The San Diego Padres are struggling a little bit, but remain at the top of the National League wild card race and 5 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. They have a lot of talent on their roster but could always look to add more at the trade deadline.
That could happen by August 3, which is the day of the deadline, and among the top trade candidates is left-hander Tarik Skubal, who has won back-to-back American League Cy Young awards but is currently recovering from a surgery to remove bone chips in his pitching elbow.
Jim Bowden of The Athletic listed the Padres as one of the top seven teams that could make a push for Skubal, and listed several prospects that could potentially be had in a return package.
“Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is always in on acquiring superstar players when they become available and is never afraid to trade his top prospects to acquire these types of players, as he did with Juan Soto and Mason Miller,” Bowden wrote. “Therefore, he’ll probably be willing to dangle at least one of his top pitching prospects, and maybe even two, among left-handers Kruz Schoolcraft and Kash Mayfield and right-hander Miguel Mendez. He could perhaps combine one of those pitchers with shortstop Jorge Quintana, catcher Ty Harvey or outfielders Braedon Karpathios or Ryan Wideman to make a deal work.
“Preller might even consider offering his top prospect, catcher Ethan Salas, if he can get a deal done straight-up and he feels like he could win a title this season. The Padres should not be ignored if there is a Skubal sweepstakes.”
Padres Among Potential Tarik Skubal Landing Spots
Skubal has been making good progress in his rehab from the surgery, so that could speed up the process and give the Detroit Tigers time to showcase him if they are unable to get back into the race.
The Padres do have some top prospects to spare if they want to make this deal, and Preller has been willing to gut the farm system in the past to make deals happen, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume that Skubal could be on the Padres’ radar at some point this summer.
He’ll cost a lot, but he will still be highly sought after, even with his recent elbow surgery, and this could make the Padres a legitimate threat to take down the Dodgers in the NL West.
The Downside
The downside of this potential deal is that while the Padres do have some top prospects to spare, they still had to give up a lot to land Mason Miller last summer, and the supply is a little thinner this year.
With Skubal’s recent injury history, the Padres will have to consider if trading for him is worth it, especially since he is a free agent at the end of the 2026 season. He would make the Padres better in the short-term, but they also have to think about the future when considering this.
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