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Padres Rumors: Juan Soto trade, Corbin Burnes, staff changes

By Katrina Stebbins |
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Corbin Burnes
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Corbin Burnes / Kayla Wolf/GettyImages
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The rumor mill in churning, and it's running on quite a bit of talk about Juan Soto, and where the San Diego Padres will send him ahead of the 2024 season. Despite not being the only major trade chip available this year, any deal involving Soto is bound to be shocking, and will have immediate consequences, positive or negative, for any teams involved.

Outside of Soto, though, the Padres have been relatively quiet even though they still have a lot of work to do. They lost two starting pitchers in free agency, one of whom just won his second Cy Young — who are they interested in getting to replace him? If Soto is traded, where will he go and how much can the Padres expect in return? With bench coach Ryan Flaherty Chicago-bound, what does that say about the state of the Padres front office? Here are three rumors to keep an eye on, especially with Winter Meetings just around the corner.

Padres Rumors: Juan Soto trade talks continue with the Yankees

Of the major trade pieces whose names have been in the ring this offseason, Juan Soto is the biggest. The possibility of a Soto trade has been floating throughout the league since well before the offseason, with the Yankees emerging as front runners early on. It seems that they're staying that way, as SNY's Andy Martino reported that the Yankees have preliminarily offered names who could go to San Diego in exchange for Soto. The list, which includes New York's brightest young stars Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez and No. 5 prospect Drew Thorpe, appropriately horrified Yankees fans, but makes some sense when the player who could be coming over is the best left-handed batter in baseball.

The Mets and Giants are also reported to have joined the Soto conversation, but are understandably less far along than the Yankees, who have reportedly been in talks with the Padres for months. Despite some equivocation from Jon Heyman on whether or not Soto would be traded earlier this month, there now seems to be a consensus on it only a matter of time before his departure from San Diego. With Winter Meetings just days away, there's a distinct possibility that this timeline could speed up significantly.

Padres Rumors: San Diego reportedly "enamored" with Corbin Burnes

For a team that's losing two starting pitchers to free agency — Blake Snell and Seth Lugo — the Padres have been curiously quiet on starting pitching. They weren't connected to Aaron Nola before he signed with the Phillies, weren't connected to Sonny Gray before he went to the Cardinals, and haven't made much of a peep about Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jordan Montgomery, or any of the other big starting pitchers available on the free agent market. So, their reported interest — JP Morosi went as far as to say they and a few other teams were "enamored" with him — in Corbin Burnes makes a bit more sense; if the Padres are trying to cut payroll, getting an arb-eligible player then negotiating with him through a system that usually favors the team, rather than promising a large sum to a player with a lot more agency to stand up for himself, could be a smart course of action.

Burnes is a good choice as a replacement for Snell; despite a rocky start to the season, he pitched to a 3.39 ERA across almost 200 innings, with 200 strikeouts and an eight place finish in Cy Young voting. All in all, Burnes fell just a few tics lower in pitching run value than Snell this season (96th percentile to Snell's 100th), but his chase and especially walk rates were much better than Snell's.

Burnes trade talk has been a little nebulous since his name was floated as a trade candidate at the beginning of the offseason, with a lot of teams being thrown into a pool of speculation but no one team emerging as a favorite yet. It's unclear if the Brewers are even fully convinced that they need to trade him in the first place. Still, Burnes will be an interesting name to watch, even more so to speculate on what the Padres might give up in order to get him.

Padres Rumors: What does bench coach Ryan Flaherty's departure say about the organization?

After losing out on the Padres' managerial vacancy to former NL Manager of the Year Mike Shildt, Friars bench coach Ryan Flaherty has reportedly been hired away from the Padres to the Cubs as bench coach under Craig Counsell. Ever since Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin's exposé in the Athletic, which accused the Padres of a "shaky foundation and 'institutional failure,'" and then manager Bob Melvin's departure just a month later, and then the revelation that the Padres took out a $50 million loan to take care of their debts this year, eyes have been on San Diego's front office. Shildt's hiring was met mostly positively by outsiders, but Lin has suggested that not everyone is thrilled, including Manny Machado, about his elevation to manager. Besides, a managerial hiring doesn't exactly fix what is allegedly an organization-wide issue.

Flaherty's departure could be something like a middle finger to the team that chose not to promote him, but could it also be an indication that little is being done to address the team's leadership or structure under AJ Preller? Clearly, whatever formula the Padres thought they had cracked with their slew of superstar signings didn't work, and now they're doubling back and trying to cut payroll in order to bring in cheaper players to fill in gaps. The front office is obviously working through some shake ups, which doesn't bode incredibly well given the amount of work the team has to do this offseason.

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