Padres Land the Top Reliever on the Market By Acquiring Tanner Scott
The Padres added another big name for their bullpen acquiring Tanner Scott from Miami, with a steep prospect package headed to the Marlins.
The San Diego Padres already made a big swing on the trade market ahead of the deadline when they acquired Jason Adam from the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday.
Now GM A.J. Preller has gone even bigger by landing All-Star closer Tanner Scott from the Miami Marlins just hours before the 6 p.m. deadline hit.
The Padres also acquired an option at long relief that has minor league options in the deal as well, with right-hander Bryan Hoeing heading to San Diego along with Scott.
As it stood ahead of the trade deadline, the Padres sit half-a-game up on the their division rivals, the Arizona Diamondbacks, for the final National League Wild Card spot, so they are now firmly in pursuit of the postseason after missing out in 2023 following a 2022 run to the NLCS.
And Preller showed once again that he’s not scared to deal prospects to do so, as the Marlins land two Top 100 prospects according to our rankings, in Robby Snelling (37th) and Adam Mazur (89th), as well as another Top 10 Padres organizational prospect in Graham Pauley, along an additional infield prospect, Jay Beshears.
How Scott Fits Within the Padres Bullpen
The Padres have now added two guys with closing experience in the last few days between Adam and Scott.
Scott will likely challenge current Padres closer Robert Suarez for more save opportunities than Adam will considering Scott was the primary closer for the Marlins this season, and Adam only has four saves so far this season.
On top of the 18 saves Scott has recorded in 2024, Scott has been one of the league’s best relief arms this season, posting a 1.18 ERA, which ranks fourth league wide, a 1.01 WHIP and a 29.1% strikeout rate across 45.2 innings of work.
Scott’s advanced metrics also rank extremely highly among MLB pitchers, as he’s within the top 30% in several statistical categories this season.
| xERA (Percentile) | xBA | FB Velo | AVG EV | Chase % | Whiff % | K % | Barrel % | Hard-Hit % | GB % |
| 2.93 (89th) | .180 (98th) | 96.9 mph (91st) | 82.5 (100th) | 30.6% (72nd) | 33.2% (94th) | 29.1% (88th) | 5.9% (77th) | 28.7% (99th) | 51.5% (86th) |
And Scott provides another left-handed option late in games, joining Adrián Morejón, which brings much more balance in handedness to the Padres ‘pen.
San Diego now has a “formidable five” in the back-end of their bullpen between Suarez, Scott, Adam, Morejón, and Jeremiah Estrada.
| Name | ERA | WHIP | FIP | K/9 | BB/9 | fWAR |
| Robert Suarez | 1.51 | 0.86 | 3.06 | 8.64 | 1.73 | 0.9 |
| Tanner Scott | 1.18 | 1.01 | 3.24 | 10.45 | 5.32 | 0.9 |
| Jason Adam | 2.49 | 0.89 | 3.35 | 9.57 | 3.06 | 0.6 |
| Jeremiah Estrada | 2.72 | 0.98 | 2.25 | 14.07 | 2.72 | 1.0 |
| Adrián Morejón | 2.74 | 1.27 | 2.64 | 9.49 | 2.95 | 0.8 |
What the Padres Are Sending to the Marlins
As already mentioned, the price for a rental arm in Tanner Scott was steep for the Padres as the Marlins will receive three of their Top 10 prospects, Snelling, Mazur and Pauley, along with the additional prospect, Beshears.
Snelling, our 37th overall prospect, is the highlight of this deal. The 20-year-old left hander has appeared in 73.1 innings across 16 Double-A starts this season. While a 6.01 ERA and 1.68 WHIP does not look great so far this season, he posted ERAs under 2.50 in stops at Low-A, High-A and Double-A in 2023.
Adam Mazur, our 89th overall prospect, made his major league debut this season with San Diego this year. There is certainly room for the 23-year-old right hander to improve at the big-league level, as in 33.2 innings across eight MLB starts Mazur posted a 7.49 ERA with an 1.81 WHIP.
And in 23.0 innings in Triple-A this season Mazur hasn’t faired better with a 7.83 ERA. But in 32.1 innings in Double-A this season Mazur has seen far better numbers such as a 1.95 ERA.
Graham Pauley also saw his first big league cameo this season. Like Mazur, there is room for improvements for the 23-year-old third baseman as well. In 32 big league plate appearances Pauley hit just .125 with 2 homers, 5 RBI, a .438 OPS, an 18 wRC+ and a -0.3 fWAR.
In 301 Triple-A plate appearances this season he’s slashing .228/.342/.390. with 8 homers and 41 RBI. But Pauley was impressive across multiple minor league levels last season, hitting above .300 in and posting wRC+ totals above 140 in stops at Low-A, High-A and Double-A.
Beshears, is a 22-year-old infielder that has appeared in both Low-A and High-A in 2024. In 133 Low-A plate appearances, Beshears has slashed .320/.489/.454 with two home runs and 11 RBI. And in 241 High-A plate appearances he’s slashed .235/.308/.343 with 2 homers and 19 RBI.
Stay tuned for a full in-depth breakdown on the prospect return headed to the Marlins in a separate article.
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