{"id":633201,"date":"2026-03-20T08:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/633201\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T08:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:29:19","slug":"grading-the-padres-2025-trade-deadline-in-hindsight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/633201\/","title":{"rendered":"Grading the Padres’ 2025 Trade Deadline in Hindsight"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2025, the San Diego Padres had one of the most frenzied trade deadlines<\/a> in recent memory. General Manager A.J. Preller traded away 14 players and brought eight onto the club. In total, five trades were made with different teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of these trades saw San Diego\u2019s top prospect (and MLB\u2019s No. 3 at the time), Leo De Vries<\/a>, leave the club in order to get one of the most dominant relief weapons in all of baseball. Looking back on these trades a little under a year later, let\u2019s grade each of them on how they\u2019ve fared thus far.<\/p>\n

Looking Back at the Padres\u2019 2025 Trade Deadline Moves
\nA Surprising Addition to the Farm<\/p>\n

The Friars traded away bench outfielder Brandon Lockridge<\/a> for Nestor Cortes<\/a>\u00a0and shortstop prospect Jorge Quintana<\/a>. Cortes was decent in his time with San Diego, putting up a 5.47 ERA in six starts for the club.<\/p>\n

Quintana is the interesting get. The young prospect has plenty of upside and has a serviceable arm at short. His bat is not as good thus far in the minors, but his underlying metrics show something could begin to come out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For not paying a lot, the Padres added to their rotation depth for the \u201825 playoff run and helped bolster their somewhat-depleted farm.<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/p>\n

Some Help Behind the Plate<\/p>\n

The catching situation in San Diego prior to the deadline was abysmal, to say the least. The tandem of Elias D\u00edaz<\/a> and Mart\u00edn Maldonado<\/a> was one of the worst in baseball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To rectify that, Preller traded young starters Stephen Kolek<\/a> and Ryan Bergert<\/a> to the Kansas City Royals for backup catcher Freddy Fermin<\/a>. And what an addition he was.<\/p>\n

His defense and offense were well above-average for a catcher, and being under club control until 2030 certainly helps. He raked in the postseason for the club, hitting .364 in the series against the Chicago Cubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only problem was the payment. Kolek and Bergert are blossoming young pitchers with lots of potential. Dealing both hurlers for a catcher is difficult to justify, but with him being the anchor of the catching group for the next three years, it seems worth it.<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/p>\n

Two Birds (Orioles) With One Stone<\/p>\n

In the largest deal of the San Diego deadline, the Baltimore Orioles sent<\/a> All-Star Ryan O\u2019Hearn<\/a> and Ram\u00f3n Laureano<\/a> to the Friars for six prospects (three in the Padres\u2019 top 20).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deal immediately bolstered a lineup that had been seriously lacking in production. It gave the Padres a clear option in left field after having the worst production in MLB at the position, and a clear DH\/1B platoon option.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

With Laureano staying on board to fill out the San Diego outfield, this deal is worth it, even though O\u2019Hearn eventually left in free agency. The prospect haul is large, yes, but they\u2019re still valuable pickups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether or not Laureano can build on his best year in recent years remains to be seen, but his glove in left is fantastic, and he\u2019s always had above-average production (career 114 wRC+).<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/p>\n

Filling Out the Bench Depth<\/p>\n

The Padres gave up prospect Brandon Valenzuela<\/a> to the Toronto Blue Jays for infielder depth piece (and the son of Hall of Famer Billy Wagner<\/a>), Will Wagner<\/a>. Wagner doesn\u2019t flash anything particularly impressive, but he\u2019s a great addition to bolster offensive depth.<\/p>\n

His glove in the infield is fantastic, and he\u2019s a good utility option around the diamond. The bat isn\u2019t great, but that\u2019s alright, it doesn\u2019t need to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll definitely start this season in the minors for San Diego, but could factor in as an addition at the big-league level from any injuries or departures that may come up later. The Padres could easily give him some pinch-hit opportunities as a serviceable lefty bat.<\/p>\n

Grade: B\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Blockbuster with the A\u2019s<\/p>\n

The Athletics traded away<\/a> elite closer Mason Miller<\/a> alongside the serviceable JP Sears<\/a> for headliner De Vries and three other top-20 Padres\u2019 prospects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I need to preface this by saying that I adore Miller. He is one of the most dominant (if not the most dominant) pitchers in MLB. His tenure with San Diego has been incredible thus far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Combined between the regular season, the playoffs, and his time on Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, opposing batters are 0-for-50 against him since September 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But\u2026De Vries continues to look more and more like he\u2019s poised for a major breakout. He\u2019s been raking this spring, putting up a slash line of .409\/.447\/.682.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yes, Miller is fantastic, but paying an arm and a leg in prospects for a guy who only gets three outs and a (barely) serviceable starter is not a move I\u2019d make again. Especially when San Diego has as deep a bullpen as they do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Am I mad about the trade? No. Miller is incredible, and he fills the hole left by Robert Suarez<\/a> (and then some). But it\u2019s not one I would make again.<\/p>\n

Grade: C+<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 David Frerker-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2025, the San Diego Padres had one of the most frenzied trade deadlines in recent memory. General…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,868,4703,2127,769,1525,1101,4,121,43,1495,626,137,18,4339,4338,1276],"class_list":{"0":"post-633201","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-brandon-lockridge","10":"tag-elias-diaz","11":"tag-freddy-fermin","12":"tag-jp-sears","13":"tag-martin-maldonado","14":"tag-mason-miller","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-nestor-cortes","17":"tag-padres","18":"tag-ramon-laureano","19":"tag-ryan-ohearn","20":"tag-san-diego","21":"tag-san-diego-padres","22":"tag-sandiego","23":"tag-sandiegopadres","24":"tag-will-wagner"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116260568610354734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633201","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=633201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}