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San Diego Padres starting pitcher Joe Musgrove doesn’t believe the sky will fall in Southern California if the team moves Blake Snell and/or Josh Hader before the MLB trade deadline.
Musgrove said the Padres are “a really good team regardless” of what happens over the next few weeks, according to San Diego Union-Tribuneby Kevin Acee:
“There’s some guys they’re not going to trade. And even if we do — the guys that are available, Blake (and) Hader, who will be (free agents) at the end of the year — we’ve got a team of well here without those guys. Obviously we’re not the same team without them, but I don’t feel like a very good team. We’re thinking about winning games one at a time and just putting as much together as we can.” .
San Diego is 10.5 games out of first place in the National League West and 7.5 games off the pace for last place in the playoffs, and FanGraphs gives the team a 26.3 percent chance to make the playoffs.
This has led many to wonder if the Padres will be a seller at the deadline, despite the high expectations they had heading into the year. Snell and Hader would be natural candidates to go because both will enter free agency this winter.
General manager AJ Preller can also feel pretty good about cashing in on a pair of southpaws without making a long-term impact. Almost all of the Padres’ top players are either signed or under team control for multiple seasons.
With that in mind, it’s probably telling that neither Snell nor Hader had extensions before Opening Day.
The 2023 season will be considered a failure if San Diego misses the postseason at all, but the franchise’s contending window should remain open for the foreseeable future.
