Clubhouse chatter: The one Padre you do not want to trade with in fantasy football

The Padres’ fantasy football league is no joke.

The buy-in is well beyond what you and your coworkers/friends/family pool together. They get the jerseys of their first-round picks. The draft is live. Why wouldn’t it be if you spend most of your waking days with your league-mates? That dynamic also presents endless opportunities to trash talk and negotiate trades.

And there is a pretty good consensus in the clubhouse as to the guy the Padres do not want trade offers from.

Defending champ Jackson Merrill didn’t hesitate for even a second when the question was posed to him, pointing directly to his left to the locker that belongs to league commissioner Jake Cronenworth.

“Dude, he offered me some bogus trade for (Buccaneers receiver) Chris Godwin last year,” Merrill said. “I was like, ‘(Heck) no, Godwin’s going crazy.’ I do not want to trade with Croney.”

Now, Merrill lamented that Godwin got hurt not long after he turned down Cronenworth. But Merrill is far from the only Padre taking a good, long look at any offer that Cronenworth throws his way.

“Croney’s always sending bull(expletive) trade offers over,” pitcher Joe Musgrove said with a laugh. “Favorable to him but nobody else.”

Added reliever Jason Adam: “Croney’s going to try to fleece you. He’s studious, and he’s willing to fleece you.”

As the commissioner, Cronenworth is also the consensus try-hard in the league. That often goes hand in hand with running a league, but new blood in the clubhouse could give the Padres’ second baseman a run for his money this year.

After all, no one is as competitive as Nick Pivetta on a mound or at the clubhouse ping-pong table, even on days he’s starting.

“I know how he’s going to be,” Musgrove said. “I’ve played cards with him enough. I’ve played enough ping-pong with him.”

Musgrove might be right about that.

Pivetta isn’t really a football fan, so he’ll defer quite a bit to partner Gavin Sheets in the upcoming league — “I’m just in it for the money,” Pivetta said — but he’s eager to play that part of the game.

If anyone actually makes moves after a draft.

“Everybody falls in love with their team,” Pivetta said. “I want to trade with everyone and am open to trading with everyone, but nobody ever wants to trade.”

Cronenworth, however, may not be the only one to watch out for.

“There’s definitely some candidates that we do like to trade with,” said strength coach Jay Young, who runs Xander Bogaerts’ team. “But Manny (Machado) is smart. You can’t take the first offer. You have to negotiate. He knows what he’s doing. You can’t take the first offer, because there’s always an angle there. Usually we can get to a good spot, but (he) always come in hot with an offer that’s not very good for us.”

But is he offering kickers?

“Why? Did Michael (King) tell you that?” Cronenworth said with a laugh.

Yes. He did.

“I’m like, ‘this is bull(expletive),” a smiling King said. “I’m not trading a kicker for you. He’s the one who tries to swindle you, and he’s only sending you offers that are a huge benefit to him and a zero-zero for you. It’s not even close. … He knows it.”

Yes, he does.

For his part, Cronenworth claims he was trying to trade a tight end for a kicker, and that’s definitely a lot different than offering kickers (although Musgrove said kickers have been on the table “multiple times” in Cronenworth talks).

But Cronenworth also agrees with the room.

“It’s probably not a good trade,” the two-time All-Star said, “if I’m offering it to them.”