The trade deadline is (almost) here

The MLB trade deadline is officially tomorrow, but expect some deals to be completed today.

The MLB trade deadline is tomorrow afternoon, and it feels like about 75% of the league is working on acquiring a player between now and then. Many of them are vying for the same player(s). And A.J. Preller and the Padres seem to be right in the middle of it.

Think I’m exaggerating? Think that’s just my Padres bias that makes me ignore what most of the rest of the teams are doing? Check out how Ken Rosenthal started his trade deadline primer last night:

It’s A.J. Preller’s world, and the rest of the baseball industry is just living in it.

OK, maybe that’s an overstatement. But true to form, Preller is pursuing a dizzying number of deals and seems virtually certain to make at least one major move before Tuesday’s trade deadline at 6 p.m. ET.

Will it be with the Nationals for right fielder Juan Soto? The Cubs for catcher Willson Contreras, left fielder Ian Happ and perhaps even reliever David Robertson? The Athletics for righty Frankie Montas and perhaps catcher Sean Murphy or outfielder Chad Pinder, all of whom played for Padres manager Bob Melvin in Oakland?

At this point, probably not even Preller knows. To some degree, he is exploring each of the above possibilities, according to major-league sources. He also has made a run at the Angels for Shohei Ohtani, not that anyone in the industry expects the two-way star to move.

Yeah, I also need to catch my breath after that. We’ve been here before, hearing that A.J. Preller is working on multiple huge potential trades only to have most of them fizzle out.

In the past, we’ve felt that was the fault of MLB agent Scott Boras. He often works to get his clients to the big-market, big-money teams (like when Max Scherzer ended up with the Dodgers instead of the Padres last year). He also might take issue with how the Padres have handled another one of his clients, Eric Hosmer.

Either way, we’ve now reached the portion of trade deadline season where there are rumors of the Dodgers jumping into the Juan Soto discussions in an aggressive way. I’ll warn you to not go look up who Juan Soto’s agent is. (Yeah, it’s him.)

We’re now about four months into the MLB season and, unfortunately, a lot of what we think about this season when we look back on it is probably going to be determined by what A.J. Preller is able to accomplish in the next 30ish hours (and if Scott Boras is determined to screw the Padres over or not).

One thing is for sure, Preller seems to be going at this deadline with the right amount of urgency. I don’t want to say his job is on the line here, but his failure in early August would undoubtedly hang over the team for the rest of the season and risk another collapse that could be attributed more to the front office than the players on the field.

Doing that two seasons in a row is a good way to get your boss wondering if maybe you’re the problem. Also, if Soto ends up on the Dodgers or Giants, it’s going to raise a lot of questions of if the Padres can even compete in such a loaded division. That’s another good way to get the team chairman wondering if it’s time for a change at GM.

There’s no doubt about it, I’m ready to get hurt again.