Pittsburgh Pirates: Five Potential Landing Spots for Starling Marte

One team that is looking to be aggressive this off-season is the San Diego Padres.  Other than the Atlanta Braves, the San Diego Padres have the best farm system in baseball, and there’s an argument that it is better than Atlanta’s system.  Like the Braves, the Padres have plenty of pitching to offer in a trade for Starling Marte.  Meanwhile, the Padres are in a position to add to a young core along with a couple of veteran hitters.

The team started their aggressive push two offseasons ago when they signed Eric Hosmer to a $144 million deal.  Then, last off-season they gave superstar Manny Machado a contract worth $300 million 10 years.  San Diego also saw Fernando Tatis Jr. quickly turn into one of the game’s young superstars.  The biggest weakness for the Padres has been center field.  While Manual Margot plays positive defense, he really lacks with the bat.  Last year Margot batted just .234 with an OBP of .304; Marte would be a big-time upgrade.

As mentioned earlier, the Padres have plenty of pitching that they could offer to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Starling Marte.  Their top pitching prospect is McKenzie Gore and he is likely still a year before making his MLB debut, though it would be hard to imagine the Padres being willing to give up the top left-handed pitching prospect in baseball.  However, they have plenty of other pitchers that they could offer.  Their number two pitching prospect, Luis Patino, reached Double-A last year and is ranked in the top 50 prospects in baseball.  Also, they have two arms that rank in their top ten prospects who made their MLB debuts in 2019.  Their number seven prospect is a left-handed pitcher by the name of Adrian Morejon. The other prospect is number nine prospect Michel Baez.

In terms of catchers, the Padres number six prospect Luis Campusano could be a logical target as he enters Double-A next year and is ranked as a top 100 Prospect. They also have a catcher by the name of Blake Hunt, who ranks as their number 26 prospect and was a second-round pick in 2017. The nice thing about the Padres is that, like the Braves, they can get creative in making a package.