San Diego Padres: Fire Sale or Not to Fire Sale, That Is the Question

With the trade deadline fast approaching (July 31), teams are looking at their rosters and at their minor league systems to see what moves they can possibly make to either make their team better, or in the case of the Padres, completely tear their team apart.

Over the past several months, there have been rumors of an overhaul, or a "fire sale," if you want to call it that. 

It seems like that "fire sale" is well on its way as the Padres sent reliever Cla Meredith, after three and a half years with San Diego, to Baltimore for 31-year old infielder Oscar Salazar.

Meredith was one of the better relievers out of San Diego's bullpen, but with Edgar Gonzalez and David Eckstein both on the disabled list, the Padres were in need of infield help and didn't believe they had anyone in their minor league system who would be able to contribute.  So they did the only thing they could do, trade a hot commodity for a replacement piece.

With 11 days left until the deadline, I doubt it's going to be the last move that's made by this club.  Rumors of the possible trade of first baseman Adrian Gonzalez has come up and this time there may be a possibility of that happening.

The one team that could land the Padres' All-Star first baseman is the Texas Rangers. They would be getting a huge upgrade over their current first baseman, Hank Blalock, who took over at the position after Chris Davis was sent back to Triple-A earlier this month. 

The question with the two teams is, how much is San Diego going to ask in return for Gonzalez, who was traded from Texas to San Diego in 2006.  We already know that the Padres wanted a boatload, allegedly, in return for Jake Peavy when trade talks were ongoing with the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs.  Would they ask for the same or even more for Gonzalez?

Other players that you might see being talked about in trade rumors are pitchers Kevin Correia and Chad Gaudin, second baseman David Eckstein and third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff. 

Even more surprising than that could be the fact that closer Heath Bell also might find his name being mentioned in trade rumors in the next few weeks, as could pitcher Chris Young.

There seems to be no doubt among a lot of Padre fans, and even those close to the team, that the franchise has settled on going younger, which means getting rid of some of their older and more expensive pieces and starting over....again.

Most fans remember the season after the Padres run to the 1998 NLCS Championship and how most of the pieces from that team were traded away during that off season, a la Florida Marlins a few years later. 

That fire sale prompted a lot of fans to wonder if they would ever see a competitive team on the field any time soon, and for a few years, they were right.

It wasn't until 2005 that the Padres actually made a competitive run to the National League Western Division title, and not only did they do it that year, but they repeated in 2006 and came within one game of making it a three-peat. 

But, 2009 has the feel of 1998, as the franchise is looking into going into another rebuilding phase and it could be another five or six years before we see this team as a front-runner in the National League West. About the same time frame as the previous rebuilding phase they went through.

So, with less than two weeks to go until the trade deadline, it's just a matter of time before we see just how far this franchise is going to go and how many pieces they're about to sell off.  Is it going to be a complete overhaul, or is there a single player like Adrian Gonzalez, Heath Bell or Jake Peavy that they want to build around?

If that's what they're aiming for, I hope they're ready to hear one or all three of those players express their frustrations with having to wait even longer for a championship run.

Be ready Padre fans, it could be a bumpy ride.