Why Did the Padres Make the Matt Carpenter Trade?

On Friday, the San Diego Padres traded away veteran infielder Matt Carpenter to the Atlanta Braves for an outfielder prospect. San Diego also sent cash to Atlanta in the trade to cover some of his salary, as well as LHP Ray Kerr.

Carpenter is scheduled to be owed $5.5 million for the 2024 season after he exercised his player option. It was clear after he picked up the option that he wasn't in the plans for San Diego next season.

There had been talk about the team looking to move Carpenter for weeks, and they finally got a taker. They originally brought him in with the hope that he would provide them with a nice veteran presence, and a solid bat. He seemed to find his swing while with the New York Yankees in 2022, leading to the belief from the Padres.

However, Carpenter struggled mightily with the Padres in 2023, hitting just .176 with five home runs and 31 runs batted in. It was clear that San Diego wasn't a big fan of his, as he only saw 76 games of action last season.

The Padres also cleared two roster spots in the process, with their 40-man roster now sitting at 32 players. This opens up more flexibility for the team to make moves for the rest of the winter.

San Diego has been trying to reduce their payroll all offseason, so this was simply a salary dump. 

Despite the $5.5 million not being a large sum of money on the books, anything helps at this point. Their need to save forced the front office to trade away star outfielder Juan Soto to the New York Yankees.

It has also seen them lose out on retaining multiple starting pitchers from their 2023 rotation who provided much value to the team. They are now suffering the consequences of their spending frenzy over the last few seasons that ultimately amounted to just one NLCS appearance.