San Diego Padres Should Try Again With New York Yankees

The San Diego Padres are heating up at the right moment as contending teams look to fill voids.

A.J. Preller and company took a risk by acquiring Bryan Mitchell and Chase Headley from the New York Yankees. The risk failed, miserably. That’s baseball, it happens all the time. The San Diego Padres shouldn’t shy away from trying to strike another deal with the Yankees, who are in desperate need of assets the Padres have.

The Padres are going to be sellers in the coming weeks. While their current streak of success has been a pleasure to watch, can this pitching staff hold up? Will a very young, inexperienced lineup be able to put together a strong push in September? The answer to both questions is, no.

Outside of Brad Hand, the most valuable asset the Padres have is Tyson Ross. Ross is having one of the best seasons of his career after a disastrous 2017 year with the Texas Rangers.

Through 12 starts, Ross is pitching to a 3.31 ERA while limiting hitters to a .225 batting average. Ross has walked less than 9% of hitters and has a strikeout rate of 24%, tied for the second-highest rate of his career. His 1.2 WAR sits atop the leaderboard among San Diego Padres pitchers.

A number of top pitching prospects may interest the San Diego Padres.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are quickly running away from the rest of the American League East. Daunting is the first word that comes to mind when looking up and down the New York batting order. The same cannot be said for the pitching staff.

New York has recently lost Jordan Montgomery for the year with Tommy John surgery. Sonny Gray is giving up nearly five runs per nine innings. Masahiro Tanaka has a 2.00 HR/9 rate and has the worst FIP among the entire New York rotation at 5.05. Lastly, C.C. Sabathia is C.C. Sabathia. Through his first six starts, he gave up five earned runs. He has now given up 18 earned runs over his last five starts.

Boston leads the American League in runs scored, batting average, and slugging percentage. The Yankees will need pitching to limit these numbers.

Not only is Tyson Ross having a fantastic season, he comes with a bargain price tag. The soon-to-

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be free agent is pitching this season on a one-year/$1.75 million contract. He will also not require as much of a return as Chris Archer.

The Yankees have a number of top pitching prospects that may interest the Padres. The first name that comes to mind is Chance Adams. Adams entered the season as the 67th ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list and 4th on the Yankees’ Top 30 list.

After going 11-5 with a 2.89 ERA in AAA last season, Adams is 2-2 with a 5.43 ERA this season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. His strikeout and groundball rates are up, however, International League hitters are making much more contact against him.

With Adams having a down year, the Padres would surely be able to force the Yankees into throwing more pieces into the deal. Justus Sheffield and Dillon Tate are top pitching prospects who are not too far away from being regulars on a major league pitching staff.

Luis Medina is also an intriguing name. The 19-year-old RHP has been clocked at 102 mph.

Next: Five Most Intriguing Padres Draft Picks In 2018

Dear Yankees, remember that massive Chase Headley contract the Padres took off your hands? How about returning the favor in a win-win situation for both teams?