Padres prioritizing right-handed bullpen help

The Padres are known to have a strong interest in White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet as they seek upgrades in the rotation, but Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that a “shutdown right-handed reliever” is San Diego’s “top” priority at the moment.

A right-handed reliever makes sense for the Padres, whose contingent of late-game arms skews somewhat left-handed. Beyond closer Robert Suarez, the Friars’ top right-handed arms are Jeremiah Estrada and Enyel De Los Santos. 

Estrada has been sensational this season, logging 21 innings of 0.86 ERA ball with an enormous 43.2 percent strikeout rate against an 8.6 percent walk rate. De Los Santos sports a solid-looking 3.54 earned run average, but he’s surrendered a whopping eight home runs in just 28 innings of work (2.57 HR/9). He has six holds but generally hasn’t been the preferred option in leverage spots — hardly all that surprising given his home-run woes.

Other right-handed options in manager Mike Shildt’s bullpen include Rule 5 pick Stephen Kolek and long reliever Jhony Brito. Kolek has been knocked around for an ERA just shy of 6.00 while sporadically working into low-leverage spots as the Padres try to navigate the season with him on the big league roster. Brito has been used primarily for long relief and has pitched well in that role. He’s unlikely to move into shorter, higher-leverage stints.

Estrada and southpaw Yuki Matsui have been the primary options in setup situations for Suarez. But Estrada pitched only 39 1/3 innings last season and has no track record of big league success aside from this year’s out-of-the-blue breakout. He’s also been more effective against lefties than righties, though neither has been able to mount much in the way of offense against him.

San Diego’s reported interest in Crochet and its early-season trade activity could be instructive when looking at potential bullpen targets. Beyond Crochet’s general excellence, he’s also being paid just an $800K salary this season. 

In the Padres’ acquisition of Luis Arraez, they not only convinced the Marlins to pay down the remainder of Arraez’s salary to the league minimum but also to take back the two-year, $4.5M contract of reliever Woo-Suk Go. 

It’s logical to expect they’ll have a particular interest in lower-salary relievers (or in paying a heavier prospect premium to convince a trade partner to pay down salary).

San Diego is just about $12M shy of the luxury-tax threshold, per RosterResource, with a bottom-line payroll of $166M. They’ve been unafraid to spend beyond their means in the past, but the Padres also slashed payroll by more than $80M this past offseason. 

It seems unlikely they’d take back a reliever on a notable contract unless said reliever’s current team included cash to help facilitate the swap.

Oakland’s Mason Miller stands as one obvious option — and he’s precisely the type of star-caliber player Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller tends to pursue with nearly unrivaled aggression. 

Teammate Lucas Erceg, just reinstated off the injured list Wednesday, is another speculative candidate who’d fit the bill. Other names will become clearer as July 30 inches closer and as teams more concretely plot their deadline trajectories. 

Some speculative names to keep in mind on current fringe contenders include Ryan Helsley (Cardinals), Yimi Garcia (Blue Jays) and Hunter Harvey (Nationals), to name only a few.