The Los Angeles Dodgers have just watched their nearest divisional rivals trade for Blake Snell and Yu Darvish. The Padres have become the biggest story of the MLB offseason, adding two elite starting pitchers to an already talented core.
This trade surprised many in the MLB world, as Snell still has three years left on his contract, and without a notably high price on those years too. He was due $10.5 million in 2021 and the following two years would cost $12.5m and $16m respectively, before he would become a free agent going into his age-31 season of 2024.
Six-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger award winner Nelson Cruz is hitting the free agency market once again.
The San Diego Padres are once again a relevant team in MLB. After spending several years floundering near the bottom of the NL West, the Padres are on the up.
After an action-filled deadline just 30 games into the season, rosters are set for the most open and exciting pennant race in recent years.
The MLB trade deadline was one of the busiest in recent years. Teams were moving pieces constantly. While the uncertainty over finances made some front offices more cautious, it was certainly eventful with teams either pushing for a postseason berth or quickly retooling to bolster the farm.
A few days ago, Fernando Tatis Jr. became the latest player to be criticised for breaking baseball’s unwritten rules.
That drought, the third-longest active in the MLB, didn’t come to an end in 2019. The Padres made, however, a 4-win year-to-year improvement – and a push by rookie shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and first-year starting pitcher Chris Paddock, who both impressed.
This year’s MLB offseason provided a very strong free-agent class. However, even with just less than a month to go before Spring Training and no elite free agents still on the market, possibilities for a huge move that could shape up a team’s chances for the upcoming season still remain wide open.
San Diego Padres have made a tremendous effort to establish a competitive team, and the 2020 season could show how real their aspirations are. Led by general manager A. J. Preller, the club got Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer, who became the core of a still struggling batting order.
Nobody expected it, nobody could have even predicted anything quite like this. Yet, Madison Bumgarner, one of the best pitchers in 2010s’ MLB baseball, has signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who even are division rivals with his former team, the Giants.
A.J. Preller and the Padres, only a few days before the city of San Diego is set to host the Winter Meetings, have made another statement in win-now fashion.
The San Diego Padres wasted no time getting an addition to an underwhelming pitching staff. But neither did the Brewers reinforcing their infield personnel. On Tuesday the 2019 NL Wild Card Game participant traded starting pitcher Zach Davies and outfielder Trent Grisham to San Diego for Padres prospect Luis Urias and righty Eric Lauer.
Perhaps in the shadow of Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner is still a very hot property on the MLB free agent market. The San Francisco Giants legend has already been linked to a number of teams that desperately need starting pitching to solidify their rotation.
Stephen Strasburg put himself in a position to opt out of the four years $100 million remaining on his seven-year $175 million contract by having a fully healthy and productive season. After averaging only 145 innings per year between 2015 and 2018, he pitched 209 innings and won World Series MVP, setting him up for another huge payday.
