Padres trade rumors: A.J. Preller is ready to sell

According to Ken Rosenthal, the Padres are ready to start selling, and we could finally begin to see A.J. Preller and his trigger happy fingers at work.

#Padres officially are sellers. Venable, Benoit also could move, along with Kimbrel and any of SPs, with Ross perhaps least likely.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 23, 2015

The Padres potentially have the most players to move before the deadline, as Tyson Ross, Andrew Cashner, Ian Kennedy, James Shields, Joaquin Benoit, Craig Kimbrel, Will Venable, Justin Upton, and Clint Barmes could all be available.

While the team is now apparently open for business, the Padres have been connected to the Blue Jays for quite some time now, and trade talks between the two may be heating up.

Source: Padres have been aggressively scouting Jays in recent days, as @RobertMurrayBBE said. Teams could match up on SP deal.

— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 23, 2015

It's unclear how far along anything may be, or what prospects are being discussed, but earlier this month, Rosenthal noted that the Padres had high ranking officials watching Daniel Norris and Jeff Hoffman. It seems likely that if a trade between the two teams was completed, it would include a starter and a reliever, as Alex Anthopoulos is looking to upgrade both aspects of his pitching staff.