Padres could face a painful Jake Cronenworth trade-off to escape his burdensome contract

Amidst all the positive takeaways that emerged from the San Diego Padres' furious second-half finish, it's become impossible to ignore that Jake Cronenworth just isn't keeping pace with the rest of his well-compensated teammates.

On its own, his 2026 season isn't worth despairing over. Yes, a slash line of .225/.308/.321 (83 wRC+) isn't what the Friars paid for, but a jaw fracture early in the season -- which led to serious concussions symptoms that took him out of action for nearly two months -- clearly impacted his game. When Cronenworth returned in early July, he hit a far more respectable .250/.320/.364 (96 wRC+) the rest of the way.

The problem is that Cronenworth hasn't evolved beyond what we initially saw from him in 2020-21 that earned him his seven-year, $80 million contract in the first place. When healthy, he's a slightly above-average hitter who can play strong defense across the infield. That's a valuable profile, but not one that figures to age gracefully now that he's entering his mid-30s (he'll turn 33 in January).

All of this begs the question: Is now the time for the Padres to move on?

Barring serious budget constraints, Padres' best path forward is to hold onto Jake Cronenworth

The idea of a Cronenworth trade isn't novel; rumors swirled frequently last offseason while the Padres navigated a tight budget, which again be the case this year with new owners in place and a lockout on the horizon.

Unfortunately, the organization appears to have missed its best chance to sell high on the two-time All-Star. He corroborated his poor regular season with an ugly performance in the playoffs (.575 OPS) that featured a number of uncharacteristic mistakes. With four years and just shy of $50 million remaining on his contract, it's hard to imagine other contenders lining up to give Cronenworth a chance to bounce back with a change of scenery.

Which, ultimately, may mean the best option is to keep him in San Diego for at least the 2027 season. If the Padres are purely after payroll relief -- which would be a difficult stance to take after crashing the NLDS -- then fine. Perhaps trading Cronenworth under those circumstances would be defensible.

But to do so, they'll probably have to attach a prospect to the deal. Alternatively, they could eat some of his salary (or take a bad contract in return), but that'd defeat the purpose of trading Cronenworth right now, when his value is near its nadir.

The Padres also don't have an obvious replacement at second base on hand, unless you're willing to bet that Sung-Mun Song will suddenly figure things out at the plate after a complicated rookie season. The smarter gamble is hoping that a healthy Cronenworth will be able to revert to his 2025 form, when he was worth 2.9 fWAR as a key piece of the Friars' lineup.

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