Option A (Trading Kouz) is problematic. If you look at most teams, Kouzmanoff represents either a slight upgrade or lateral move. Teams traditionally won’t give up very much to do that. But maybe he becomes part of a package to get someone.

Option B (Letting Giles go) means that the Padres will have more money to spend elsewhere ($6 million on top of ~$30 mill to geet back to the same payroll as 2008), but how could they spend it? In this scenario we are full of OFs, set at 3B and 1B. There is nobody worth throwing money at as a C. You could throw money at Furcal or Cabrera, but Cabrera doesn’t seem worth it and suspect Furcal may get more years on his deal that the Padres feel comfortable with. I could same the same sentence for 2B replacing Cabrera and Furcal with Ellis and Hudson. Plus, right now the plan seems to be to use Antonelli as the starting 2B next year (assuming he has a decent September). Using the money for the bullpen is usually a waste, relievers just aren’t consistent enough to throw gobs of money their way. So that leaves the rotation. I guess you could hope that they get involved in the Sheets and Sabathia bidding wars, but I’m not sure they could win either of those without significantly overpaying the competition (and how you overpay when the Yankees are involved?). I guess my point is that the money is difficult to spend and extra $6 million savings on Giles really doesn’t tip the scales for a particular free agent or something considering the Padres have almost $30 million free to do that already. So you end up most likely downgrading a position (Venable for the part projects as a 4th OF type, while Giles is still a top 10 RF) without any side benefits. That was a lot longer than I expected and somebody will probably take something out of context. I’m not saying either can’t happen, but at this point I have trouble seeing the sense in either.