It seems apparent at this point that the San Diego Padres are intent on trading Jake Peavy this winter. Sure, they just signed him to a three-year extension last December worth $52 million, but they thought they were going to have a good team at the time. A 63-99 record this season proved otherwise, and now the organization is heading in a different direction.
The Padres want to rebuild, and they could use all that money they promised to Peavy to do it, so they're going to try and move him. The problem is that Peavy had a full-no trade clause put in to his new contract, so their options are limited. In fact, there are only five teams they can trade Jake to at the moment that he'll be cool with.
[Jake's agent Barry]Axelrod said Padres General Manager Kevin Towers told him late in the season that the team was looking to rebuild and that could benefit from unloading Peavy's contract. Axelrod said he recently gave Towers a list of teams to which Peavy might consent to being traded. On that list were the Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals.
"This isn't Jake asking," Axelrod said. "He wants to stay in San Diego."
Of those five teams, I'm guessing you could take the Dodgers right off the list. I don't think the Padres would trade Peavy to a division foe unless they got a lot in return. As for the Cubs, I'm not sure if they have enough in their system after the Harden trade to get Peavy, though maybe if they were willing to give up Jeff Samardzija and Carlos Marmol, the Padres would listen. Can you imagine the Cubs with a rotation of Carlos Zambrano, Rich Harden, Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly, and Jake Peavy? Why they might win 120 games before getting swept out of the first round next season!
You'll also notice that the Yankees, who have expressed their interest in Peavy over the last few weeks, aren't on the list.
