Padres general manager AJ Preller has never met a trade negotiation he didn’t like and is willing to float any of his players in conversations.
The Post’s Jon Heyman reported this week that Preller is at least paying some mind to pitches on a few of his top stars.
“The Padres are listening on some of their big stars,” Heyman said. “They are listening on [starter Dylan] Cease, [infielder Luis ] Arraez, [shortstop Xander] Bogaerts… they are listening. Are they likely to trade some of these players? I’m not sure. They say they’re not likely.”
The Post’s Mike Puma adds that the Padres, like most of the other 30 teams in baseball, are in hot pursuit of Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasaki and are viewed as a favorite to land him, along with the Mets.
Heyman added that a major piece of the Sasaki recruitment puzzle is San Diego starter Yu Darvish, making it increasingly unlikely that he would not be involved in any deals.
Missing from any potential trade discussion are their top two players, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr., as trading either would likely crater any World Series hopes for the Padres.
San Diego has the 15th-highest payroll in the major leagues this year at a hair over $170 million and hasn’t been involved in any other major free agent, instead preferring to do business in the trade market.
Preller loves to make trades, having traded for now-free agent stud closer Trevor Scott at the deadline, a deal that helped San Diego get to the MLB playoffs and give the eventual World Series champion Dodgers all they could handle in the NLDS.
San Diego also traded for starter Dylan Cease last offseason and moved Juan Soto to the Yankees in exchange for pitcher Michael King among other prospects.
Not every trade Preller made has been a whopping success, though, as the Padres’ 2022 acquisition of Soto resulted in losing baseball’s top prospect, James Wood, as well as All-Star shortstop CJ Abrams and starter MacKenzie Gore.
As a result of losing massive amounts of organizational depth, they could be looking to flip one of their veteran stars for younger, more controllable players while shedding some salary.
San Diego has the 28th-ranked farm system in all of baseball, behind only the Angels and Astros according to MLB.com.
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