Padres trade rumors: Shields, Kimbrel and Upton are available but maybe not in much demand

Buster Olney on his blog this morning has some trade rumors about the Padres.  He reports that the Padres' recently acquired number one starter James Shields and their closer Craig Kimbrel are both being made available.  He says both are expected to be traded before the deadline on July 31st.

The problem is that there's a lot of starting pitchers and closers being made available throughout baseball which has driven demand for Shields and Kimbrel down considerably.  As a result the Padres might not get much in return for either of them.

James Shields carried the Padres team early on, both with his pitching and his leadership, but recently scouts have not been as impressed with his performance as he experiences regression.  In fact while the Padres thought they got a steal in the offseason now they may have to pay another team to take over his three year contract.

Trade Buzz - Buster Olney Blog - ESPN

Probably not $62 million over three years, which is what he is owed for 2016 through 2018. Rather, some evaluators guess he would get something in the range of $39-45 million over three years. So it could be that the Padres will have to ante up at least some of his salary if they decide to trade him.

Olney also talked to other team's executives and ranked their interest in closers.  It seems that Kimbrel is second behind Aroldis Champan in this market.  Not bad, but with Chapman, Papelbon and K-Rod all available rival team's will have options.

Kimbrel is a serious candidate to be moved, as rival execs believe, then the closers' market may become more of a buyers' market for teams like the Blue Jays.

As we Padres fans have come to expect Justin Upton is as good as gone, and while he may be the best corner outfielder available mid-season his offense dropped considerably in June which could make his trade value plummet as well.

The Padres are looking to sell and actually have some pieces of value but they might not get much in return for them except for some salary relief if they are moved now.