AJ Preller's 2024 trade deadline turns Padres into dark horse World Series contenders

The San Diego Padres were already a pretty good baseball team before the trade deadline. Despite not having Fernando Tatis Jr. since June, losing Xander Bogaerts for a stretch, and Manny Machado not being at his best, the Padres' offense has been a top-10 unit by fWAR in all of baseball so far in 2024.

With San Diego's rotation also playing out of its mind lately, the Padres were a very dangerous team heading into the final couple months of the season.

It is true that the trade deadline passed without the Padres acquiring Garrett Crochet or even addressing the rotation meaningfully beyond acquiring the ghost of Martin Perez. However, that does not mean AJ Preller sat idly by. The moves that he made at the deadline could be exactly what San Diego needed to push themselves into title contention this year.

Padres' overhauled bullpen could be what carries them to a deep postseason run

San Diego's pitching staff does have some headwinds to deal with especially after not really upgrading their starting rotation. Yu Darvish is out for the foreseeable future, Joe Musgrove is still rehabbing his arm, and it is probably fair to guess that Michael King and Dylan Cease are going to give up some runs eventually. For some, that would mean the Padres messed up by not adding another starter at the deadline.

However, the one thing that every true contender needs is a strong bullpen and it is also a strategy that can take the sting out of having a bit of a shallow rotation. Before the trade, San Diego was having to rely heavily on Robert Suarez, Adrian Morejon, Yuki Matsui, and Jeremiah Estrada. Those guys have been largely great, but their usage rates were not sustainable and there was a real risk they could fade down the stretch.

Enter the 2024 trade deadline, and reinforcements have officially arrived for San Diego's bullpen. The Padres paid up to acquire Jason Adam who has been quite good for a while now and who is capable of throwing more than an inning if need be. Then, they made one of the most aggressive moves of the deadline (other than the Kikuchi trade that no one understands, even now) when they sent a haul of prospects to bring Tanner Scott and Bryan Hoeing to the west coast.

Scott understandably got the headlines from this deal. He was one of the better relievers available on the trade market and gives the Padres two arms that they can use confidently in the highest-leverage situations. However, Hoeing is no slouch and may be the reason why the team had to give up so much in the deal as he is a pre-arb reliever who has a 2.70 ERA this year and sports a splitter that has been basically unhittable. We can probably expect to see more of that pitch out of him now that he is with the Padres.

After the dust settled, the Padres find themselves with one of the deepest bullpens in baseball. That may not have been Plan A as San Diego truly coveted Garrett Crochet, but this may end up being better. Having so many quality relievers reduces the risk from starters regressing/getting fatigued during the stretch run and allows the Padres to share the workload more throughout their bullpen. Assuming everyone continues on their current path, this is a team that really could make a run at this thing in 2024.

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