San Diego Padres: Who is going to play center field in 2020?

Now that the San Diego Padres have traded Manuel Margot, we look at who will play center field for the team in 2020.

It was not much of a shock to see that the San Diego Padres traded Manuel Margot as he was heavily rumored in trade talks all offseason.

But when they sent him and Logan Driscoll to the Tampa Bay Rays for Emilio Pagan, I instantly wondered what they were going to do in center field.

Just days before the trade went down I had written about how Margot was so valuable for the Padres because he’s the only true center fielder on the team.

And now that they’ve traded their only true center fielder — by my estimation — without an obvious replacement just days before spring training, it leaves us thinking that there has to be more to come, right?

We know that A.J. Preller has been active this offseason trying to find a center fielder.

He made a serious push for Shogo Akiyama before the Reds were able to land him.

There were rumors that he was interested in Starling Marte for center field, even though I personally don’t view Marte as a true center fielder.

And, of course, we all know about the recent push to try and land Mookie Betts before he was traded to the Dodgers.

So it seems like Preller is aware there is a major need in center field for this team and has been looking to improve the position.

But it still begs the question, why trade your only true center fielder now?

Perhaps he feels good about the internal options the team has, or maybe there is another deal coming soon.

We’ll look at both of those options below.