Fans of the San Diego Padres were treated to some belated holiday surprises this year from general manager AJ Preller. Right around December 28th, the rumors first started to surface that the Padres were close to acquiring Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays. Now a little over a week later, this rumor turned reality was seemingly only the beginning. After this trade was made official, the Padres had two more moves up their sleeves. Although many other teams were involved in the sweepstakes for signing Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) superstar Ha-Seong Kim, it would be San Diego coming out on top. Before the friar faithful even had a chance to digest these two moves, Preller wasted no time finalizing a trade that would send Yu Darvish(along with his “personal catcher”) to the pacific southwest from the Cubs. With all three acquisitions being made official before the year changed to 2021, Padres fans sure had a lot to celebrate while ringing in the New Year late December 31st.
Because each acquisition involved many factors and moving pieces, I’ll break each one down individually in the order they were made, starting with Blake Snell. Rays fans may be hard pressed to forgive their upper level management in the near future for this trade. The utter confusion that arose the last time Snell was seen on a baseball field in a Rays uniform was in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series. Snell was arguably pitching the best game he had all season, shutting down a potent Los Angeles Dodgers lineup, when in the opinion of many he was prematurely taken out of the game, leading to a bullpen implosion from Tampa Bay and an eventual Dodgers World Series victory. As the anger of fans across the country mounted, as well as the visible frustration from Blake Snell, it became apparent that trading the left handed ace may not have been out of the question. As it turns out, Snell will now be one of several number one pitchers rounding out an excellent starting staff in San Diego. Snell is just three years removed from winning the AL Cy Young award with the Rays back in 2018, where he went 21-5 with a 1.89 ERA. With 2019 being an injury mired blip on the radar, Snell came back looking more like the Cy Young winner many view him as in the shortened 2020 season. Although the trade required San Diego to see three prospects, (Luis Patino, Cole Wilcox, Blake Hunt), and formerly ranked catching prospect Francisco Mejia to St. Pete, management felt it will level out with the reward of having Blake Snell bolster the rotation. Aside from the performance standpoint, Snell is also known to have a big personality in the game today. With his ability to connect with fans over twitch, a streaming service that allows people to watch Snell play certain video games, he already has a different relationship with fans than other players. Joining the swag that came from Padres superstars Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Trent Grisham in 2020, Snell will be in his element. Nicknamed “Slam Diego” in 2020, the friars may need a more pitcher friendly tag in 2021. With the disgruntled ending to his career spent in Tampa Bay, as well as the imminent energy he will bring to the clubhouse, Snell will most certainly have a chip on his shoulder as he looks to be a key piece in bringing the first World Series title in franchise history to San Diego.
Most likely seen by many as a more under the radar move than the Snell trade, San Diego wasted no time after acquiring Blake Snell in the signing of South Korean infielder Ha-Seong Kim during his posting period out of the KBO. The deal is for four years, $28-million that could reach $32-million with incentives including plate appearances, with a mutual option for the 2025 season. Although aforementioned as an under the radar move compared to acquiring Blake Snell, this was meant for the more casual baseball fan. Anyone who is familiar with Kim knows he was a top infielder in this years’ free agent class. Since becoming a full time shortstop in the KBO six years ago, Kim averaged 22 home runs, a .296 batting average, a .868 OPS, and 22 stolen bases while averaging 139 games out of a 144 game KBO season each year. Although certain if not all numbers may have a slight decrease when translated to the competition of Major League Baseball, they are still projected to be above average compared to middle infielders around the league. This is especially the case with the expectation being that Kim will play second base for the friars, with Fernando Tatis Jr. occupying the shortstop position. While it is not the usual to move someone with Kim’s defensive prowess to a different position, (winner of the KBO gold glove award from 2018-2020 at shortstop), there was a zero percent chance GM AJ Preller would have decided to move Tatis Jr. to second base and put Kim at shortstop. If anything this will allow the transition of moving from the KBO to the MLB easier for Kim, and may even increase his defensive numbers playing at an “easier” infield position. Although the signing of Kim leads to moving 2020 NL rookie of the year candidate Jake Cronenworth to the outfield, and in the process crowds the San Diego outfield if the designated hitter is not adopted by the National League in 2021, these are good problems to have. The teams that are the eventual World Series champions each year usually have the best all around team, even with their pinch hitting bench players/righty-lefty matchup bench players. With the over-surplus of major league talent, this seems to be exactly what AJ Preller is thinking with the Ha-Seong Kim signing.
Moving on to the final acquisition made by the Padres in 2020, the deal to acquire Yu Darvish from the Chicago Cubs became official on December 31st. In an era where it seems you can never have enough starting pitching, San Diego is giving their best effort to ensure this problem does not exist for their ballclub. Already having a stellar rotation in 2020 with a combined 3.46 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 9.6 K/9, and the acquisition of Blake Snell just days before, it can be argued that acquiring Yu Darvish sealed the deal on the Padres having the best rotation in the big leagues in 2021. The specifics of the trade included Yu Darvish and catcher Victor Caratini to San Diego for starter Zach Davies and prospects Reginald Preciado, Owen Caissie, Ismael Mena, and Yeison Santana. To first touch on the trade for Chicago, this was purely a money saving move that also sured up their farm system. Davies did not have the same season as Darvish, but was still solid (7-4 record, 2.73 ERA, 1.067 WHIP, 8.2 K/9) in 12 games started, and will make 8.5 million in 2021 compared to 21 million by Darvish. Now for the Padres side of the deal. Although Caratini did catch other pitchers in Chicago, and even spelled Anthony Rizzo certain days by playing first base, he was more or less Yu Darvish’s personal catcher. Since the Cubs signed Darvish, Caratini has caught 31 of his starts where Darvish has compiled a 2.80 ERA. Anything extra the Padres get out of Caratini offensively will be a bonus, as he and the organization know what his role will most likely be. For the Darvish aspect of the deal, there is way more to dive into than what was said about Caratini. While before 2020 it may have seemed like Darvish’s best years were behind him, he proved many people wrong this past season. After a disaster first season in Chicago mired by injury and an ERA of 4.95 when on the field, Darvish improved to an ERA of 3.98 in 2019, however still nowhere near where the Cubs thought he would be when giving him a large contract. When all hope of the Darvish of years’ past seemed lost, he finished second in Cy Young voting behind Trevor Bauer in 2020. In his Cy Young contending season, Darvish started 12 games and went 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA, a 0.961 WHIP, and 11.0 K/9, close to the best in his career. As a pitcher going into his age 34 season, it can be argued that the Padres are taking a risk by hoping for the same numbers he posted in 2020. However if Darvish pitches somewhere between his 2020 numbers and his 2017 second half numbers with the Dodgers (4-3 record, 3.44 ERA, 1.168 WHIP, 11.1 K/9), the friar faithful will be more than happy with the acquisition, especially because it is not expected that Darvish will carry the rotation on his back considering the other big names that are a part of it.
Another aspect of the Darvish acquisition that should not be overlooked is how Darvish exited the roster of the fellow NL West occupying Los Angeles Dodgers team after a heartbreaking loss to the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series. Many in the industry, specifically Dodgers fans, were critical of Darvish’s postseason performance after his acquisition by LA in July 2017, especially in the World Series. What these critics did not understand at the time was that Darvish was not just pitching to the Astros, he was pitching to Astros hitters who were smack in the middle of one of the biggest cheating scandals in major league history. This is mentioned not because of an increase in games to be pitched against Houston, but the increase in games to be pitched against Los Angeles. Even though Dodgers fans now understand that what happened in the 2017 World Series wasn’t all Darvish’s fault, and they did finally get their first title since 1988 in 2020, Darvish will now have something to prove pitching for a division rival in the Padres, especially when pitching at Dodgers Stadium, along with the argument present that the Padres-Dodgers rivalry could be the most heated in the game coming into the 2021 season.
Padres fans were deservedly ecstatic with the fact that they returned to the playoffs in 2020, especially considering how many ups and downs Major League Baseball went through this past year due to the pandemic. With these three moves being made official just in time for the new year, (with whispers of a Fernando Tatis Jr. mega extension), it would be difficult to find a Padres fan that thought their team didn’t have a chance to overtake the Dodgers eight year divisional crown and win the NL West. As one of only six remaining organizations to have never won a World Series title, general manager AJ Preller is doing his best to decrease that number to five teams with the hope that the 2021 championship parade will be held in downtown San Diego by the friar faithful.
