Padres-Blue Jays Trade From Last Year Suddenly Looks One-Sided

On July 31, 2025, just before baseball's annual trade deadline arrived, the San Diego Padres traded catcher Brandon Valenzuela to the Toronto Blue Jays for shortstop Will Wagner.

It was a somewhat surprising move at the time. The Padres' catching situation was the opposite of settled.

They had been using a tandem of Elias Díaz and Martín Maldonado for the first four months of the 2025 season. Combined, the pair gave the Padres the majors' 27th-best wRC+ (71) from the catcher position.

In one day, AJ Preller completely made over the Padres' catching situation.

Backstop Freddy Fermin was acquired from the Kansas City Royals on the same day as the Wagner-for-Valenzuela trade. Maldonado was designated for assignment. With 20-20 hindsight, the Padres' president of baseball operations might want a mulligan.

Wagner, 27, is slashing .260/.396/.377 at Triple-A El Paso. Although the patience at the plate that made him a tough at-bat for the Blue Jays the last two seasons is still present (Wagner has 16 walks and only 14 strikeouts in 97 plate appearances), his power has disappeared.

Wagner slugged .451 (two home runs, six doubles) in a 24-game cup of coffee with the Blue Jays in 2024. He was slugging an identical .451 at Triple-A Buffalo prior to last year's trade.

But that figure dipped to .405 in El Paso after the trade, and has slipped further (.377) so far in 2026. Wagner has only four extra-base hits among the 20 he's collected for the Chihuahuas, who are slugging .466 as a team — the highest mark in the PCL.

Valenzuela, meanwhile, has been just what the Blue Jays needed. The 25-year-old switch hitter made his MLB debut in April. Since then he's slashing a respectable .245/.343/.394 in 36 games.

Starting catcher Alejandro Kirk fractured his left thumb April 7 and hasn't played since. Valenzuela has been thrust into a more regular role than he was prepared to take on last summer — but he's handled the bat capably so far.

Defensively, Valenzuela has looked magnificent. According to Statcast, he's above average both at framing pitches and catching attempted base-stealers. Blocking pitches in the dirt has been Valenzuela's only deficiency, per Statcast, but the next passed ball he allows will be his first.

The same can be said of Fermin. Defensively, he's been everything the Padres could want. Offensively, he's slashing .140/.241/.183, and the Padres' catchers have a combined 76 wRC+ (20th in MLB).

Overall, the Padres' catching overhaul looks like a lot of work for little return. Considering Valenzuela offers the Blue Jays six years of team control, and Fermin has only three more years of arbitration eligibility, the Wagner trade seems like a head-scratcher in hindsight.

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