James Shields has cleared waivers

[bluerap23]

I think we should try to trade for him for 2 reasons.

1. Prevent someone else in the American League from getting him. If NY gets him it will hurt for example.
2. It is still very unlikely that Price resigns. I'm concerned about next years rotation and this would go a long way to solidify things. If you have the opportunity to resign Price you do it and you can always trade Shields after, but at least you have a solid backup plan if things don't work out. I'm pretty sure San Diego will be willing to eat the 2.5 million he is owed this season so it won't affect this year's budget and you can get creative next year. If Price resigns and you want to keep Shields you can start by letting Dickey walk. That will cover half his salary.

I'd offer hutchison and a prospect or two.

[Santoki]

I think we should try to trade for him for 2 reasons.

1. Prevent someone else in the American League from getting him. If NY gets him it will hurt for example.
2. It is still very unlikely that Price resigns. I'm concerned about next years rotation and this would go a long way to solidify things. If you have the opportunity to resign Price you do it and you can always trade Shields after, but at least you have a solid backup plan if things don't work out. I'm pretty sure San Diego will be willing to eat the 2.5 million he is owed this season so it won't affect this year's budget and you can get creative next year. If Price resigns and you want to keep Shields you can start by letting Dickey walk. That will cover half his salary.

I'd offer hutchison and a prospect or two.

I wouldn't offer much for him. Just taking on the remainder of his contract is enough. I don't think the Jays do it at any point this year. He'll likely be traded in the offseason.

[Skin Blues]

The Padres would have to eat more than $2.5M of Shields' contract for us to just throw in Hutch. He may be having a bad year but he's under control for 3 more after this and he's got potential to be a solid, cost controlled #3 starter. Remember, nobody was even willing to pay Shields' salary, so he could be worth far less than the remaining money owed on his deal. $2.5M might not even be enough to cover the overpayment.

The Padres made some pretty huge mistakes in the offseason and it's taken them from a promising team down to one that will have trouble competing in the near future with all of their prospects shipped out of town. It wasn't Preller, but I still remembe when they traded Rizzo for Cashner, because he was expendable with Yonder Alonso on the team... haha. Cashner has been OK, but Rizzo is on pace to earn over $300M in surplus value (value minus salary). Good mgmt vs bad mgmt.

[bluerap23]

Remember these were retractable waivers. Lots of guys clear those.

[Schad]

The Padres would have to eat more than $2.5M of Shields' contract for us to just throw in Hutch. He may be having a bad year but he's under control for 3 more after this and he's got potential to be a solid, cost controlled #3 starter. Remember, nobody was even willing to pay Shields' salary, so he could be worth far less than the remaining money owed on his deal. $2.5M might not even be enough to cover the overpayment.

The Padres made some pretty huge mistakes in the offseason and it's taken them from a promising team down to one that will have trouble competing in the near future with all of their prospects shipped out of town. It wasn't Preller, but I still remembe when they traded Rizzo for Cashner, because he was expendable with Yonder Alonso on the team... haha. Cashner has been OK, but Rizzo is on pace to earn over $300M in surplus value (value minus salary). Good mgmt vs bad mgmt.

And then they demonstrated that they had learned their lesson when they traded Grandal this offseason because he was expendable thanks to the acquisition of Norris and presence of Hedges in the minors. Oopsie.

And yeah. A player's trade value should be fairly similar to their free agent value...if they sign for $20m a year, and can be reasonably expected to produce the value of a guy signed for $20m a year, they shouldn't cost all that much in trade, because otherwise you're indicating that you really ought to have signed them in the first place. Shields is paid like a ~3 WAR player over the next four years, but at his age there's a good chance he doesn't reach that on average; unless the Padres are eating an awful lot of money, he shouldn't really produce much/any return. And indeed, that's likely why he cleared waivers in the first place.

[UN-Owen]

I think he'd help us this year by replacing Hutch in the rotation, and then can replace one of Price/Buehrle/Dickey in the rotation next season depending on what we do in the off-season


One more reason to get Shields is so he doesn't end up with the Yankees