Will Alex Torres Be Part Of Potential Kemp Deal?

With the amount of pitching the Padres have on their end of the table, you’d think a deal would’ve happened by now to acquire a bat for the Padres. That hasn’t happened, yet, but it soon could. Being that Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp has a home in San Diego now, it would seem like the writing is on the wall.

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Former Padres General Manager and now Dodgers Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations Josh Byrnes still has ties to formerly acquired Padres players, of course. The Dodgers need back-end bullpen help and they could get that in current Padres reliever Alex Torres. Per Dennis Lin of U-T San Diego, Lin points out the relationship between Byrnes and Andrew Friedman, President of Baseball Operations for the Dodgers. They could work together to complete the Kemp trade to throw in Torres.

Torres though, hasn’t had amazing numbers in his Winter League this year.

This could be Byrnes’ returned favor back to San Diego for his disappointing seasons if this trade could go down. It would automatically bring in a big name to a forgotten San Diego baseball franchise, even if Kemp doesn’t stay healthy like usual, would it be any different than previous seasons of injuries in the outfield?

Torres was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays before the 2014 season along with SP Jesse Hahn for infielder Logan Forsythe, relief pitcher Brad Boxberger and three minor league players. Byrnes acquired Torres and Hahn from Friedman, who was Executive Vice President of baseball operations for the Rays at the time. Torres finished his 2014 season with a 2-1 record, 3.33 ERA in 54 IP. Torres is known last season for making history wearing the first ball cap with a padded front to protect pitchers from line drives to the noggin.