Padres make trade with Pirates as AJ Preller beefs up pitching staff

Reasonable people can disagree as to whether or not San Diego Padres general manager AJ Preller has always made the right moves, but no one can argue that he isn't always looking for moves to make. The guy seemingly never sleeps as he searches for roster upgrades, big and small.

Very late in the offseason, Preller made a deal to bring Dylan Cease to the Padres in the hopes of trying to reduce the pain of all of the losses in free agency the team had after the 2023 season. However, Preller did promise that he was going to continue to work to improve the roster even if that meant making moves after the season started.

Well, he did just that as the Padres traded for old friend Jackson Wolf to provide some nice pitching depth.

Padres make trade with Pirates to bring back Jackson Wolf

This is a pretty hilarious move because San Diego just traded Wolf to the Pirates last August in the deal that brought Ji-Man Choi and Rich Hill to the Padres. However, with the pitching depth issues that the Padres still have, even after the Cease trade, Preller decided to bring a guy they are familiar with back into the fold to stash in the minors.

In exchange, the Padres are sending infield prospect Kervin Pichardo to Pittsburgh in the deal. Pichardo was acquired from the Phillies in a minor deal back in 2021, but has generally been underwhelming since the move, logging a .750 OPS with little power to speak of.

Is this deal going to completely turn the tide for the Padres in 2024? Probably not, but it still makes the San Diego deeper and brings back an arm that they thought highly of at one time.

More Padres News from Friars on Base