Padres are still trying to dump Wil Myers on the Red Sox

The San Diego Padres are still trying to unload Wil Myers, and they’ve circled back to the Boston Red Sox in that effort.

It’s been no secret the San Diego Padres want to unload Wil Myers and some portion of the $61 million he’s owed over the next three years. Now, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, they are still talking with the Boston Red Sox about a deal involving Myers.

Initial trade talks between the Padres and Red Sox this offseason, with Myers as part of it, centered on San Diego getting Mookie Betts. It was more broadly hard to see the Padres’ reported initial offer as anywhere near enough to actually get Betts, and he was of course eventually traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Red Sox are reportedly interested in pitcher Cal Quantrill as well as highly touted prospects Luis Campusano and Gabriel Arias, though the Padres are unlikely to part with all three. Exactly who or what Boston would send back to San Diego in a deal is unclear, but that may be relatively inconsequential to the Padres as part of a bigger plan they’re trying to execute.

Even unloading about half of what Myers is owed would create a significant chunk of salary flexibility for the Padres. More specifically Acee pointed to long-held interest in Nick Senzel of the Cincinnati Reds as a target in San Diego’s search for a  “difference-making outfielder,” with ongoing interest in Cleveland Indians’ shortstop Francisco Lindor as well.

The Padres will have to, and they are surely plenty willing to, add a prospect to a deal in order to get a team to take Myers off their hands. But why would the apparently suddenly fiscally prudent Red Sox want him, even if something like $30-$31 million in absorbed salary is spread over three years?