Sunday Brunch: The Case For The Padres Trading For Michael Saunders

Reports came out this week that at the upcoming GM meetings, the Seattle Mariners are going to shop Michael Saunders harder than Black Friday shoppers at Wal-Mart. Apparently the Mariners are miffed at him about his conditioning and how he’s injury prone. To me, the Padres should be in on this guy.

Michael Saunders: 78 games .273/.341/.450 eight homers 34 RBI

Will Venable: 146 games .224/.288/.325 eight homers 33 RBI

Basically Saunders produced as much as Venable did in a little over half the games with a better slash line. Saunders is capable of playing all three outfield positions. He can handle playing in a bigger outfield like Petco coming from Safeco Field.

Saunders is arbitration eligible over the next two seasons and is going into his age 28 season. He’s in the beginning of his prime seasons.

Now who’s Seattle going to want? I’m not too sure. The reports that came out about Saunders decreased his value a tad, however he certainly has value.  I don’t think they’d take someone like Yonder Alonso in change of scenery scenario. Maybe a reliever? Or a prospect?

I think it depends on who else is going to be in on Saunders. Teams like the Mets are in need of outfield help and could certainly be involved in discussions with the Mariners this week.

It’s A.J. Preller’s first GM meeting running the Padres. If he could leave the meetings with Saunders in his back pocket, it would get the off-season off to a great start.