San Diego Padres: Reasons to buy, or sell, at the MLB trade deadline

In the midst of the MLB’s annual garage sale, we look at the San Diego Padres options moving forward in this year’s trade season. Are they buyers or sellers?

Considering where the San Diego Padres were during the All-Star break, you would have thought it a far gone conclusion as to which way A.J. Preller and company were leaning towards the deadline. However, after a 1-6 record to start the second half of the year, we must reassess the direction in which they could now go.

In a previous article, we discussed the team’s top trade chips ahead of the deadline. However, this article won’t talk about specific trade names on either side of the buy or sell equation.

Well, except for one name not mentioned in that previous article. The one person who would make a lot of sense to trade would be Craig Stammen.

Hear me out. It’s not due to his results, which by the way haven’t been as good as the previous two seasons. It’s due more to the direction in which the team plans on going over the rest of the second half — that is, going young.

More importantly, his contract is set to expire at the end of this season, making him expendable in a financial way.

There are legitimate reasons to stand pat, though that’s not the path we believe they’ll take. This is the Rock Star G.M. with Hot Talent Lava flowing at his price, and with 2020 looking more and more like the year for true contention, these next 10 days could go a long way toward the roster construction for that contention window.

Are there other names that could be mentioned as sellers? Absolutely. Aside from Stammen though, we’ll discuss the reasons for selling or buying, not specific players.

First, let’s talk about the reasons to sell.