This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Padres return home tonight after finishing a whopper of a three-city road trip to begin the second half.

And if you were hoping that trip might bring some clarity to their Trade Deadline plans, well, I’ve got bad news for you.

After going 5-5 in Philadelphia, Toronto and Detroit, the Padres are right back where they were two weeks ago -- four games below .500, still trying to chart a Deadline path.

Here’s one path I think might be prudent: Buy, but buy smart. Given their record, the Padres can’t afford to throw caution to the wind. But they were also built to win now and shouldn’t sacrifice that pursuit just yet.

Here’s a five-step Trade Deadline plan with that goal in mind:

1. Skip the rental pieces
As much as the Padres would like to realize their win-now ambitions, their Deadline strategy needs to be rooted in reality. They sit six games back in the Wild Card race. Missing the postseason isn’t merely possible. Objectively speaking, it’s likelier than not. And, sure, the Padres can tilt those odds with a couple additions. But -- unless Shohei Ohtani is suddenly available at a huge discount -- they’d be smart to do so by adding pieces with multiple years of control. If it doesn’t work out this year, they will have at least bolstered their chances in 2024.

2. Don’t sacrifice high-end prospects
A year ago, the Padres depleted their farm with deals for Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Josh Hader and Brandon Drury. Don’t look now, but that farm might be on the verge of a rebirth. In Ethan Salas and Jackson Merrill, the Padres boast two of the sport’s upper-echelon prospects. Pitchers Dylan Lesko and Robby Snelling, both 2022 draftees, have also emerged as top-100 prospects. That’s quite a foundation. The Padres’ Deadline needs are not large enough where it’s worth sacrificing any of those high-end prospects. Neither are their World Series odds.

3. Add a slugger, glove be damned
The cheapest way to find offense? Don’t worry about the position, don’t worry about the defense. The Padres are in a spot where they don’t need offensive help at a specific spot. They just need a bat. Any bat. The Matt Carpenter/Nelson Cruz tandem has not worked out -- on either front. As such, the top-heavy nature of the Padres’ lineup is an issue. If they could bolster the bottom of their order with one more bat, it would go a long way.

4. Add another reliever
Robert Suarez is back from injury -- one of those midseason additions that is, colloquially, “as good as making a trade.” But the Padres’ pitching depth remains thin. They’ve relied too heavily on a small handful of relievers to cover setup innings. They could certainly use one more -- and with a couple of their relievers hitting free agency this winter -- preferably a pitcher with multiple years of control. The Padres would still have question marks about their rotation depth. That’s worth looking into. But starters are pricey, and another reliever would at least give them the option to build Nick Martinez back to a starter’s workload if the need arises.

5. Be ready to pivot -- do NOT stand pat
Clearly, the Padres have some elite talent. But as constructed, their roster has too many flaws. Based on 100 games worth of evidence, it isn’t a playoff roster. If the Padres are going to make a push, they need to make a couple additions. But if they spiral over the next week? They need to be ready to sell and recoup some value on elite rental pieces like Blake Snell and Josh Hader. Organizationally, the worst-case scenario is one in which the Padres do nothing.