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It turns out that the Los Angeles Dodgers aren't the only team in the NL West allowed to play outside games.
According to Dan Hayes and Dennis Lin of The Athletic, “The Minnesota Twins and San Diego Padres have talked about a trade that would send veteran Christian Vázquez to San Diego… No deal was thought to be close Wednesday, but there appears to be motivation on both sides to keep talking. .”
Vázquez, 34, hit .221 with seven homers, 27 RBI and 29 runs scored last season. So no, he's not the same player as Rōki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Tanner Scott or Teoscar Hernández, but he fills a need for a Padres team looking for a potential upgrade over incumbent Luis Campusano (.227 with homers eight and 40 RBI).
In fact, the only signing or trade the Padres have made all winter is signing veteran Martín Maldonado to a minor league contract. For a Padres team that has been active in both the free agent and trade markets in recent years, the current season has been difficult.
Of course, the Padres will return the bones of a team that won 93 games last season, eliminated the Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card Round and took the eventual winner Dodgers to Game 5 of the NLDS.
But the Padres never got the better of their northern rivals.
Regarding Vázquez, Hayes and Lin said that “the most important factor in the negotiations between the groups is believed to be the amount of Vázquez's contract in San Diego to take in exchange. who would be ace in Roki Sasaki, is expected to exceed the highest tax.”
In other words, the splashy move isn't coming this winter. But Vázquez could still be the upgrade that is needed.
