Report: Blake Snell and Josh Hader expected to remain Padres past trade deadline

According to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, “the expectation is that starter Blake Snell and closer Josh Hader will remain” with the San Diego Padres past the MLB trade deadline.

The Padres enter tonight’s series vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates four games under .500 after a 5-5 road trip coming out of the All-Star break.

This latest report from Gonzalez isn’t surprising based on the public comments over the last month from A.J. Preller and Peter Seidler but is not trading those guys the smartest thing to do?

Snell (0.71 ERA last 11 starts) and Hader (0.97 ERA this season) would be the best pitchers available on the market (assuming Shohei Ohtani isn’t made available by the Los Angeles Angels) and based on how the Padres are playing this season, Snell and Hader won’t be pitching in the World Series for them this season.

They’re free agents at the end of the season and it doesn’t seem like the Padres would be the favorite to sign them, considering they just gave over $40 million to Robert Suarez to fill Hader’s role before the season and have given out two large contracts to two of their starters already (Joe Musgrove $100 million, Yu Darvish $108 million).

This season doesn’t look like it will result in any long playoff run so it’s probably best to get something back for Hader and Snell that could get them something back that can help them next season and in the future. With that said, Seidler and Preller went all-in on this season so they probably don’t want to give up on it, especially considering how weak the National League is.

What would you do with Snell and Hader? Let your thoughts be known in the comments!