Padres Shopping Mason Miller and Jeff Passan Just Confirmed What Everyone Suspected

Mason Miller is having an absurd season. The Padres closer has 25 saves and a 0.89 ERA. His fastball is still touching triple digits. He looks like one of the five best relievers in baseball right now. And the Padres are absolutely listening on him.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan went on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday and didn’t hedge. Mason Miller is definitely available, Passan said. The Padres need major league ready starting pitching. That’s about as blunt as a trade rumor gets. San Diego isn’t just fielding calls. They’re making them.

The Padres were leading the NL West earlier this year. That feels like a lifetime ago. San Diego sits at 49-51 and the team’s rotation has been getting hammered. The offense isn’t scoring. The bullpen is basically Miller and prayers. And now the front office has to decide if they want to punt on 2026 or try to patch things up with a Miller trade.

Passan’s report lines up with what Yahoo Sports has been hearing. The Pirates make a ton of sense here — Pittsburgh’s bullpen is a mess and they have young arms to offer. The Rays, Tigers, Yankees, Dodgers and Brewers have also been mentioned as potential landing spots. That’s a lot of interest for a guy with two more years of team control after this one.

Miller’s been asked about the noise

He said earlier this month that he’s just trying to stay locked in. It’s competitive, it’s all about getting hot at the right time, Miller told MLB.com. I think you’ll see a lot of teams probably adding and going for it, because anything can happen any given year. You’ve just got to get in.

That’s easy to say when you’re 25 years old and throwing 102. But Miller has also been human enough to know this is a business. The Padres are asking for major-league-ready starting pitching in return. That’s a specific ask. Not prospects. Not lottery tickets. Guys who can pitch in the big leagues tomorrow. That narrows the field of trade partners pretty quickly.

The trade deadline is August 3. The Padres play the Braves on Tuesday. If Miller comes out of the bullpen in that game, it might be one of his last appearances in a San Diego uniform.