San Diego Padres trade targets from the AL Central

1 of 5

MIAMI, FLORIDA – AUGUST 01: Byron Buxton #25 of the Minnesota Twins hits a 2-RBI double in the fourth inning against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on August 01, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

We continue our division-by-division trade targets for the San Diego Padres by looking at the teams in the AL Central.

There is a very good chance San Diego Padres General Manager A.J. Preller will be active in trade discussions this offseason.

So we are taking a look at possible trade targets for every team division-by-division.

In case you’ve missed the other installments of this series, here they are:

Today we’re going to focus on the AL Central which is a very weird division to try and judge. The Cleveland Indians are trying to rebuild and win at the same time. Chicago seems to be turning the corner in their rebuild and are looking to spend money (sorry about taking Manny Machado last offseason).

Minnesota came out of nowhere to win the division in 2020, but who knows if they’ll be able to repeat in 2020, but they’re certainly going for it again.

Meanwhile, Baltimore and Kansas City are in obvious rebuilds.

Minnesota Twins

To be honest, I don’t see any kind of trade fit with the Minnesota Twins. They are pretty set at the Major League level and don’t have any excess to trade away.

They could possibly be looking to upgrade in right field and first base, in which case maybe there is the potential for the Padres to trade Hunter Renfroe or Eric Hosmer — although Hosmer is very unlikely.

But again, I’m not sure what the Twins could offer in return to help the Padres compete in 2020.

If any deal were to be made with the Twins it would have to be the Padres giving up a Major League player for prospects.

However, if the Twins decided to move on from Byron Buxton, he could be an interesting target for the Padres in center field.

Buxton is an elite defender but injuries and inconsistency at the plate have held him back from becoming the superstar everyone thought he would be.

He’s still just 25 and is under team control for three more seasons. It might be worth buying low on him to see if he can unleash his potential in San Diego.

Home/Padres News