Padres may have to sell from strength at trade deadline because nothing else has worked

The Padres are in the worst possible lane with the trade deadline approaching. Not bad enough to make the decision easy. Not good enough to pretend things are fine. And not flexible enough financially to throw more money at the problems.

On MLB Network’s “Inside Corner” with Joel Sherman, he reminded everyone that the Padres have championship-level money committed to a roster producing middling results.

They continue to hover around .500 in early July, buried behind the Dodgers in the NL West and stuck on the wrong side of the National League playoff picture. They aren’t dead in the water, but they also haven’t looked like a team screaming for one more deadline splash.

A.J. Preller has no easy fix for the Padres at the trade deadline

This team was not built to be “technically alive” in July. With Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Jackson Merrill and Jake Cronenworth all tied to long-term deals, the expectation was that the floor would be much higher than this.

Instead, the Padres are sitting here with an offense dead last in the majors in batting average (.224), a rotation clouded by uncertainty, and one of the best bullpens in the league that can’t get enough opportunities to close the door.

MLB Network’s graphic put the long-term money right in everyone’s face. Bogaerts and Machado are still owed massive money through 2033. Tatis and Merrill are locked in through 2034. And Cronenworth is still on the books through 2030.

Some of those deals look better than others. But the larger picture is hard to ignore.

Sherman then pointed to the names that should be floated in trade talks. Mason Miller, Adrian Morejón and Michael King as evidence of how strange this deadline could become for the Padres.

If the Padres sell, they may have to trade from the part of the roster that actually works.

That is why the deadline cannot be framed as a simple buyer-or-seller question. The Padres are stuck somewhere uglier. They have enough talent to make selling feel embarrassing.

A lot of this has to do with the previous seasons. The Padres have constantly chased the big move. They have dealt tons of prospect capital, absorb contracts, and figure out the consequences later. It makes them fascinating, but it has also created the kind of roster where there isn’t much margin for error in a season like this.

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