Padres surprisingly linked to NL West rival All-Star ahead of the trade deadline

San Diego continues to get connected to multiple players at the trade deadline, but this one was a bit of a surprise on a number of levels.

Eric Cole

Colorado Rockies v Los Angeles Dodgers / Rob Leiter/GettyImages

Most of the talk heading into the trade deadline regarding the San Diego Padres has been centered around pitching. Between the lingering rumors of interest in Jesus Luzardo as well as the very obvious and understandable interest in Garrett Crochet, adding starting pitching is definitely a priority, and bringing in some bullpen help is also on the menu.

However, a very curious connection involving the Padres was just made by MLB's Mark Feinsand. According to Feinsand, Rockies catcher Elias Diaz could be a fit for the Padres as he has helped his trade stock lately.

Padres making a surprise trade for Elias Diaz isn't as crazy as it sounds

On the surface, this is a weird connection to make. While the Rockies being sellers is far from surprising as they are one of the worst-run teams in professional sports, the Padres already have catcher Kyle Higashioka playing pretty well, Luis Campusano coming back, and Ethan Salas on the way from the minors at some point as their catcher of the future. All of that, on top of the fact that in-division deals can be tricky to pull off, makes trading for Diaz a bit puzzling as a viable option.

However, a closer look at the Padres' current situation makes such a move make more sense. While Campusano is young and talented, he also was only hitting .230 before he hurt his thumb and missed time. If the Padres don't have confidence that Campusano can help them this year, a rental catcher like Diaz who has a .753 OPS and isn't owed a lot of money has a lot of appeal as a short-term solution.

That leaves making a trade in the division the biggest hurdle. While trading with division rivals doesn't happen all that often, it's occurred a bit more recenty, and pending free agents are the easiest such deals to make. Those players are about to leave anyway, and the cost to both sides to get a deal done is minimal. With the Rockies needing all the help they can get, the Padres should be able to offer enough to get their attention without overpaying.

Stay tuned, folks. Trade season is definitely heating up.

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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.