Aaaaaaaand just like that, AJ Preller has made his first major move as the July 31st trade deadline looms, sending pitchers Trevor Cahill, Brandon Mauer, and Ryan Buchter to the Royals in exchange for pitchers Travis Wood and Matt Strahm, and prospect Esteury Ruiz.
These are some of the more popular members of the big league roster getting moved, and Cahill, Mauer, and Buchter were all important contributors to the Padres pitching staff. Resultantly, some fans on Twitter are somewhat upset ("WHO IS GOING 2 CLOSE NOW??? THX AJ", as one particularly articulate fan put it), but honestly, who really cares?
None of these guys really had any long term future with the Padres. Brandon Mauer wasn't even that good. Trevor Cahill was probably going to sign somewhere else in the offseason. And Ryan Buchter was just an average reliever- Darren Balsley's literally been growing those on the Reliver Tree that's been planted in the Padres bullpen since 2003 (bet you didn't know that, huh?).
So chill, Padres fans. It'll be fun to see Phil "Future GOAT" Maton get a chance to step into the closer role, anyways.
Besides, for a relatively cheap price, the Padres are getting two nice, high upside pieces back in Matt Strahm and Esteury Ruiz.
Strahm, who despite being not very good in 2017 (5.45 ERA, 5.43 FIP, -.02 WAR through 34.2 IP) before getting shut down for the season with a knee injury (it's also worth noting that he had Tommy John surgery in 2013), was Fangraphs' #72 prospect in all of baseball and the Royals' #1 prospect going into the season. There are some questions if he can stick in the rotation, but if he does, Strahm has a ceiling of a #3 starter. If he doesn't do ANYTHING in the MLB, it's fine because we didn't give up anything of value for him! Win-win.
Ruiz, who is from the Dominican Republic, was signed by the Royals for a paltry 100k bonus. He's currently batting .419 in the Arizona Rookie League, and scouts rave about his potential speed/power combo. Still a teenager, Ruiz has an extremely long way to go, and very well may never make it above even AA, but again, we didn't really give up anything too valuable for him, so like- why not? That might as well be the motto for the Padres this season (or maybe for this decade). Besides, AJ Preller is basically wrote the book on scouting amateur Latin talent this decade- so I'm pretty confident he's rightly seen something special in this Ruiz kid.
We also got Travis Wood. Travis Wood hasn't really been good since he was an All Star back in 2013, but hey, if Melvin Upton Jr. was able to revive his career with the Padres, why can't Wood? Stranger things have happened indeed. The Royals are also picking up the check on Wood's 6.5 million dollar contract, which is convenient.
Anyways, if you were too lazy to read what I wrote above, let me sum it up in one sentence: AJ Preller did a very good job exchanging players with no future in San Diego for players that very well might have bright ones- that's what I call a Solid Trade TM.
Anyways, with that trade out of the way, the next domino likely to fall is Brad Hand, who I guess the Padres are asking an unreasonable amount for.
That would really be a shame.... if they overplayed....
(wait for it)
their hand.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I'll be here all week, folks.
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