San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller has found himself in a bind year after year when it comes to starting pitching, and every year he has managed to eke his way out. He traded for Sean Manaea just before the beginning of the 2022 season, signed free agent Michael Wacha in \u201823, traded for Michael King and signed Dylan Cease in \u201824, and signed Nick Pivetta in \u201825. Each time, Preller has found creative ways to attain reliable starting pitching. Unfortunately, he may be unable to swindle his way out of trouble this year.<\/p>\n
With a lack of trade candidates (and an even greater lack of payroll flexibility), Preller could be out of options. That being said, the creative GM has never shied away from bold moves in the past and it\u2019s unlikely he\u2019ll stop now, even when faced with his thus far absent contract extension.<\/p>\n
In light of the news that the Padres lost out on Chris Bassitt to the Baltimore Orioles, as well as veteran Justin Verlander to the Detroit Tigers, here are a few possible additions (from least to most expensive) Preller might make in the coming weeks prior to Opening Day.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old veteran had a solid year with the Texas Rangers in 2025, finishing with a 4.40 ERA through 30 starts. What he lacks in elite stuff he makes up for in durability. Since 2017, Corbin has made 30 or more starts every year, apart from the shortened 2020 season. His ability to consistently take the mound is something the Padres desperately need.<\/p>\n
Corbin was the definition of league average in \u201825, with a 1.36 WHIP and 131 strikeouts. He\u2019s unlikely to give the Friars a flashy front-end starter, but he will give San Diego exactly what they are looking for: reliable depth in their starting pitching.<\/p>\n
Right now, FanGraphs projects the Padres\u2019 depth chart in starting pitching to be 26th in MLB based on WAR (wins above replacement), with only the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies having worse projections. Those are not teams San Diego wants to grouped with if they\u2019re seeking to contend in \u201826. They need solid depth, and Patrick Corbin can give it for a reasonable price.<\/p>\n
The journeyman righty found himself splitting time in 2025 between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cincinnati Reds. Littell has been on five teams in only eight years of MLB service time. After spending the first five years of his career as a reliever, Littell converted to a full-time starter after being traded to the Rays during the 2023 season and exceeded expectations. He finished the year with a 3.93 ERA across 26 games (14 starts) in Tampa Bay. He has yet to post an ERA over 4.00 since converting to the starter role, finishing \u201825 with a career-best 3.81 mark.<\/p>\n
Littell would likely be more expensive than Corbin, given his younger age and reliable track record as a starter. But it could be worth it to offer him a creative multi-year deal similar to how the Padres structured Pivetta\u2019s deal last season.<\/p>\n
If San Diego were to pick up Littell, he would represent a middle-of-the rotation starter who could take pressure off Joe Musgrove as he makes his return from Tommy John surgery. This addition would immediately give the club breathing room in their depth chart, giving Musgrove time to acclimate in his return to pitching.<\/p>\n
This is the big one. The former ace who helped the Arizona Diamondbacks make it to the World Series in 2023. By his standards, Gallen is coming off a down year, which is the only thing making it even remotely possible San Diego signs him. He ended 2025 with a 4.83 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP, but the underlying metrics paint the picture that the ace that finished 5th in NL Cy Young voting in 2022 is still there.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s incredibly (almost ridiculously) unlikely that the Padres sign Gallen, especially amidst rumors that his market is heating up and he\u2019d like to return to the Diamondbacks, anything\u2019s possible with Preller in the general manager\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n
Maybe Arizona moves on from Gallen or the Padres offer him a player-friendly contract with opt-outs like they did with King earlier this year. Perhaps Preller swings a trade at the last minute to free up payroll and then offers Gallen a short-term deal with a higher AAV.<\/p>\n
The long and short of it is this, the Friars need quality pitching if they\u2019re going to contend in 2026. As good as the bullpen is, they need consistent starters to cover five-plus innings each game. Otherwise relievers are going to get taxed fast, and pretty soon that bullpen \u2014 no matter how elite it is \u2014 will look sluggish from overuse. It\u2019s hard to say where the Padres will go from here but one thing is for sure: they\u2019re running out of time to make a move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller has found himself in a bind year after year when it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,52694,4,43,137,18,2231,2230,4339,4338],"class_list":{"0":"post-569072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-gaslamp-ball-staff-editorials","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-san-diego-padres-analysis-commentary","15":"tag-san-diego-padres-news","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-sandiegopadres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116060412091306092","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}