Padres Make Trade, Acquire Ex-Yankees Top Prospect From AL Central Squad

The San Diego Padres have finally made a move this winter. The organization acquired right-hander Ron Marinaccio from the Chicago White Sox.
We have acquired RHP Ron Marinaccio from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for cash considerations.
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) January 24, 2025
Marinaccio was designated for assignment on Tuesday by the White Sox. Marinaccio never appeared in a big league game for Chicago since he was claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees and was kept on optional assignment.
In 2024, Marinaccio produced a 3.86 ERA across 23.1 innings pitched. He reduced his walk rate to 10.1 percent, but his strikeout rate also decreased to 25.3 percent.
Marinaccio has a 3.22 career-ERA in 114.2 innings, with a 28.2 percent strikeout rate, and 12.6 percent walk rate. He had relatively similar numbers in the minors.
Padres fans are anxious for the organization to make signings that are considered needle-movers. Whether the team does so before spring training remains a mystery.
President of baseball operations A.J. Preller said signings will likely be made late in the winter, compared to other offseasons.
“We’ve seen offseasons where we’ve been really aggressive and been able to line up on moves early in the offseason and other years, like last year, where it was later in the process,” Preller said. “… We’ve got a really good core and good foundation we like a lot, and we’ve got some needs as well.”
Although the Padres haven't been very aggressive, the team has always managed to stay competitive in the NL West in recent years. It's no secret the Padres are a smaller market team, but they still took the Los Angeles Dodgers to Game 5 of the NLDS last season.
Manager Mike Shildt doesn't doubt the San Diego front office will find a way to engineer a strong roster.
“We’re not naive that there are certain organizations that have just more competitive advantages,” Shildt said. “That’s no state secret, right? We live that every day. I can look at that, and we can look at that as, ‘Oh, woe is us. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have the flexibility. We don’t have the payroll or the income streams.’ And that can be absolutely accurate and factual, and it is. The reality from my seat, our clubhouse seat, our team seat is, it’s still a game that requires you to play right, compete a certain way, play the game a certain way. Clearly the more resources you have, the more talent you can accrue, and that’s real. Talent shows up. We can’t kid ourselves. But effectively it’s about how we’re going to figure out a way to compete and play the game right with the ability that we’ve been given.”