Padres: Which Prospect Traded Will we Miss the Most

The San Diego Padres lost a lot of good talent at the trade deadline. We look at which player we’re likely to miss the most.

There is no question San Diego Padres fans should be ecstatic today after what took place at the trade deadline. This team is set up to compete for a World Series championship over the next four-to-five years.

But I wanted to take a moment and look at the talent that was sent from San Diego to see which ones might go on to be great players.

Again, who cares if the Padres win a World Series over the next couple of years, but with all the talent they gave up someone is likely to turn out to have a good career.

Let’s look at some of the likely candidates: Edward Olivares, Hudson Potts, Jeisson Rosario, Taylor Trammell, Andres Munoz, Gabriel Arias, Joey Cantillo, Owen Miller, and Cal Quantrill.

That’s a lot of names, and I didn’t even include all of them. Those are just the ones I think have the chance to go on and have good careers.

I thought Olivares was very impressive for the Padres early on, especially having never played above Double-A. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get everyday reps to stay in a groove and ultimately cooled off.

He’s someone I think could go on to be a solid everyday outfielder and hit .270 with 20 home runs a season.

Potts is a former first-round pick that is still just 21 years old (will be 22 in October). The average numbers haven’t been there so far, but he’s showed great power. With the way the game is going, I could see him sticking at the big league level as an all-or-nothing bat.

Rosario was still a project at this point in his career, but he’s a tremendous athlete and the Red Sox hope he can become their everyday center fielder and leadoff hitter one day.

I was never that high on Trammell, and the fact he’s been traded in back-to-back seasons raised a red flag. But he was the highest-ranked prospect San Diego traded at the deadline, and I could still see him becoming a solid everyday outfielder with some speed and power.

There is little doubt that Munoz will become a solid backend reliever one day.

Cantillo and Quantrill are both back of the rotation starting pitchers, but they fit the mold of someone the Indians could turn into a top of the rotation arm.

I’ve never viewed Miller as anything more than a solid utility player off the bench.

Arias is the one I think will hurt the most. He’s the one player they traded that I think could go on to be a superstar.

He hit .302 with 17 home runs at High-A last year as a 19-year-old. And then we got to see him a good bit in spring training and he really opened my eyes.

In the small sample size, he had 5 singles in 15 at-bats with 3 runs scored and a stolen base.

But it was his arm that really caught my attention in spring training as I wrote after one of the games he played in.

Sometimes you just see a guy out there and you can tell he belongs. Arias was one of those guys for me.

With Francisco Lindor on his way out after next season in Cleveland, I think they’ve found their shortstop of the future.

Maybe he doesn’t reach the MVP level talent of Lindor, but I think Arias has the chance to make multiple All-Star appearances one day.

If any of these players are destined to haunt the Padres in the future, I have to believe it’s Arias.