PADRES BREAKING NEWS: Craig Kimbrel Traded to Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox have acquired closer Craig Kimbrel from the San Diego Padres, according to multiple reports.

At this time it is being reported that the Padres get top Red Sox outfielder prospect Manuel Margot, shortstop Javier Guerra, infielder Carlos Asuaje, and lefty pitcher Logan Allen.

Craig Kimbrel is still under three more years of team control and represents Kimbrel’s first foray into the American League.

At this point the Padres have now traded away their 8th and 9th inning relief pitchers with the trade earlier in the week of Joaquin Benoit. What does Preller have up his sleeve to replace these two reliable contributors from 2015? A.J. Preller has shown that he understands the importance of a bullpen, as just last season he acquired Shawn Kelley, Kimbrel and midseason acquisitions of Marc Rzepczynski and Bud Norris.

This trade for prospects does seem to be the right direction for the Padres. While a top tier closer is very important to a teams success, having future pieces in prospects is even more important for a team that wasn’t even a .500 caliber team last season and dealt away many of their prospects. Kevin Quackenbush still seems like the next in-house option to take over as closer for the Padres but I expect that Preller has some bullpen deals on the horizon.

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With the Red Sox prospects, they gain 4 players who were in the Red Sox top 30 and 2 in the top 100 for all of MLB. Manuel Margot is the top ranked of all of them, who has just 64 games in AA last season. In his four minor league seasons, he has hit 23 home runs with a .282 batting average and .350 OBP.

For the second year in a row, it looks like the Padres off-season is going to exciting with lots of moves. How will Preller spend this newfound $11 Million?