Just a year after signing him to a four-year contract worth $75 million, could the San Diego Padres already being trying to rid themselves of veteran righthander James Shields?
According to a report by Jon Heyman of MLB Network on Friday, the Padres have had discussions with a few teams regarding a trade of Shields, including the Orioles and the Red Sox.
A few teams have talked to padres about James shields. O's are one. Red sox have talked to SD about SP; shields logical
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 25, 2016
Heyman does also note that while the Padres are willing to eat some of the money left on Shields’ deal, no trade appears imminent.
Padres are willing to pay some of shields' backloaded deal (21M per now), how much depends on return. Nothing thought close
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 25, 2016
The 34-year-old Shields went 13-7 with a 3.91 ERA and 216 strikeouts in his first season as a Padre in 2015. While Shields still possesses ace-quality material, these bloated contracts doled out to aging starters with a lot of tread on their tires virtually never pan out over the entire lifetime of the deal.
As such, it’s not exactly earth-shattering news that the Padres may be considering shipping the All-Star pitcher out of town, especially since fellow A-list Padres Matt Kemp and Andrew Cashner have had their names mentioned in trade rumors while Craig Kimbrel was actually traded.
Plenty of other teams should have interest in Shields if the Padres are indeed serious about dealing him away.
Image Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
H/T Rotoworld
