Padres going all-in again by assembling super bullpen

If nothing else, you have to give the San Diego Padres credit for always trying to go for it.

Over the better part of the past five years, they have become one of baseball's most aggressive teams, always hunting around for the next blockbuster move. It has not yet resulted in a championship, but you cannot fault the effort.

That continued at this year's trade deadline when they made two of the biggest bullpen deals in the league to help bolster the back end of their pitching staff.

After acquiring Jason Adam from the Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the week, the Padres made their biggest deal on Tuesday, just before the deadline, by acquiring former Miami Marlins closer Tanner Scott.

In return for Scott, the Padres sent several of their top prospects to Miami in an effort to build what could be one of baseball's best bullpens.

Adam and Scott join a bullpen that already includes Robert Suarez and Jeremiah Estrada and has a chance to really shorten games for them in the playoff race. That is especially important as the Padres have dealt with starting pitcher injuries all season, specifically with Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove.

The bigger storyline here remains the Padres' consistency in not being afraid to dip into its prospect pool to acquire potential impact players, or their willingness to spend big on players like Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts. They are, in a lot of ways, what every small- and mid-market fan should want their team to be.

The additions of Scott and Adam also follow another bold move earlier in the season when they acquired infielder Luis Arraez, winner of back-to-back batting titles in the American League and National League (with Minnesota and Miami), in another deal with the Marlins to add another significant bat to their lineup.

The Padres entered play on Tuesday occupying the third wild-card spot in the free-for-all that is the National League playoff race. They have given themselves a chance to lock down one of those spots and perhaps make a deep run if they can get some of their starting pitchers back healthy soon.