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Hacksaw’s Holiday Sports Podcast
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“PADRES BASEBALL-KEEPING SCORE AT HOME
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A wild Hot Stove League of baseball deals in the month of December.
And we are not done yet.

It started with the blockbuster Juan Soto-Mets contract, worth (51M) a year.
It finished in December with Arizona’s (35M) a year deal with Corbin Burnes.

In between, a bunch of trades of big hitting first baseman, some deals with young prospects and a flurry of deals involving second tier free agents.

The Dodgers landed Blake Snell.
The Angels have brought in 7-free agents of varying degrees of talent.

Still out there is Japanese star Roki Sasaki, but now there are 20-teams out there requesting meetings with the 23-year old pitching phenom.

The Padres, have yet to make a move on any name players.
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No deals with price tags on next year’s contract for Dylan Cease-Mike King.
No contract upgrade for CF-Jackson Merrill.
The Padres shutout making the trades they wanted at the Winter Meetings.

Trade talks for a wide variety of pitchers who were on the block and have come and gone.

They have lost Kyle Higashioka.
The price tag on Jurickson Profar is too high.
Asking Ha Seong-Kim to take less in his contract was rejected.

AJ Preller has not made a deal with any of the top tier free agent pitchers, but that was expected, considering the huge price tag they were demanding, and the Friars payroll limitations..

A group of tier two free agent pitchers are still out there, but some have age issues, others are coming off injury issues in their career.

The Padres only off-season deals were for minor leaguers, refugees from other teams, or guys who have gone abroad and want to come back.

That roster of signees include:
..Jose Espada..a former Cardinals pitcher, who had a (2.89) ERA-in Japan
..Juan Nunez..a young reliever out of the Orioles farm system (2.45) in AA
..Eikin Huizi..from the Tigers farm system with a (4.68) mark in the minors.

..Oscar Gonzalez..a part-time DH-OF from Cleveland (.269-13HR) in career
..Moises Gomez..from the Cardinals system (127HR) in a minor league stay.
..Yon Perlaza..a Cubs 2B with 67-HRs in 7-years in the minors
..Trenton Brooks..a Giants minor league 1B..who hit (.120) in SF

Now there are still players you could trade for.  Maybe there is a bargain baseman veteran to sign.

Maybe Preller really believes the vacancies on his pitching staff can be filled after a year of experience with Randy Vasquez or Matt Waldon.  Maybe minor leaguers Alek Jacob..Stephen Koleik…Sean Reynolds…Jhonny Briito..Tom Cosgrove make a difference for a full season.

Minor league slugger Tirso Orelas or career minor leaguers Eguy Rosario-Brandon Lockbridge might grow into bench players.

6-weeks out from spring training, things can still happen in free agency, deals can still be made.  We just don’t know the price AJ will have to pay to keep his guys or go get other guys in the trade market.

Keeping score at home…we know this as of New Year’s Eve…”Padres are 0-for-Off Season” so far.

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