Why didn't the San Diego Padres sell at the trade deadline?

ByJAYSON STARK
July 31, 2015, 9:55 PM

— -- Buying is fun. Selling is work.

Buying is an adrenaline rush. Selling makes your brain cells throb.

So when the smoke cleared Friday and one of the most action-packed trading deadlines in history had stampeded over the finish line without them, it was time to ask: Did the San Diego Padres truly understand the difference between buying and selling?

We thought this was going to be their show. We thought this was going to be their very own madcap auction of unworkable contracts and parts that didn't fit. We thought by Aug. 1, we'd see so many Padres calling the moving vans, there might not be enough trucks in southern California to hold all their stuff.

So what the heck happened?

Whatever happened to those four deals in 24 hours other teams were predicting? Whatever happened to those monster trades with the Cubs, the Yankees, the Astros, the Red Sox, etc. that did such a spectacular job of filling the rumor vacuum all week?

Instead, this is what happened: In a pre-deadline frenzy in which 27 other teams made at least one deal, the only trade Padres GM A.J. Preller wound up making was ...

Abraham Almonte for Marc Rzepczynski?

Really?