The San Diego Padres have apparently shifted their focus away from Justin Upton and are now discussing a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays to acquire another young outfielder. The question is, how will they get rid of their other costly outfielders?
According to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, the Padres and Rays are discussing a "significant trade" that involves Tampa Bay outfielder Wil Myers and some of San Diego's "better prospects." If this were to come to fruition, it would seemingly take the Padres out of trade talks with the Atlanta Braves for Justin Upton.
At this point it's unknown what prospects the Padres would send packing, but some of their top ones include catcher Austin Hedges, pitchers Matthew Wisler, Max Fried and Joe Ross, outfielder Hunter Renfroe and shortstop Jace Peterson. San Diego just acquired outfielder Matt Kemp from the Dodgers in exchange for catcher Yasmani Grandal as well as pitching prospects Joe Wieland and Zach Eflin. The Padres have a number of other talented pitchers they can offer, but the Rays have a plentiful amount themselves, according to Baseball America.
Tampa Bay has been active on the trade market this offseason and have sent reliever Joel Peralta to the Dodgers, utility man Sean Rodriguez to the Pirates, starter Jeremy Hellickson to the Diamondbacks, and outfielder Matt Joyce and pitcher Cesar Ramos to the Angels. However, it's unknown why they might want to trade Myers. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times noted last week that the team received a number of calls regarding the young outfielder and they're apparently acting on that now.
The 24-year-old won the AL Rookie of the Year in 2013 and has a stat line of .258/.324/.400/.724 with 19 home runs and 88 RBIs in 175 games with the Rays. He missed much of 2014 with a broken wrist. It was originally believed the team would try and move outfielder Desmond Jennings since he is arbitration-eligible and due for a raise while they're currently trying to reduce payroll, but not much has developed on that front. Tampa Bay also has the 24-year-old Kevin Kiermaier and veteran David DeJesus in the outfield.
The Padres already had a crowded outfield before acquiring Kemp. Carlos Quentin, Seth Smith, Will Venable, Cameron Maybin and Rymer Liriano are among the others on the roster, and all but Liriano have salaries the Rays would definitely not be willing to take on for 2015.
Since we're pretty confused, there are two explanations we can gather: the Padres are talking to the Rays to get leverage on the Braves OR the Padres are trying to get the Rays to become the third team in a deal that would land them Justin Upton from Atlanta. Otherwise, unless they've found trade partners for Quentin, Maybin, Venable and/or Smith, this move is puzzling.
