Padres Should Trade Adrian Gonzalez

Adrian Gonzalez is one of the best hitters in all of baseball. He's only 27 years old. He only makes about $3 million dollars per year and he's likely never headed to arbitration. He doesn't miss games (played 161 in 2007 and 162 in 2008) and he is -- by most accounts -- a great teammate and citizen.

And I think the Padres should trade him sometime this July.

That's right, the San Diego Padres should trade their main (only?) offensive weapon instead of building around him. The main reason is that they really, really suck and it doesn't appear things are going to change anytime soon. They also don't have enough money to add through free agency, not many of their younger major-league ready players are going to have a significant enough impact to compete the next few years and they have to build from the ground up. Yes, Gonzalez is a stud -- only the Red Sox and Cardinals are getting better offensive production from first base -- but one player isn't getting the team out of this mess.

As Branch Rickey once told Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner -- before trading him to the team in the opposite dugout midseason -- "I can finish last without you."

When a team like the Padres faces such an uphill battle in rebuilding, conventional wisdom says to shed the big-ticket players with high contracts -- and they will trade Jake Peavy -- and keep the stars with lesser contracts to build around. The problem here is that the Padres can't be ready to compete for the next two years. They aren't anywhere near competing. They need a large quantity of good young players, and dealing a player as attractive as Gonzalez would be on the open market is the best way to land several stellar prospects.

It's the same reason the Pirates traded Jason Bay, the A's dealt Dan Haren, and the Orioles got an absolute killing for Erik Bedard. You can't build with one player, however attractive his play and future salary might be (for the record, he does have a $5.5 million club option for 2011, which would eliminate his arbitration service-time period).

There's more to the story here, too. His name is Kyle Blanks. The menacing Blanks -- he's 6-foot-6, 285 pounds -- is one of the top power hitting prospects in the league. He's only 22 years old, and he's hit eight home runs in 126 at-bats this year in triple-A. He's not necessarily major league ready just yet, but he certainly will be by 2011, where the Padres should presently have their eyes planted. Moving Gonzalez would enable them to develop their future star first baseman and be able to actually put a supporting cast around him.

Glancing around the league, the Mets may end up having interesting in Gonzalez. The Blue Jays are pitching rich -- especially when Dustin McGowan and Shawn Marcum get healthy -- and could stand to upgrade over Lyle Overbay. The Braves are starved for power and Casey Kotchman hits more like a second baseman. What if Derrek Lee's neck issue puts him out for the season? Jim Hendry might not be satisfied with Micah Hoffpauir. What if Kevin Youkilis suffered a season-ending injury and the Red Sox continued to get no offense from David Ortiz? They have tons of pitching. There are many cases of unforeseen injuries each season. Gonzalez is such a great all-around player who comes with such a modest price tag that a myriad of teams would consider pulling the trigger to win now. It would behoove the Padres to exploit any such instances.

We don't know exactly how much the Padres can land for both Gonzalez and Peavy. We do know that they are both superstars and can potentially land upwards of 10 prospects between the two of them. We also know the Padres have lost 19 of their last 23 games with the duo on the team. It's not like things can get any worse in 2009, so it's time to look toward 2011 and beyond.

No guts, no glory. Trade Adrian Gonzalez.