It should come as no surprise the San Diego Padres are interested in Noah Syndergaard. Really, all 30 teams, Mets included, should want Syndergaard on their team. He’s a 26 year old front line starter who has come up big in big situations. Looking at it, how many pitchers are there who could go toe-to-toe with Madison Bumgarner for 7 innings in a winner-take-all game?

If you are a team who wants to win-now or jump start their path to winning, you want Syndergaard. That includes the Padres who inquired about Syndergaard at the trade deadline, and there are rumors they are pursuing him this offseason.

With Syndergaard being Syndergaard and his being under team control for the next three years, any team interested in him is going to have to pay a big price for him. That price should be higher than usual because given his status as a front line pitcher, his being controlled for three years, and the Mets intentions to contend next season, any team who is interested in him is going to have to pry him away from the Mets.

The Padres are not trying to do that.

According to various reports, the Padres want Syndergaard, but they also don’t want to part with their best prospects. Recently, Jon Heyman of Fancred said the Padres are making Fernando Tatis, Jr., MacKenzie Gore, and Luis Urias untouchable. Basically, they want Syndergaard, but they want him to be on a team with their top prospects.

It just doesn’t work that way.

It does not matter how deep a system the Padres are, if you don’t part with the top prospects, you should not get Syndergaard. Yes, the Padres system is deep, much deeper than other systems. Their fifth best prospect may be even better than another team’s top prospect. That doesn’t mean that prospect is good enough to fetch Syndergaard.

Look at it from another perspective. If the Padres are willing to make Francisco Mejia available, he would headline the Syndergaard trade. Mejia is a very good prospect and widely regarded a top 25 prospect in the game. That meant he was good enough to fetch the Cleveland Indians Brad Hand and Adam Cimber.

Hand was the headliner of the return for the Indians. Hand is a 28 year old late inning reliever/closer who is under team control through the end of next season. Basically, Mejia was good enough for 2.5 seasons of a closer. If that is his value, how is he now worth three years of an ace level pitcher?

The answer is he’s not, and no, Austin Hedges who hit .231/.282/.429 last year is not nearly enough to put a Mejia package over the top. Same goes for Manuel Margot who hit .245/.292/.384 last year. Really, no matter how many bad hitters the Mets want to throw the Mets way, a package headlined by Mejia is insufficient to obtain Syndergaard.

So unless the Padres want to step up and make a real offer for Syndergaard, the Mets need to move on, and we all need to stop hearing about these idiot rumors.