3 teams that will regret not trading for SF Giants pitcher Carlos Rodón

3 teams that will regret not trading for SF Giants pitcher Carlos Rodón

2. The San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres won the trade deadline with the high-profile moves that they made. They acquired a bunch of stars including Juan Soto and Josh Bell from the Washington Nationals, Josh Hader from the Milwaukee Brewers, and Brandon Drury from the Cincinnati Reds.

Padres fans were feeling good about their chances and then star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. was slapped with an 80-game suspension after a failed PED test. Similar to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Padres are in a position of pondering whether their trade deadline frenzy was enough.

They have had a very nice season with a 73-59 record on the heels of finishing off a sweep against Carlos Rodón and the Giants. However, they currently sit 18.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the NL West.

Perhaps, comparing the Padres to a historically-great Dodgers team is not a fair assessment. However, the best-case scenario is that they finish in the second or third Wild Card spot, so there is clearly a performance gap between them and some of the better teams in the NL.

Plus, the Padres' rotation could have used the help. They have posted a 3.84 ERA this season, which ranks as the 12th-best mark in baseball. They have a frontline start in Joe Musgrove, who has recorded a 2.96 ERA in 23 starts in 2022. Besides him, they have a trio of mid-rotation arms including Yu Darvish (3.41 ERA), Blake Snell (3.87 ERA), and Mike Clevinger (3.59 ERA).

These are good pitchers, but adding a pitcher like Rodón would have given them another frontline starter to go with Musgrove. You can count on Musgrove to show up in an elimination game, but Padres fans might be in a position where they have to rely on one of Darvish, Snell, or Clevinger to dominate an elimination game. This is an uneasy position to be in.