Giants-Padres trade pitch could help San Diego steal NL West crown from Dodgers

This year, there's extra motivation for the San Diego Padres to win their first NL West title since 2006. 

San Diego's division rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, have won back-to-back World Series championships. To take them down, the Padres will need an offensive upgrade at designated hitter. 

Coming into today's games, Padres DHs have hit just three home runs with a .678 OPS. 

The three-time All-Star, whom Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer lists as a potential trade landing spot for the Padres, has not performed much better. 

"The Padres could hope that keeping [Rafael] Devers in the NL West would work to their benefit," Rymer wrote. "It also couldn't hurt to get him out of Oracle Park, where he only has a .775 OPS versus a career OPS of .849. Petco Park is a hitting haven by comparison." 

Devers is off to a slow start with a .677 OPS in the first 42 games of the season with the San Francisco Giants. But he is a hitter capable of slugging 30-40 home runs per season and posting well above league-average numbers. 

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"Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove are basically dead money for the Padres, but each is also capable of blocking a trade," Rymer added. "That leaves Jake Cronenworth as the best bet for a bad contract swap, and he's not even making $11.5 million annually." 

San Francisco would have to eat the majority of Devers' contract to make this work. It's not a perfect trade idea, but it could help the Padres keep pace with the Dodgers. 

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