Rewind back to the week of July 31, and the Padres were sitting in a very good spot, as they were inching closer to the Dodgers by the day in the race for the NL West pennant. It posed as the perfect opportunity to buy at the deadline, and that’s exactly what they did.
The Padres traded away 13 prospects from their farm system in exchange for Mason Miller, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramón Laureano, and Freddy Fermin. They filled the need of another electric bullpen arm, a pair of bats, and an upgrade at catcher.
Loading up their roster ahead of a playoff run while successfully maintaining their core four was top-tier by A.J. Preller. Unfortunately for the Padres, their success was short-lived, as the team was bounced from the 2025 playoffs in the Wild Card round.
Padres’ top 30 prospects list hints the 2026 cavalry isn’t really coming
While the trade deadline proved to be a success at the time, it turned out to be a massive goodbye party for another group of key Padres players. The lack of payroll meant that Dylan Cease, Luis Arráez, and Ryan O’Hearn would depart elsewhere in favor of more money.
This left the Padres with many holes all over the roster ahead of spring training, and with the lack of prospects to bet on, it will be a transition year for San Diego.
The Padres have prospects; the only issue is that their top three aren’t even able to legally drink. What we’re getting at is that the team does have a future, but it will take time for those guys to be ready for the big leagues.
With that being said, the ugly truth is that if the Padres fail to meet expectations in the early half of 2025, they don’t have many reinforcements to take their chances on. The team will be more reliant than ever on Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Jackson Merrill to do their part and thensome. Because the truth is, there aren’t many big prospects ready for major league action.
It will be very interesting to see how 2026 goes for this new look Padres team.