Padres make massive deadline splash by trading haul of prospects for closer

Whoa.....just whoa.

Eric Cole

Miami Marlins v Milwaukee Brewers / John Fisher/GettyImages

The San Diego Padres were one of the teams to watch coming into the trade deadline. The team has played their way into contention and they have one of the most aggressive general managers in baseball. All of that pointed to a potentially busy deadline full of moves.

However, there were some headwinds to this idea. The Padres already made two big moves in the last few months with the trades for Dylan Cease and Luis Arráez. And the way the market had developed, some of the asking prices from the few sellers were so high that even Preller had to have had a moment of pause.

While there hasn't been a headline-stealing move just yet, the Padres have been hard at work reinforcing their bullpen. First, they paid a hefty price to acquire Jason Adam from the Rays.

Now, they just swung a pretty big trade with the Marlins that included one of the best relievers on the market in Tanner Scott.

#Marlins will get the following in return for Tanner Scott and RHP Bryan Hoeing: LHP Robby Snelling, RHP Adam Mazur, INF Graham Pauley and INF Jay Beshears@Feinsand
— Christina De Nicola (@CDeNicola13) July 30, 2024

Padres News: San Diego trades for Tanner Scott, Bryan Hoeing to complete bullpen overhaul

Trades for relievers get a bad rap as fans always want the big names at more "important" positions, but the better teams in the league almost always have really good bullpens. Robert Suarez has been a fantastic anchor for the Padres' pen, but getting some high quality depth there was always on the table.

Fortunately, that is exactly what the Padres have accomplished. Scott sports a 1.18 ERA in 44 appearances with the Marlins this year and gives the Padres another high-leverage reliever to work with even though he is about to hit free agency. Hoeing may not be as well known as Scott was before the deadline, but he has still put up a very respectable 2.70 ERA this season despite iffy strikeout numbers (and he has plenty of team control left).

As for the cost to acquire the two relievers, it was again quite high.

Losing Snelling and Mazur in particular is shocking, as not only are they highly-regarded pitching prospects, but they also represent most of what is left of the Padres' pitching depth right now. If anything, this move may be an indication that Preller could still trade for a starter or two. Graham Pauley had a nice 2023 and spring training this year, but has struggled since and it seems like he had fallen out of favor with the Padres.

With a little over a hour before the trade deadline, things are really heating up now.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.