The Padres have made another big pitching add in obtaining Casey Mize from the Tigers, as per the New York Post’s Jon Heyman.  Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that utilityman Gage Workman is also headed to the Padres, while Detroit will receive left-handed pitching prospect Kash Mayfield and southpaw Jackson Wolf.  Both teams have officially announced the trade.

In typical A.J. Preller fashion, the Padres president of baseball operations has aggressively shored up the weak link that was his club’s rotation.  San Diego has now added both Mize and Robbie Ray in separate trades today, bringing two front-of-the-rotation arms to work alongside Michael King and Walker Buehler.  The Padres have been essentially working with a makeshift pitching staff for much of the year and leaning hard on their strong bullpen, but may now have something resembling a starter surplus.

If Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta are able to return in good form from their minor league rehab assignments, San Diego will have that duo, Mize, Ray, King, Buehler, and several hybrid starters or multi-inning relievers (i.e. German Marquez, Griffin Canning, JP Sears, Kyle Hart, Randy Vasquez) available to soak up innings.

There was some speculation just a couple of weeks ago that the struggling Padres might sell in some respects at the deadline, but that was before the club got on track by winning eight of its last nine games.  This put the Friars back into seller mode, and as Preller simply put it when speaking to MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell and other reporters, “we’re trying to win.  We don’t apologize for it.  We’re trying to win championships.  We’re trying to get to the postseason and do it year after year.”

The result was the Padres outbidding several teams for Mize, who will be a free agent after the season.  Despite this lack of long-term control, it wasn’t entirely clear if the Tigers (another team on the outskirts of playoff contention) would move Mize and other more obvious trade chips in a bid to reload for 2027.  Detroit may have stopped short of a full teardown, but the Tigers did deal their top two starters to the NL West in moving Mize to the Padres and Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers.

Mize hasn’t quite lived up the hype that came with being the first overall selection of the 2018 draft, but after overcoming a Tommy John surgery that cost him pretty much all of the 2022-23 seasons, the righty has been posting increasingly solid numbers over the last three years.  This season is on pace to be Mize’s best, as he has a 2.70 ERA, 24.9% strikeout rate, and 5.6% walk rate (all career highs in a full season) over 86 2/3 innings and 16 starts.

These bottom line numbers and other strong advanced metrics bode well for a move to another pitcher-friendly ballpark, and some stability for Mize after months of trade rumors.  The deal also means that Mize is ineligible for a qualifying offer as a free agent this winter, which should help his market.

Workman is a utilityman who has a .534 OPS over 55 plate appearances since making his MLB debut with the Cubs last season.  Workman selected away from the Tigers in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft, and he ended up playing for both Chicago teams before the White Sox sent him back to Detroit in May 25.  Between his strong Triple-A numbers and his ability to play all over the field, Workman is a useful depth piece for the Padres who might find more of a role than he did competing with other versatile players for spots on the Tigers’ bench.

Only about $2MM remains of Mize’s $6.15MM salary for the 2026 season.  No money is changing hands in the trade, so the Padres will pick up the modest tab.  MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker projected the Padres’ tax number at roughly $261.28MM before today’s moves, so San Diego will now be over the secondary tax penalty line of $264MM.

As Preller noted, the team is in win-now mode, so a second consecutive year of being tax payors is probably small potatoes for the Padres’ incoming new ownership group — especially if the Friars can make a deep postseason run.  While Mize wasn’t a big financial addition, he did cost the Padres a very notable prospect in Mayfield, ranked by both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America as a top-three minor leaguer in San Diego’s farm system.

Mayfield was the 25th overall pick of the 2024 draft, and the 21-year-old has a 3.54 ERA, 29% strikeout rate, and 10.3% walk rate in 53 1/3 innings at high-A Fort Wayne this season.  Evaluators rave about his changeup, and beyond that top pitch, Mayfield also has a fastball that can touch 95mph (though his heater doesn’t have much break) and a quality slider.  Both BA and Pipeline feel Mayfield can be a mid-rotation starter, and he is still young enough that he might be able to reach a higher ceiling as he develops.

Pipeline’s updated prospect rankings slot Mayfield sixth in the Detroit farm system, with Zyhir Hope (#2) and River Ryan (#5) also now near the top of the list after being obtained in the Skubal trade.  As much as Tigers fans are surely disappointed by how the 2026 season has gone, adding this much quality minor league talent can hopefully be a silver lining for the years ahead.

The 27-year-old Wolf technically has some big league experience, as he allowed three earned runs over five innings in his lone MLB game on July 22, 2023 (ironically, pitching for San Diego against Detroit).  Wolf has since been pitching at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels in the Padres’ farm system, and he has a 6.48 ERA over 282 innings of Triple-A ball.  The hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League has surely had some hand in that ERA, but Wolf will factor in as a depth arm for the Tigers.

Inset photo courtesy of Brett Davis – Imagn Images