Back in early June, when polled, 75% of you never wanted to see Will Venable in a Padres uniform ever again. On the contrary 93% of you wanted to keep Seth Smith. Well the Orioles might be interested in trading for both players as platoon outfielders. You'll have to take the good with the bad.
I'm thrilled at the continued roster turnover, even rumors get me excited. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all the stagnating players on the roster will be flushed by Opening Day. After Tim Stauffer's deal with the Twins, Will Venable is now the longest tenured Padre, but hopefully not for long.
Orioles still interested in Padres' Seth Smith and Will Venable, sources say - Baltimore Sun
The Padres need to move some outfielders, and left-handed hitters Seth Smith and Will Venable are drawing the most interest from the Orioles.
One team source said the Padres were inquiring about Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman, who have been on every team's wish list in potential trades. Obviously, that wasn't happening. But in a month, if the Padres are still looking to move outfielders, the Orioles would have bargaining power.
The weird thing about the Seth Smith extension, other than most people didn't like it, was that there was an unwritten agreement between the Padres and Smith at the time. Jon Heyman reported that the Padres made a handshake agreement that they wouldn't trade him.
The 2-year $13 million extension came right after former GM Josh Bynres was fired and there were three baseball operations employees acting as the GM. A.J. Hinch, now Astros manager, I believe made the agreement. Smith must have known that Hinch wouldn't be in the GM position for long, you'd have to wonder if the no-trade agreement came from above and if the Padres will honor it or will just dismiss it since nothing was in writing.