Padres Still Have Elite Farm System After Trade Deadline

Even after trading away a ton of talent before the trade deadline, the San Diego Padres still boast one of the best farm systems in baseball.

One of the problems when AJ Preller went all-in with the San Diego Padres before was that he left the cupboard dry after trading for a ton of top talent.

And once things went sideways and the plan didn’t work, they had nothing left to fall back on and had to start from the ground up again.

He wasn’t going to make that mistake this time as he was able to upgrade his team while maintaining a strong farm system for the future.

After the trade deadline, MLB.com updated their farm system rankings and still had the Padres with the third-best farm system in all of baseball.

They point to the fact that the Padres were able to make all those trades without giving up MacKenzie Gore, Luis Patino, CJ Abrams, or Luis Campusano.

The Padres also had one of the best drafts as Prospects Live game them a draft grade of A.

Their first-round pick, Robert Hassell, was immediately ranked as the 83rd best prospect in baseball.

And they were able to go way over slot to sign Cole Wilcox who many think would have been a first-round pick in next year’s draft had he gone back to college for his junior year.

I’ll admit, there are a lot of question marks beyond the top 5-8 for the Padres right now, and once Patino and Gore graduate next year the farm system could take a hit in the rankings.

But still, there is a nice foundation of prospects here to help this team in the future whether it be with them coming up to contribute or in more trades.