MLB Trade Rumors: Diamondbacks Interested in Chase Headley
The Arizona Diamondbacks need a third baseman. They have seen improvements in Ryan Roberts‘
production at third, but he still is not hitting well enough to have a full-time job there. According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the DBacks would love to have the Padres’ Chase Headley. He reminds us though the Diamondbacks and the Padres have strained relations.
Although Jeff Moorad is gone from the Padres organization (he was once an executive with the Diamondbacks), the Padres’ current GM is Josh Byrnes. He was fired by the Diamondbacks. To complicate things even more, Kevin Towers is the Diamondbacks GM. He was fired by the Padres in unceremonious fashion.
Despite all this, the teams could work past their differences and hammer out a deal for the 28-year old third baseman. The Padres have been shopping Headley for weeks now with numerous teams showing interest. It has been reported that San Diego is looking for large returns on any deal involving Headley though. He is one of the more underrated players in the league, but the Padres have talent in their farm system that they’d like to promote.
From an OPS+ and a straight-forward OPS standpoint, Headley is having the best season of his career. His current OPS+ is 123, two points higher than his previous career best last year. His OPS is .789, 16 points better than his previous best last year. Headley is currently hitting .266/.365/.424. He has sacrificed some of his on-base ability for power. He already has ten home runs this year. He hit four all of last season.
The Diamondbacks have been building their own talented farm system and that may be attractive to the Padres. There is no word on what the Padres would ask in return from the DBacks, but pitching might top the list. While the Padres have some talented pitchers coming up through the system, injuries have ravaged the staff. Even their minor league pitchers have been hit with the injury bug.
An intra-division trade is usually taboo, but in this case the Padres aren’t competing for anything this year except the number one draft pick next season. Sure, Headley could hurt the Padres in the future during division games, but if the Padres could get solid talent in return, the deal would make sense.
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