The San Diego Padres had the most active offseason of any MLB team and it all began with their trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers for outfielder Matt Kemp. They've since added a number of other players, but it's very possible they're done making moves.
Kemp was dealt to San Diego during the MLB Winter Meetings and Wil Myers, Justin Upton, Derek Norris, Shawn Kelley, Brandon Maurer, Will Middlebrooks and others soon followed. Following all of these trades, general manager A.J. Preller managed to maintain the team's top prospects in catcher Austin Hedges, starter Matt Wisler and outfielder Hunter Renfroe.
The Padres were the latest team to contact the Philadelphia Phillies regarding the availability of starting pitcher Cole Hamels, which many believed was a plausible option for both teams because San Diego had the pieces to trade to Philadelphia and Hamels is from San Diego. However, the roster seems like it's ready for Opening Day and the addition of Hamels will cost them valuable prospects while they inherit the $96 million left on his contract.
"While it's safe now to assume you can't rule anything out with Preller, it's also probably a fair statement that the roster today is pretty close to what it will look like on Opening Day, when the Padres head north to face the Dodgers on April 6," writes Corey Brock of MLB.com.
"Especially on the pitching side," said Padres manager Bud Black. "I don't know how much more we can do with the pitching. We lost some arms in [trades] with Jesse Hahn (A's), Joe Wieland (Dodgers) and R.J. Alvarez (A's) but [Preller's] replenished that. We feel pretty good about where our pitching is right now."
They also signed starters Josh Johnson and Brandon Morrow to incentive-laden one-year deals, who will compete for a spot in the starting rotation along with Odrisamer Despaigne, Robbie Erlin and Wisler. Andrew Cashner, Ian Kennedy and Tyson Ross are likely guaranteed the top three spots. Hamels would hike their payroll up to about $80 million right now, which would be the team's second-highest number behind their $90 million in 2014.
San Diego also has to deal with a number of arbitration-eligible players, including Cashner, Kennedy, Ross, Dale Thayer, Alexi Amarista, Yonder Alonso and Shawn Kelley, who are due raises for next season. According to Baseball Reference, this will add approximately $27 million to the payroll. Without Hamels' salary (or signing James Shields to a $100 million contract), it looks like they'll have $88.5 million committed to 2015.
Unless the Padres' new ownership is willing to sink a large portion of their payroll into one player, it looks like Preller and San Diego could be done adding players this offseason.
