Padres Faux Winter Meetings: Behind the scenes of lineup construction

Prospects on the move

With the free agent market being as aggressive as it was, I was forced to go the trade route, which I think is exactly what’s going to happen with the Padres this offseason, so don’t get attached to any of these prospects.

My theory has always been that prospects are expendable, especially when you’re in a window to win, which the Padres should be.

In this simulation, I moved four Padres’ prospects and three of them were in their top 30.

But, I was able to do all of these moves without trading anyone in the top 5.

Adrian Morejon was the best prospect I traded (by ranking).

I let most teams know that MacKenzie Gore, Taylor Trammell, and Luis Patino were off limits.

Many teams still asked for Patino, and there were several interested in Luis Urias (most likely looking to buy low).

I had one team ask for CJ Abrams and another ask for Luis Campusano.

In the offer I made the Red Sox for Chris Sale, I put together a deal surrounding Xavier Edwards.

Maybe the one that hurt the most was giving up Joey Cantillo and Efrain Contreras in the Arrieta deal.

While neither are top prospects right now, they’re also both very young and have a lot of potential.

All-in-all, I think I did a pretty good job of making trades without depleting the farm system and getting rid of the top guys.