Padres Rumors: The Futures of Blake Snell and Josh Hader Are Becoming More Clear
What will the San Diego Padres do?
That's the prevailing question surrounding the franchise after what's been an incredibly poor season thus far.
The Padres are six games out of the final playoff spot, a predicament that certainly wasn't expected for the star-laden team coming into 2023, especially on the heels of an NLCS appearance last October.
But the Padres are where they are because of injuries and poor performance, and that begs an intriguing question with the trade deadline one week away.
San Diego has a deluge of stars on their roster, from Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. to Blake Snell and Josh Hader on their pitching staff.
Will the Padres be in a selling mood come the August 1st deadline, or will they opt to ride it out and attempt to make a miraculous turnaround.
So far, the answer to that question seems to be the latter, at least when it comes to two of the Friars' stars.
It looks like the Padres may keep Snell and Hader in San Diego, according to Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.
The duo are having solid individual years in 2023, and Hader in particular has rebounded to re-establish himself as one of the best closers in the game.
With that said, the two are both set to hit the free agent market after this season, so it seems surprising that the Padres aren't keen to at least listen to more offers as the deadline approaches.
That position may change in the coming week -- GM AJ Preller left all possibilities open in a recent interview -- and it's probably the better path for San Diego to get what value they can out of the hurlers, given that their playoff chances are bleak at best.
It remains to be seen what Preller will actually wind up doing, but it seems that for now, both Hader and Snell will remain in Southern California through the end of this season.
