MLB insider hints Padres could reopen talks to bring back All-Star pitcher

If the San Diego Padres are actually serious about front-loading the 2026 rotation, the move is obvious: pick up the phone and circle back on MacKenzie Gore. It wouldn’t be nostalgia driving this — it’s timing, control, and a front office that still believes Gore’s peak looks a lot like a playoff tone-setter at Petco Park.

The fit is obvious. San Diego needs swing-and-miss at the top, innings in the middle, and October temperament at the end. Gore checks all three boxes when he’s right. He made his first All-Star team in 2025 on the strength of a dominant first half, and even with a late-season slide on a last-place club, he finished with 185 strikeouts in 159 2/3 innings.

Padres linked to renewed trade talks for All-Star lefty MacKenzie Gore

The history is well-worn by now. Gore was part of the August 2, 2022 mega-deal that shipped Juan Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego while Washington collected a haul headlined by Gore himself, C.J. Abrams, Luke Voit, Robert Hassell, James Wood, and Jarlín Susana. Since then, Gore has graduated from “projection” to “production,” flashing frontline stretches that remind evaluators why he was once considered one of the sport’s best pitching prospects.

What’s changed is Washington’s posture. With a new president of baseball operations in Paul Toboni, industry expectation is that Gore’s name will circulate, if not aggressively shopped, then at least explored, as the Nationals weigh timing, control, and the return a contender might pay this winter.

According to Jim Bowden of The Athletic, the Red Sox make sense on paper given Toboni’s organizational familiarity, but the Padres loom as the most seamless baseball fit: the club knows the pitcher, the ballpark amplifies his strengths, and the competitive timeline begs for impact now.

There’s also the 2025 context. Gore’s final ledger, 5–15, 4.17 ERA, reads harsher than the pitcher, a reflection of Washington’s season more than his own. The strikeouts are real, the fastball/slider combo misses bats, and Petco has a way of flattening the damage that sneaks through. Yes, the second-half dip (6.75 ERA over his final 11 starts) is a talking point, but it’s also a buying opportunity for a team that can surround him with better defense, sequencing, and run support. San Diego tried to pry him loose at the 2025 deadline and balked at the sticker price; the offseason might be where creativity meets compromise.

So what would it take? Think premium but not back-breaking. The Padres can structure it around areas of organizational depth, protect any remaining top cornerstone youngsters, and still land an arm that moves the October needle. If Boston pushes, San Diego’s familiarity with Gore, and Gore’s clear fit at Petco, could become the tiebreaker.

This isn’t a sentiment play. It’s a competitive calculation. If the Nationals truly open the door, the Padres should be the team that walks through it first. Reuniting with MacKenzie Gore would give San Diego a controllable All-Star with bat-missing stuff, the kind of move that signals a 2026 rotation built to win the division, and designed to last into October.