The opposite. They have two guys in the MLB pipeline top 10 prospects and two more in the 30-50 range.

Everyone keeps saying they “mortgaged their future” but this is a myth. They only traded two guys who were top 50 prospects in the past two years. All the other guys they traded were mid-range prospects.

They actually did the opposite. If they had offered Abrams (No. 8 prospect in baseball and rising) and Gore (No. 6 and admittedly struggling this year) for Scherzer, the Nats might have taken that. The Padres have said those two guys were untouchable.

Three of their top four prospects rank above Ruiz in the MLB pipeline rankings. The fourth is in the same range.

The Dodgers mortgaged their future with this deal much more than the Padres have (though the Dodgers will be fine, they are great at drafting and developing). The Padres with all those deals have kept their top four prospects.