Sometimes in college, you and your boys (or girls) decide to just send it one weekend and go on a little binger. Wake up, have a couple beers, maybe mix in a shot here and there and continue to indulge in the beer drinking the rest of the day. Towards the end of the binger, you might get a little delirious and start doing abnormal things because your mind isn’t where it needs to be. This is where I believe the Padres front office come into play. 

Not exactly out of nowhere but definitely unwarranted, the Padres made some MOVES on Monday December 29th. Lets look at those.

Trade #1
Tampa Bay Receives:
– C Francisco Mejia
– RHP Luis Patino
– RHP Cole Wilcox
– C Blake Hunt 

San Diego Receives:
– LHP Blake Snell

Trade #2
Chicago Cubs Receive:
– RHP Zach Davies
– SS Reginald Preciado 
– OF Owen Caissie
– OF Ismael Mena
– SS Yeison Santana 

San Diego Padres Receive:
– RHP Yu Darvish 

In the middle of all of this, the Padres also went out and signed Korean short-stop Ha-Seong Kim to a four or five year deal in the $20 million range. Busy day for one team with a lot of moving parts in the organization.

The Padres have built up their farm system for a day like this. Once A.J. Preller came into the mix, the Padres have been on a roll with trades and signings. No more does Seattle Mariners General Manager, Jerry Dipoto, have the title for boldest GM in the game of baseball. Preller is giving him a run for his money and since I am the ultimate decider on this matter, I declare he has the new crown. 

This is a Padres blog. Not a Rays blog. I will speak on the Rays behalf when I gather all my thoughts and talk to all of my sources and make an appropriate assumption of the move. For now, I’ll briefly discuss what these moves will do for the Padres roster.

The Padres clearly see an window opening for them. Instead of letting that buddy close, they’re ready to jump out of that thing and let loose. It first started with the signing of Eric Hosmer in 2018 that many people questioned was a strange signing. The team needed a first baseman and someone who they could depend on day in and day out as well as give them gold glove defense everyday. Although Hosmer has yet to replicate his career 2017 season he had with the Royals, he still has provided solid contribution in the middle of the lineup and now has the protection of one of baseball’s best players, SS Fernando Tatis Jr, as well as  3B Manny Machado, OF Wil Myers,  OF Tommy Pham and the emergence of IF/OF Jake Cronenworth. The Padres lineup is a legit threat day in and day out. The Padres move before the deadline of last year to acquire Jake Cronenworth and catcher Austin Nola from the Mariners proved to be one of the more sneaky good moves by any team last year. Cronenworth is a legit stud and now will most likely be put into the outfield with the signing of Korean stud Ha-Seong Kim likely to take over second base with the left side of the infield commanded by a couple of decent players. 

The Padres rotation is a nice sight to see. With the Padres signing of RHP Mike Clevinger last season to have him only go down with Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire 2021 season, unfortunately. No worries though, when you have a GM like Preller there is no need to fear. With a rotation of Dinelson Lamet, Chris Paddock, Zach Davies, Adrian Morejon already cemented into the 2021 rotation, Preller decided to change things up a bit as you can see above. Zach Davies got swapped out for Yu Darvish as well as other prospects going to Chicago, and of course, Blake Snell was also added to the mix for prospects as well. So, now the rotation looks like this heading into the 2021 season:

– Yu Darvish
– Blake Snell
– Dinelson Lamet
– Chris Paddock
– Adrian Morejon 

Also to take into consideration, the Padres have one of baseball’s best pitching prospects, Mackenzie Gore, about a year away from being a full contributor. Of course, Clevinger will substitute Morejon in the future when he does return healthy as can be. When that day comes, the Padres will have Darvish, Snell, and Clevinger as their top three pitchers in the playoffs as well as Dinelson Lamet for a fourth game if whoever started the first game of the series cannot go on three days rest. That is the recipe for success in the MLB postseason. The Padres are now starting to realize their team is a legit contender. 

According to Vegas, The Dodgers are still the favorites with the Yankees coming in second and the Padres sitting in third. If you’re a futures guy for betting, I would feel more comfortable putting up 100 for the Padres to win over the Dodgers or Yankees. Winning two World Series in a row is almost unheard of and the Yankees have a lot of pieces of the puzzle to figure out.

That being said, the Padres team is as solid as it’s ever been. Even without Clevinger in the mix to start the year out, the Padres have a legit lineup 1-9 as well as a solid rotation and bullpen. This is the team to look out for this year. Still, Go Rays and Braves.