San Diego Padres: MLB Trade Deadline winners or losers?

The San Diego Padres have been super active pre-MLB trade deadline.

The San Diego Padres have somehow transformed themselves into America’s baseball team. There isn’t a soul out there currently not rooting for this team, and based on how active they’ve been at the MLB trade deadline, boy do they know it.

As it currently stands, the Pads have traded for four key players…

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1. Mike Clevinger – CttP coverage here!
2. Jason Castro – CttP coverage here!
3. Mitch Moreland – CttP coverage here!
4. Trevor Rosenthal – CttP coverage here!

…all the while managing to keep their top prospects, McKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, Luis Patino, and Luis Campusano.

These moves solidify that the Padres, who currently hold the 4-seed in the postseason bracket, plan to go for it this season. As it stands, they are 21-15 and hold the second-best run differential in the NL.

Are the moves the San Diego Padres have made winners or losers?

The Padres without a doubt have won the MLB trade deadline… so far. The first reason, which we outlined above, is because they managed to improve their team while continuing to hold on to their top prospects.

The second reason the Padres won teh deadline is because they managed to acquire a player in Moreland who immediately jumps to the top of the team’s rankings in wRC+ (203), wOBA (.478), AVG (.328), OBP (.430), and SLG (.746) to name a few stats.

What’s more, the Padres also managed to vastly improve their pitching staff. In acquiring Clevinger, they’ve assembled as scary a 1-2 punch as there is come postseason. And in Rosenthal, they get a reliever with postseason experience who’s posting the highest SO9 (13.5) of his career.

Now, they do still play in the same division as the unstoppable Los Angeles Dodgers, who are clearly still favored to win it all this year. But as we’ve seen in the past, anything is possible. For now, enjoy where you stand, Padres fans, your future continues to be bright!