chris Paddack
- Dinelson Lamet
- Joey Lucchesi
- Garrett Richards
- Cal Quantrill/Mackenzie Gore (mid-season call up)
Set up- Andres Munoz
Closer- Kirby Yates
I could also see Adrian Morejon being in a similar role as Josh Hader of the Brewers. Where he gets 3 to 6 outs in relief and picks up some saves.
Let’s end it with some Padres fantasy advice for 2020. Going into next year I really like Manuel Margot and Dinelson Lamet. Here is why.
Margot is coming into his breakout years. He will be entering his age 25 season and have about 1,500 at bats under his belt. I would predict Margot’s stat line to look like .268 AVG 16 HR’s 22 SB’s in 2020. He would be a good play in deeper leagues and NL only leagues.
Lamet is coming off of Tommy John Surgery and has nasty stuff. I have seen that pitchers who are a year and a half removed from TJ surgery emerge better than they have ever been. For example, Walker Buehler and Chris Paddack. Lamet is set up perfect he will get some innings in down the stretch this year and then come back stronger than ever next year.