Padres: 7-Game Stretch to Avoid Being Sellers at Trade Deadline

With the trade deadline just two weeks away the San Diego Padres have very little time to prove they’re buyers and not sellers.

It’s crazy how things can quickly change in a 60-game season. Just a week ago with the San Diego Padres taking the first two of a four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, you could almost be certain they would be buyers at the trade deadline.

But after losing five in a row and having a couple of players banged up, they’re now on the verge of becoming sellers at this year’s trade deadline.

Of course, I don’t expect much movement either way at the trade deadline. It’s hard to imagine a team giving up much of anything with the uncertainty of this season and the asterisk that comes along with it.

But still, for a team like the Padres who haven’t made the postseason since I was in high school (that’s a long time), you have to figure they’ll jump at the opportunity to make a run at an expanded postseason in 2020.

However, if they don’t show significant improvement this week then I can’t see A.J. Preller doing much at the deadline.

As things stand now on Monday, August 17 the Padres are 11-12, fourth place in the NL West, and based on winning percentage they’d be 0.5 game out of a playoff spot; although it’s not fair the St. Louis Cardinals have played just eight games and are 4-4.

So the Padres are certainly still in the playoff mix, and really, you just need to hover around .500 to have a chance this year.

But with the upcoming schedule they have, and the way things are going, they could find themselves out of contention real fast.

They have four games against the Texas Rangers this week who are 10-10 and playing much better baseball lately winning seven of their last nine games.

And then they have three at home against the Houston Astros who are 11-10 and have won five of their last six entering Monday — albeit with those game coming against the Giants and Mariners.

If the Padres go 2-5 in that stretch then I think they become sellers at the deadline. And if they go 3-4 or 4-3 then I think it depends on what happens in that Mariners series.

In order for them to become buyers again, they’d likely have to 5-2 in this upcoming seven-game stretch.

That sounds crazy, but that’s how things work in this crazy season. We just saw what a five-game losing streak can do. You have one bad week and it can take from contention to out of contention.

I really enjoy this team and want to see them make a push for the playoff this year. But they’ve got to prove on the field that it’s worth going for. Hopefully they’ll turn things around in these next seven games.