On his first day as a member of the San Diego Padres, with half an hour to the trade deadline and the clubhouse televisions tuned into MLB Network, Jason Adam unpacked his Tampa Bay Rays equipment bag.
It was a beautiful day in San Diego, of course. Instead of playing in a dreary and mostly empty dome in Florida, Adam got to play here Tuesday, before what would turn out to be the largest crowd in Petco Park history. And, yes, he knew the Dodgers were in town.
“I think it’s arguably the best rivalry in baseball right now,” Adam said.
He should fit right in.
Padres fans call it a rivalry; Dodgers fans scoff. The Padres last won a National League West championship 18 years ago; the Dodgers have won 12 since then. Padres fans will be happy to remind you their team knocked the Dodgers out of the playoffs two years ago, and the Dodgers have not won a postseason game since then.
The Padres had just returned from a trip in which they won a series in Cleveland and in Baltimore, homes to the teams with the two best records in the American League. A team that had fallen 10 games behind the Dodgers suddenly had climbed to within striking distance, and it was time for Padres general manager A.J. Preller to do what he always does, and what so many of his colleagues shudder to do: surrender top prospects for a better chance to win this year.
Adam, a relief pitcher with a 2.49 ERA, cost three prospects. Martin Perez, a veteran swingman, cost one prospect.
Tanner Scott, an All-Star closer with a 1.18 ERA for the Miami Marlins, cost the Padres four prospects, including three of their top five. That gave the Padres two All-Star closers, including incumbent Robert Suarez.
“We got better,” San Diego manager Mike Shildt said. “I got smarter.”
Scott’s name had flashed across the clubhouse televisions, but Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada hadn’t yet heard about the trade. When reporters asked, he wasn’t immediately sure who this Scott guy was.
“Oh, Tanner Scott?” Estrada said. “That’s the lefty I use in my bullpen on MLB The Show.”
Preller opted to fortify his bullpen, where Suarez has a 1.48 ERA, Adrian Morejon has a 2.68 ERA and Estrada has a 2.66 ERA.
In a pennant race, and even moreso in the postseason, matchups are magnified. The Dodgers’ final home games this season are against the Padres, and Scott could see a lot of Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.
“I was a Dodger fan,” Estrada said. “I always saw how many lefties were brought in whenever Andre Ethier was coming up to the plate.” (Ethier batted .233 against left-handers, .303 against right-handers.)
And, in October, no team needs five starters, meaning the Padres’ bullpen plus a couple of surplus starters could cover most of the innings in a postseason series. Starters seldom go six or seven innings in the regular season any more, let alone in October.
“We’ve seen some teams win championships that way,” Preller said.
For all the hype you hear about prospects, consider this: None of the top 100 prospects in baseball were traded at this year’s deadline, according to Baseball America. And, if anyone should be shy about trading prospects, it ought to be Preller, who has traded future All-Stars in Trea Turner, Max Fried and C.J. Abrams.
“You never want to say, ‘Hey, we’re going all-in for this one-year period,’ ” Preller said. “I heard that in ‘20 and ‘22. … You look up and, a year or two later, we still have a very competitive team and a really good farm system, good young players that we feel good about. …
“One thing we have never been scared of: We are going to trade players that are going to show up in the big leagues that are going to do really good things. But, if we get what we are looking to do and it works for us, both this year and over the next three to five years, we’re content with it.”
The Padres give fans what they want: a team that is trying to win. The fans give the Padres what they want: 33 sellouts in 55 home games.
“It’s a great time to be a Padre,” Adam said.
On Tuesday, it was.
The Padres, the team with two All-Star closers, delivered six innings of scoreless relief.
“That’s an A.J. win right there,” Shildt said.
The Dodgers, the team with no closer and a 5.81 bullpen ERA this month, gave up three runs in the final two innings: two in the ninth to tie; one in the 10th, on a pinch-hit single by journeyman Donovan Solano.
“We believe,” Solano said. “We can go to the playoffs. Why can’t we go to the World Series?”
If the playoffs started today, the Padres would be included. If the Padres beat the Dodgers again Wednesday, they’ll close to within 4½ games of first place, as close as they have been since May 4.
The starting pitcher for the Padres on Wednesday: Dylan Cease. In his last start, he threw a no-hitter.