This is what San Diego Padres AJ Preller said in an interview with local media at Petco Park on the 31st (Korea time). Here, “he” is Kim Ha-sung. It is a trade-related story.

San Diego succeeded in reinforcing its necessary power by carrying out two big trades on the day of the trade deadline.

Through a trade with the Miami Marlins, he acquired top-ranked closer Tanner Scott and right-hander bullpen Brian Hoying, and brought in Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Martin Perez. Earlier on the 29th, he traded setup man Jason Adam from the Tampa Bay Rays and began his “big buyer” move in earnest.

Of course, the loss was huge. He had to give up five of the top 10 prospects in order to secure three trades.

The reason why San Diego “all-in” to advance to the postseason even by giving up “part of” the club’s future is because it believes there is a possibility. San Diego enhanced the mood by winning 6-5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a rival of the same National League West division, at Petco Park on the day.

With 58 wins and 51 losses, the Dodgers narrowed its gap versus Dodgers (63 wins and 45 losses) to 5.5 games, and firmly maintained its third place in the NL wild card. It is no exaggeration to say that the Dodgers, which used to be far away, are now in the range. The FanGraphs suggested that the San Diego Padres have a 66.1 percent chance of playing in the postseason.

The figure rose to the 60% level after San Diego hit a low of 34.5% in July when it lost 0-7 to the Cleveland Guardians in its first game of the second half and then won seven consecutive games.

However, it seems much earlier that Frelor decided to step into the trade market, namely around the end of June. From June 20 to June 30, the San Diego Padres recorded nine wins and one loss, including four consecutive wins and five consecutive wins, and made “+5 games” with a winning percentage of 500%. His 37 wins and 40 losses improved to 46 wins and 41 losses. Rumors of Kim Ha-sung’s trade also began to spread rapidly.

Rumors of Kim Ha-sung’s trade heated up last winter. After the end of this season, he will be able to reject the $7 million mutual option next year and enter the free agent market. It is known that internal opinions were raised that it is better to trade in advance a year if he cannot catch it anyway. Immediately after he won the Gold Glove in defense and hit a career high in batting, there was also an issue of an extension contract as it was the offseason. Local media outlet The Athletic even claimed that San Diego needs to sign an extension contract for seven years, 130 million dollars to 150 million dollars if it wants to keep Kim Ha-sung in a long-term format without trading him.

The issue of Kim Ha-sung’s trade did not fade even after the start of this season, but died down at the end of June as the atmosphere was detected that San Diego would make all-out efforts to advance to the postseason. Trade rumors eventually flow from within the club. In other words, it seems that Preller may have considered or pushed for Kim Ha-sung’s trade at least until the end of June.토토사이트 추천

However, that is not the case anymore. Kim Ha-sung is the core of the infield defense as an unwavering shortstop, and is indispensable to the San Diego Padres, which maintains the center in the lower batting line.

In this situation, General Manager Preller said on the same day that he had never considered a Kim Ha-sung trade.

“Kim Ha-sung is a big part of the team,” he said in an interview released by San Diego’s local sports radio “97.3 The Fan” on his X account. “He shows energetic play every day, and pitching and defense are important to win, but he is playing his part in the infield defense,” he said. “We have never had a conversation about Kim Ha-sung’s trade ahead of the trade deadline. We have to be with shortstop Kim Ha-sung to go where we are aiming for the next two months and he has to make a big contribution.”

However, it should be noted that the timing was specified as “ahead of the trade deadline.” In other words, the team could have negotiated a trade deal before then. If the San Diego Padres had failed to win consecutive games at the end of June and had been hovering below the winning rate of 50 percent, Kim Ha-sung’s name would have been included in the trade rush.