Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press
The San Diego Padres are all-in in the 2021 season.
On Monday, Sahadev Sharma, Dennis Lin and Patrick Mooney from The Athletic reported that the Fathers are acquiring pitcher Yu Darvish and catcher Victor Caratini of the Chicago Cubs in exchange for pitcher Zach Davies and candidates Reginald Preciado, Owen Caissie, Yeison Santana and Ismael Mena.
The surprising move comes in the wake of another negotiation involving a known name in the pitcher.
Lin, Josh Tolentino and Ken Rosenthal’s The Athletic reported on Sunday that San Diego switched to pitcher Blake Snell, sending Tampa Bay Rays Luis Patino, Francisco Mejia, Blake Hunt and Cole Wilcox.
Darvish and Snell’s additions mean that the Fathers will have one of the best starting spins in all of baseball:
- Yu Darvish
- Blake Snell
- Dinelson Lamet
- Chris Paddack
- MacKenzie Gore / Joey Lucchesi / Adrian Morejon / Ryan Weathers
In addition, they will have Mike Clevinger available in 2022, although he will miss the 2021 campaign because of Tommy John’s surgery. Adding him to that group will make San Diego even better over the next few seasons, which certainly worries defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
San Diego has won just one playoff series since arriving in the World Series in 1998, but it has everything in place to change that with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado leading the attack and Snell and Darvish leading the rotation.
Snell was the 2018 American Young Cy League winner who helped lead the Rays in last year’s World Series, while Darvish was a Cy Young contender last season who helped lead the Cubs to the National League Central title.
Darvish ended the 2020 campaign with 2.01 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 93 eliminations in 76 entries.
If he gets close to that in 2021, the Fathers will be on the short list of candidates for the championship.