5 potential scenarios if the Red Sox trade Mookie Betts
1. San Diego Padres
Any internal talk within the Red Sox organization about restocking their farm system almost has to start with the Padres. San Diego already had six top-100 prospects in place, then they added a seventh (outfielder Taylor Trammell) via the Cincinnati Reds in the trade deadline blockbuster that sent Yasiel Puig to the Cleveland Indians and Trevor Bauer to Cincinnati.
The Padres have mixed that pipeline of talent, which has started to arrive in the big leagues and perform (Fernando Tatis Jr., Chris Paddack), with big contracts for first baseman Eric Hosmer and third baseman Manny Machado in the last two offseasons.
Despite those big obligations to Hosmer and Machado, as well as Wil Myers ($60 million over the next three seasons, club option for 2023) the Padres have the 13th-highest projected payroll for 2020 and they have $79 million committed for 2021 (12th-highest right now). So there seems to be room to add to the payroll, even accounting for raises via arbitration or any preemptive contract extension for someone like Tatis. It’s clearly nice to have a pipeline of cost-controlled talent.
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The Padres can make virtually any trade without worry about leaving their system depleted. It’s time to start showing results on the field, so a deal for Betts has to be on the radar for general manager A.J. Preller.