It’s no secret that the San Diego Padres are looking to add at the MLB trade deadline.

Who could blame them?

The Padres are 50-43, but stuck in third place in the NL West while trying to chase down the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers haven’t even played their best baseball in 2025. They’ve dealt with a ton of injuries to their pitching staff and arguably underachieved. But they still have a 5.0 game lead in the division.

It’s going to take a lot for the Padres (or anyone else) to run down Los Angeles. Padres GM A.J. Preller knows as much and, in classic Padres fashion, he is beginning to panic and get desperate.

Padres are desperate for OF Jarren Duran

According to Red Sox beat reporter Sean McAdam, the Padres “have been relentless in their pursuit” of 28-year-old outfielder Jarren Duran.

The Padres have been linked to Duran for quite some time now, but with the Red Sox playing better baseball lately and currently holding an AL Wild Card spot, it’s looking more unlikely that Duran gets moved.

Duran is a valuable outfielder and fan favorite that is under club control through the 2028 season. A team would have to do something really stupid to make it worth it for Craig Breslow and the Red Sox…But the Padres might be the one team desperate enough to overpay.

According to McAdam, “San Diego is willing to go places most other organizations would never consider.”

It’s so on brand for A.J. Preller and the Padres. They are so desperate to not be the little brother of the Dodgers that they have made a habit out of being overly aggressive as buyers at the trade deadline.

You could make an entire All-Star lineup of players that the Padres have traded away when they were just prospects.

Trea Turner, Max Fried, C.J. Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, James Wood, Josh Naylor, and Andres Muñoz all started with San Diego, just to name a few.

Dodgers fans should root for the Padres to get Duran

For Dodgers fans, it’s probably a good thing if the Padres overpay for Jarren Duran. He’s a really talented player, but adding him won’t make San Diego a better team than the Dodgers.

Let the Padres trade Leo De Vries or Ethan Salas and live to regret it for the next decade. Let them gut their farm system while the Dodgers run away with their 12th division title in the last 13 years.

The Dodgers are going to make some trade deadline acquisitions of their own, but Los Angeles won’t be desperate enough to make a lousy decision.