The Padres acquired minor league infielder Gage Workman as part of the Monday trade that sent Casey Mize from Detroit to San Diego. The deal also brought Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf to Detroit, while giving the Padres another piece to add to their system.
For San Diego, the move is less about a single headline name than the broader deadline picture. Casey Mize was the centerpiece, but Workman’s inclusion shows how these trades often extend beyond the major league side and into organizational depth. That matters for a Padres club trying to manage both the present and the future.
Mize’s career has been shaped by injury interruptions. He was the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, then missed most of the 2022 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery and all of 2023 for the same reason. In 2024, he showed a 95.5 mph fastball, and in 2026 he put together his best run of results, working 86 2/3 innings with a 2.70 ERA, 2.58 FIP and 2.9 WAR.
Even with that production, the injury history remained part of the evaluation. Mize missed time in 2025 with less significant hamstring injuries, then sat out a few weeks in May 2026 with an adductor strain and a few more in June 2026 with adductor inflammation. Detroit’s rotation health was already a concern because of injuries to Mize, Tarik Skubal and Jack Flaherty.
The timing also mattered for the Tigers. They had rallied since June 1, when they were 32-20 with a +102 run differential, but they still reached the deadline outside the final Wild Card position. On Saturday, Detroit also traded Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers, which added another layer to an already busy stretch.
In that context, the Padres’ addition of Gage Workman is a reminder that deadline trades can reshape more than one roster spot at a time. San Diego gets Mize, Detroit adds Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf, and Workman joins the conversation as another part of the return.
