Padres Could Turn to All-Star Starting Pitcher as Trade Deadline Target: Report

Maren Angus-Coombs | Jun 27, 2024

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

The 2024 Major League Baseball trade deadline is roughly five weeks away, and the San Diego Padres are one of the more intriguing teams to watch.

San Diego has fluctuated at times but has remained close to .500 all season. Rotation depth has been a major issue. Wednesday, Dylan Cease ended a streak of 14 games in which only one Padres starter (Matt Waldron, who did it twice) authored a quality start.

To win more in the second half of the season, the Padres will need more starting pitching. Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove have struggled with injuries in the first half and the team can't afford to be without them down the stretch unless they have another big arm to fill in.

Luis Severino of the New York Mets is a name that ESPN's Jeff Passan describes as the "best match" for the Padres. He will be a free agent at the end of the season and certainly could help the Padres move up in the Wild Card standings if the Mets choose to sell.

Passan wrote the following about Severino:

"The Padres are pot committed, and they're a starter -- OK, maybe two -- away from taking control of one of the NL wild-card slots. Severino fits almost all of their needs. He's been very good with a 3.29 ERA over 90.1 innings in 15 starts for the Mets. His slider is a true out pitch, elite in shape and outcome. And with San Diego's budgetary concerns, he would be coming from an organization that just last year was willing to eat tens of millions of dollars when the Mets traded starters Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. With Yu Darvish suffering a setback in his attempt to return from the injured list, Dylan Cease, Michael King, and Matt Waldron are the only three reliable starters in San Diego's rotation. Getting Severino would strengthen the Padres' starting group and allow general manager A.J. Preller to hold on to his top hitting prospects, catcher Ethan Salas and shortstop Leo Devries, who are the sort of return Chicago would seek if Preller went whale hunting and tried to land Crochet."

It isn't clear if the Mets are willing to move Severino yet. As of Thursday they're the closest team to San Diego in the wild-card cluster, only 1.5 games behind the Padres for the final postseason berth. That ought to motivate the Mets to hold on to Severino for now, but it will be interesting to see what happens if the playoff picture changes.