Padres Nations Letter to Santa: The Top Players, Trade and Moves on San Diego

There are thousands of kids across San Diego making their wish lists before Christmas but for the die-hard Padres fans, maybe they don’t have any physical gifts they want. Maybe their wish is for A.J. Preller to acquire specific players.

Feel free to put your wish list in the comments. Here’s mine:

Sign Roki Sasaki

Duh.

It’s clear the Padres aren’t spending big money (they may actually lower payroll) and they need starting pitching so what’s better than signing the best 23-year-old Japanese pitcher to a cheap deal? Nothing.

The rotation already needed reinforcements if Joe Musgrove didn’t have to get Tommy John surgery but now it’s even more important for Preller to acquire not just depth but front line caliber arms. From what I’ve read and seen, Sasaki has the potential to fill that role.

Yu Darvish, it’s time to get your recruiting hat on.

Sign Elias Díaz and/or Martín Maldonado

Not going to lie—I didn’t want this to be on my wish list. I was hoping Kyle Higashioka would’ve already signed back but he went to Texas on a pretty reasonable contract so my wishes changed a little bit.

There aren’t great realistic free agent options available but Diaz and Maldonado could come in San Diego’s price range. Diaz was bad enough to be released last season by Colorado and he didn’t get much time when the Padres picked him up so I’m not sure there’s going to be a lot of demand for him.

He’s still appealing though because he has 7+ years in the big leagues and is above average behind the plate, which is needed with Luis Campusano as the starting catcher as of now. Him (or Maldonado) mentoring Ethan Salas during Spring Training is a positive too.

Maldonado can pop one every once in a while down at the bottom of the order and he had a lot of postseason experience with the Astros. If that Houston pitching staff trusted him, then I’m sure San Diego’s will as well.

Bring back Jurickson Profar

This one could get tricky if there becomes too high of a demand for him but if he signs elsewhere, it’ll be like when Wil Myers was wearing a Reds uniform. It just didn’t look right. There are just certain guys who belong in San Diego and Profar’s one of them.

Who knows if he’ll be that good again in 2025 but there’s no doubt in my mind Profar’s hungry to win a championship and losing his production (24 HR, .839 OPS, 85 RBI) would really be disappointing.

There are some intriguing free agent left fielders (Alex Verdugo, Eloy Jimenez, Tommy Pham, Jesse Winker) but all of them come with risks.

Acquire a couple more starters

Whether or not they land Sasaki next month, this team needs multiple starters. Teams nowadays have to expect that multiple starters will miss time in their seasons. Shoot, look at the Dodgers last year with how many arms they had but then they were putting together bullpen games in October because of all the injuries.

Who knows if Dylan Cease gets moved but let’s say he stays. The rotation would be Cease, Michael King, Yu Darvish, and then who? There’s nobody written in pen—just pencil (Matt Waldron and Randy Vasquez). I don’t think the Padres want to go the whole season having to rely on those two to stay healthy and fill innings.

Some may think other teams don’t want Padres prospects anymore but year after year teams end up acquiring their prospects so I’d be surprised if a trade isn’t made to acquire controllable pitching.

Could they go the free agent route? Sure, but even back-end starters coming off not so great years are probably getting around $7 million a year. Can the Padres afford to do that when it’s not just starting pitching they need?