The San Diego Padres have one of baseball’s top three left-handed relievers in Brad Hand, so naturally they’ve fielded plenty of interest leading up to Monday’s 1 p.m. PT non-waiver trade deadline.
Despite the heavy interest and Padres being well out of the playoff picture and in the process of rebuilding, whether the club would trade Hand is hardly considered a forgone conclusion. Padres general manager A.J. Preller is said to have placed a very high asking price on his reliever.
So much so that it’s been compared to a hypothetical situation of what the Los Angeles Dodgers would command in a trade for Clayton Kershaw. According to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, there was some belief the Padres lowered their asking price but that notion was refuted shortly after:
#Padres no longer seeking top-tier prospects for Brad Hand. But teams have been offering "limited ceiling,'' 15-20 ranked types. Not enough.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 30, 2017
I never like to contradict my own reporting, but execs with multiple clubs say #Padres "haven't moved an inch'' in their ask on Brad Hand.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 30, 2017
On top of Hand being in the midst of an All-Star year, he’s not eligible to reach free agency until the 2020 season. For comparison, Zach Britton and Justin Wilson each have one year of salary arbitration remaining.
The Padres reportedly asked the Dodgers to include Alex Verdugo in trade for Hand, which appears to have been a non-starter for Los Angeles. Verdugo has also fielded interest from the Oakland Athletics and Texas Rangers in potential deals for Sonny Gray and Yu Darvish.
Hand is 2-4 with six saves, a 2.00 ERA, 2.52 FIP, 0.96 WHIP, and has 70 strikeouts in 54 innings over 49 games. The Dodgers, Houston Astros and Washington Nationals are among the teams believed to have interest in trading for Britton, Hand or Wilson.
