Padres Still Have No Idea How to Make a 3-Team Trade

Once again, a team snuck its way into the MLB's Trade Deadline festivities on Tuesday, which led to many questioning the move.

However, this time the team in question was not the New York Mets.

In a three-team trade on Tuesday night, the San Diego Padres and general manager AJ Preller acquired top prospect Taylor Trammell from the Cincinnati Reds while trading pitcher Logan Allen, outfielder Franmil Reyes and infielder Victor Nova to the Cleveland Indians. Yes, that's right: San Diego once again agreed to serve as a conduit for someone else's bigger move, taking a major chance on a top prospect who'll make or break their participation in this deal.

In other words, the Padres gave up their seventh-best prospect (Allen), a big leaguer with 27 home runs and 46 RBI this year, and a 19-year-old (Nova) for the 30th best prospect in baseball (Trammell).

Allen projects to have a higher floor than ceiling, with a fastball that sits 92-94 mph with late life and a changeup to throw hitters off. Many believe he could be a workhorse in a starting rotation. Surely he could have been useful behind Chris Paddack and the other high-upside young Padres starters like top prospects Mackenzie Gore and Adrian Morejon.

Reyes is a 24-year-old slugger who his having a breakout year. He was in a crowded Padres outfield that included Wil Myers, Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot, and Preller seemingly dubbed Reyes as expendable and jumped on the opportunity to get a higher upside -- yet unproven -- player in Trammell.

Of course, part of their outfield crowding is caused by another three-teamer they once botched, bringing the frustratingly inconsistent Myers in while shipping a young Trea Turner to Washington.

While the 2018 Futures Game MVP is having a down year in the minors this season, injuries since the end of 2018 have no doubt played a role. And for San Diego's participation in this deal to make any sense whatsoever, they'd better

The Padres are a team loaded with prospects and are in need of pitching when they expect to be contenders in 2020-21 and beyond. It makes no sense for them to give up Allen's high upside and Reyes' major league production for a player that may or may not establish himself as a big leaguer.

Unless the next move is to flip Trammell to a team with a true, high-upside ace (Noah Syndergaard has since been pulled off the market), it's hard to see why the Padres made this move, inserting themselves where they didn't belong.