Padres Analyst Suggests 2-Time All-Star as Top Trade Target

The Aug. 3 trade deadline is more than two months away, an eternity on the baseball calendar. Many games will be played between now and then, each with the potential to alter the San Diego Padres' roster needs.

That hasn't stopped Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller from "scouring the market" for bullpen arms, according to one report.

A more sensible focus, if not more likely to come to fruition, is starting pitching.

The Padres have a strong top of the rotation led by right-handers Michael King and Randy Vazquez, but their lack of depth has produced a bloated rotation ERA of 4.45.

The gap of 0.31 between the Padres' ERA (4.45) and FIP (4.14) is the seventh-largest of any rotation in baseball. Other advanced metrics (4.14 expected ERA, 4.26 SIERA) agree that batted-ball luck has largely worked against the Padres' starters.

But the gap between the top and the bottom of the Padres' rotation sticks out as a glaring need to address before the trade deadline arrives.

Enter Sandy Alcántara.

The 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner is slowly rounding back into his pre-Tommy John surgery form for the Miami Marlins.

Alcántara, 30, is 3-3 with a 4.00 ERA in 11 starts through week's end. His average fastball velocity (97.2 mph) has returned, and his 6.8% walk rate suggests his command is back to normal.

Padres analyst Tony Gwynn Jr. thinks the veteran right-hander should be at the top of Preller's wish list.

"The name that jumps out to me is Sandy Alcántara," Gwynn told Buster Olney on the most recent Baseball Tonight podcast episode. "I mean, I think it's an AJ Preller type name and move that I think would be a huge piece, especially given the unknown of Joe Musgrove at this point ... and Nick Pivetta — I don't want to forget him — both of those guys are out with really no timetable on when they're coming back."

The Marlins enter play Tuesday with a 26-29 record, with their hopes of clinching a wild-card berth fading but still not unrealistic.

More than the Marlins' playoff odds, the Padres' farm system could stand as an obstacle to a trade coming to fruition.

San Diego's only Top 100 prospect is Ethan Salas. The catcher turns 20 on June 1 and is tearing up Double-A pitching (.298/.361/.482 at San Antonio). It's hard to imagine an Alcántara trade coming to fruition without Salas going to Miami.

Preller might have the stones to trade Salas, but another team might have a more attractive package to offer the Marlins.

The Marlins (or whoever employs Alcántara) hold a club option for $21 million for 2027. Trading Salas for a pitcher with only one year left until he hits free agency is the kind of all-in move Preller is known for.

Whether it's realistic or not remains to be seen — but it isn't hard to see why it's on Gwynn's radar.

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