Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, so the winter will continue. At least we get to vicariously observe Spring Training starting in just one week, so it’ll feel a lot more spring-y.
- Even as we know the San Diego Padres almost certainly cannot add payroll from here (and may even have to chop down), nothing will stop A.J. Preller from trying to add:
Preller says he expects the Padres to enter the season with “a championship roster.” He adds: “Gotta add a bat or two, gotta add an arm or two.” https://t.co/s5P2Pouqrc— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) February 1, 2025
- It’s getting very late in the offseason to try to pull off too much in coordination if you’re talking about more than just signing a few free agent stragglers. So if the Padres are going to try – for example – to trade Dylan Cease (and/or Michael King and/or Robert Suarez) for a return that includes a starting pitcher and an outfield bat, while saving some money to make the other additions, they are going to need to get on that asap. And it impacts, eh hem, other teams, so all the more reason for me to want them to step on it one way or another.
- The Cubs are reportedly involved on Cease, and may be talking to the Padres about closer Robert Suarez, too. Since the Cubs do have other options via free agency (adding David Robertson, for example; also the extreme long-shot of fitting Alec Bregman in; landing other guys who’ve slipped; etc.), I have to believe they’re going to want a resolution on any of these trade talks sooner rather than later, and they can spend the dollars only once. Yes, you CAN make moves once Spring Training starts, but we’ve seen time and again, it’s just not ideal for player prep. So if the Cubs want to maximize their 2025 season, they’d be best suited finalizing the roster (more or less) within the next couple weeks. If a trade with the Padres is really a possibility and is the preferred path, then maybe you give San Diego another week to pull the trigger. Otherwise, you quickly move on and finish things up.
- Of note, those Preller comments came at the team’s fan fest, where Cease and Michael King were in attendance being asked about trade rumors. No useful or surprising comments from either one of them, but, hey, maybe the Padres wanted to wait to complete a trade until after the fan fest was over …
- I would accept this, honestly:
2025 MLB postseason prediction (unbiased) pic.twitter.com/WNVItTRBXR
— proud ranger fan (@RangerApologist) February 2, 2025
- This trade has been sufficiently stunning that it is transcending all sports worlds and showing up in places like these baseball Bullets:
- The best comp I could come up with is that this is like the Royals trading Bobby Witt Jr. to the Yankees for not even a monster return, or something like that. But, because of the concentration of roster talent in basketball, it’s actually more like the Royals trading two or three Bobby Witt Jr.’s to the Yankees. It’s crazy.
- As far as a baseball trade that has ACTUALLY happened like this – with this caliber of shock and zero rumors – I am having trouble coming up with a comparison. Most monster baseball trades are known in advance in the sense that we have an expectation that a particular player might be traded near a particular time. Sometimes the contours of the deal are shocking, yes, but when was the last time that a controllable 25-year-old super-duper star was traded like this out of nowhere? I’m drawing a blank.
- Also, are we sure the Mavs didn’t mean to trade Luka to the Dodgers?
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