The San Diego Padres went out brutally to the Chicago Cubs in the NL Wild Card series, and now they need to figure out what they need to upgrade to contend next season. While the first thing they need to do is retain their pitching, getting another hitter, possibly a catcher, should be on their list as well.
Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller believes the same as well, proposing the Padres make a trade with the Colorado Rockies for All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman.
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The trade would look like this:
Padres get: C Hunter Goodman
Rockies get: C Ethan Salas
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“Hunter Goodman is very good right now and could provide a big boost to the Padres in 2026. His 31 home runs and .843 OPS from this past season would have made him the top slugger in San Diego. Moreover, it would have come predominantly at a position where the Padres struggled mightily in 2025, ultimately giving up two starting pitchers (Stephen Kolek and Ryan Bergert) at the trade deadline to bring in Freddy Fermin, who isn’t even much of a hitter in his own right,” Miller wrote.
This season, Goodman slashed .278/.323/.520/.843 with 31 home runs and 91 RBI in 144 games played. He is also not a victim of the Coors Field Effect, as he hit 18 of his 31 home runs in other stadiums.
In addition to all of that, he will only cost $820,000 for the 2026 season. To get his level of production for that low a price is insane; an All-Star for less than one million dollars is a no-brainer for many teams. Hopefully, the Padres realize that and start working on a deal right away.
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