San Diego Padres mock trade for Starling Marte

We take a look at a potential mock trade for the San Diego Padres with the Pittsburgh Pirates for outfielder Starling  Marte.

Without the rumor from Jon Heyman at the Winter Meetings, it’s been pretty obvious all offseason that Starling Marte would be a potential trade target for the San Diego Padres.

A.J. Preller has been looking to rebuild the outfield this offseason and has already traded for Trent Grisham and Tommy Pham.

It seems like there is one move left to complete the outfield renovation, and Marte could definitely be the final piece.

Marte is 31-years-old and has two years of control left.

This past season he hit .295 with the Pirates scoring 97 runs, hitting 23 home runs, and driving in 82 with a career-high .845 OPS.

FanGraphs had him as a 3 WAR player in 2019, and he was a 3.7 WAR player in 2018. In fact, in six of the last seven seasons he’s been at least a 3 WAR player.

So what would a trade package look like for Marte? The Pirates have said they are interested in getting a young catcher back in return, and the Padres have those.

Now that seems like a bit of an overpay from the Padres. But San Diego also needs to cut some payroll in a trade for Marte and moving Hedges and Margot does that.

In this proposed deal, the Padres would still be taking on $6.5 million.

But the Pirates get a young catcher with three years of control, a young outfielder to replace Marte, and a pitcher with some upside.

You could also expand this deal to include Adam Frazier from the Pirates who is a solid utility player capable of playing second base and the outfield. The Padres would probably have to throw in another prospect at that point.

The only reason I think the Pirates balk at this deal is if they don’t view Hedges as the young catcher they want.

If that’s the case the Padres could consider trading Luis Torrens or Luis Campusano straight up for Marte. I would like either of those deals quite as much, but it wouldn’t be terrible.

There is definitely a fit for the Padres and Pirates here. We’ll see in the coming weeks if Preller is able to get it done.