Padres Competing With Dodgers for Star Pitcher at Trade Deadline: Report

Matt Levine | Jul 28, 2024

The MLB trade deadline is less than two days away and the San Diego Padres are expected to be one of the more active teams across baseball. The Padres have been on a roll of late, having won seven of their last eight games.

The Padres want to add another starting pitcher and have their eyes set on left-hander Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox. However, it seems that San Diego may have some stiff competition for the left-hander as the rival Los Angeles Dodgers are also making a play to land him.

According to MLB insider Jon Heyman, the Dodgers and Padres are among the interested teams for Crochet. The two division rivals may have to enter into a bidding war to land him.

"The Dodgers and the Padres, who were aggressive early, are among many interested teams."

Crochet made headlines recently, saying that he would only pitch in the playoffs for a team that trades for him with an extension. This has made many teams around the league a bit wary of moving a ton of assets for him but the Padres and Dodgers remain interested.

On the year, Crochet has posted an ERA of 3.23 over 114.1 innings of work. He has struck out 160 batters and has a WHIP of 1.01.

Crochet could fit in nicely on the Padres starting staff, pairing next to Dylan Cease at the top of the rotation. In addition, San Diego has Michael King, Yu Darvish, and Joe Musgrove, so bringing in Crochet would give them a loaded staff.

Padres general manager A.J. Preller is known for being aggressive in trades and we could see more of that here. While it remains to be seen if the Padres will land Crochet, Preller has never been known to back down from a challenge.