This MLB offseason has been far from a ‘Hot Stove’ as teams took a financial beating from the COVID-19 shortened season. Teams have been looking to cut payroll, but many haven’t found any takers.
The Padres made two huge moves this week when they traded for Rays starting pitcher Blake Snell and then pulled the trigger on a trade for Cubs starting pitcher Yu Darvish. They managed to complete both trades without giving up their best pitching prospect, starter MacKenzie Gore.
The Rays will receive a nice load of prospects in return for Snell. The package is headlined by pitcher Luis Patino, with catcher Blake Hunt, pitcher Cole Wilcox and the former highly-touted prospect (and now possible reclamation project) catcher Francisco Mejia rounding out the deal. Patino is a steep price, but the Padres still have some great pitching prospects in their farm system.
The Cubs will receive starting pitcher Zach Davies and a load of very young talent for Darvish. I don’t think any of the prospects will be above Single-A this year. The best prospect is outfielder Owen Caissie, who the Padres took in the second round last year. The other prospects are shortstops Reginald Preciado and Yeison Santana, and outfielder Ismael Mena. The Padres will also receive catcher Victor Caratini in the trade, who was exclusively Darvish’s catcher of choice last year.
The Padres will have both pitchers for multiple years and the Cubs are even chipping in $3 million towards Darvish’s remaining contract. It sounds like a win-win for them. The Cubs trade was more of a salary dump since Davies could be gone after this coming season and the prospects they received are many years away from making their Major League debuts. Also, none of the prospects were in the top-ten in the Padres farm system.
After completing those trades, the Padres weren’t done adding to their team. They signed former KBO infielder Ha-Seong Kim to a four-year, $25 million deal. He’s only 25 and hit .300+ the last two seasons and has some pop in his bat. The only issue is the Padres may have trouble finding a spot in their lineup. Their infield is loaded with Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth and a resurgent Eric Hosmer.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are still the favorites in the NL West, but the Padres definitely closed the gap with these three moves. I wouldn’t be surprised if they spend for a top-tier free agent reliever like Brad Hand or Liam Hendriks. They have a pretty good bullpen, but they could end up losing a couple of them via free agency. I could see closer Trevor Rosenthal pitching elsewhere in 2021, so they need to replace him.
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About the Author…
Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob