The San Diego Padres don't appear set for contention next season, and a duo of past-prime starting pitchers isn't going to change that, but here we are: The Padres are reportedly looking at free agent starting pitchers Jered Weaver (Jon Heyman) and Jake Peavy (San Diego Union-Tribune).
Weaver, 34, was 12-12 with a 5.06 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and just 103 strikeouts in 178 innings last season. He led the AL with 37 home runs allowed. His velocity is dipping down into the low-80s and even high-70s. Yes, on his fastball.
Peavy, 35, was 5-9 with a 5.54 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and 102 strikeouts in 118 2/3 innings for the Giants.
The Padres recently added Clayton Richard and Jhoulys Chacin. The rest of the rotation right now appears to be Luis Perdomo, Christian Friedrich and Paul Clemens.
Why would the Padres be talking to these guys? Three reasons:
1. Innings. Teams in a rebuild need to get through innings without overworking youngsters -- not to mention worries about running youngsters into the ground, confidence-wise, if they aren't yet ready to perform in the bigs.
2. Locker room. Both of these guys have been around winning teams -- Peavy has two rings -- and it never hurts to have those types of voices around rebuilding teams.
3. Sign-and-flip possibility. If either of these guys pitches well in the first half of the season, there's a possibility the Padres can get something back for them in trade season. It might be a longshot, but the chance of flipping either is greater than zero, so it doesn't hurt anything.
Note that the Padres right now are only committed to $27.9 million in post-arbitration salaries and including everyone, the estimated roster payroll, which doesn't even come to $55 million, is the lowest in baseball by a significant margin.
So while it sounds incredibly unexciting -- and that's probably being nice -- adding either or both of these guys wouldn't be a terrible idea.
