With Mike Clevinger now sidelined for the 2021 season due to Tommy John surgery, the Padres’ need for starting pitching is more pronounced, and the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee writes that the club is considering a range of rotation possibilities. This includes the very top of the free agent market, as “the Padres have let the agent for Trevor Bauer know they’d like to be kept apprised as his market evolves.” San Diego has also “spit-balled” the concept of trying to acquire Blake Snell from the Rays, as Tampa Bay is reportedly open to dealing the former AL Cy Young Award winner.
Other potential targets could include Japanese righty Tomoyuki Sugano (who will be posted this offseason) and possibly the Rangers’ Lance Lynn, who the Padres looked into acquiring at the trade deadline. Acee isn’t certain, however, whether the Padres have re-engaged with the Rangers about Lynn any more recently. While there is a certain amount of basic front office due diligence attached to the Padres’ interest in any of these pitchers, the fact that San Diego is at least open to major moves like a big expenditure on Bauer or trading a significant prospect package to land Snell is certainly indicative that the Padres are willing to think big as they look to contend in 2021.
More from the NL West…
- Diamondbacks assistant GM Jared Porter “is the heavy favorite” to become the Cubs’ next general manager, according to The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma (subscription required). Newly-minted Chicago president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has stated that he wants to make an external hire for the GM job in order to bring a fresh viewpoint into the Cubs’ front office, though Porter is still a known quantity, having previously worked with Hoyer in both Chicago and Boston. Other speculative general manager possibilities for the Cubs include another Diamondbacks AGM in Amiel Sawdaye, as well as former Marlins president of baseball ops Michael Hill.
- The Diamondbacks had a busy offseason last year, and general manager Mike Hazen “wouldn’t anticipate that type of a splash” this winter since “the majority of the work we did last offseason was for multiple years,” Hazen told The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (subscription required). Many of those roster moves didn’t pan out during a last-place season for the team, but while Hazen said the Snakes are examining how and why they performed as they did in 2020, the smaller sample size of the shorter season is a factor in evaluation: “One of the lasting questions that we all have was what was real about the 60 games.” In terms of potential offseason needs, Hazen cited relief pitching, a right-handed hitting outfielder, and possibly third base, though Hazen is confident of a bounce-back year from Eduardo Escobar.
- Scott Oberg has begun a throwing program, The Athletic’s Nick Groke reports (Twitter link), as the Rockies right-hander is making his way back from undergoing thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in September. The hope is that the TOS surgery will finally solve the blood clotting issues that have plagued Oberg throughout his career, as he has undergone multiple procedures in the past. Oberg didn’t pitch at all in 2020, leaving Colorado without an important piece of its bullpen. In 2018-19, Oberg posted a 2.35 ERA, 3.29 K/BB rate, and 9.0 K/9 over 114 2/3 innings.
Lance Lynn is going to the Twins, I am going to stand strong on that prediction until the day he gets traded. It’s too good of a fit.
As for Oberg and his throwing program, I can relate. Just started a throwing program yesterday, and I can’t tell you the amount of soreness my shoulder has today. It’s tight and it’ll need to be stretched before I go back outside here in a little bit. Baseball is back and it feels good.
I have Lynn going to the White Sox or Padres, but the Twins certainly have the young talent to get a deal done if they really want to.
I like the Snell option for the padres, Patino, Mejia, and Ona.
Seems steep but that is probably about what it would take.
It’s not enough delusional Padre fans trade proposals are always ridiculous
Fans for every team in baseball make ridiculous trade proposals.
Smart fans do not since it’s ignorant
Don’t know if that is enough.
Yeah that’s not even close… Mejia would be more of a throw in at this point, more like a guy you swap for another change of scenery guy… I mean there’s a reason they gave up what they gave up to get Castro and Nola at the deadline… Gore or Abrams has to be your headliner or Tampa isn’t even gonna pick up the phone something like Abrams, Patino/Weathers, Morejon and a PTBNL for the rays to even start… snell was a top 5 pitcher as recently as 2018 and makes pennies compared to most TOTR guys which is super valuable right now…. I mean his last start out he looked like a stud….
*click*
Bingo
stlcards0911, Snell has only been a TOR starter in 2018. Outside of that one season he has a 3.90 ERA. He has a 3.96 ERA with just 4.61 IP per start since then. He also is injury prone and has missed 20 starts in 2019-2020 due to injuries. He is not even the best starter on the Rays, let alone a TOR starter.
There is no way that the Rays are going to get any of the Padres top 5 prospects for him. Maybe something headlined by Weathers, a #8 overall draft pick that made his MLB debut at age 20. Even that is questionable.
Sounds pretty fair but I’m generally against giving up Patiño
Of course you are Padre fan loves them prospects
You grammar good
Why? Snell has a 3.96 ERA, has averaged just 4.61 IP per start, and has missed 20 starts to injuries over the past 2 seasons. Based on production the past 2 seasons he slots behind Lamet, Davies, and Paddack for the Padres.
Lamet, Davies, and Paddack. By my count, we still need at least two decent starters. (It seems like we have had the exact same need every year since 2015?) And we may have more holes …
Lamet’s arm issue may or may not get better with the PRP treatment. Paddack has been showing what happens when you don’t learn to pitch in AA/AAA – the league figures you out, and you never learned to adjust. Will he mature in 2021, or continue his slow-motion train wreck? Davies just had a career year in a 60 game season, but he’s the ONLY dependable starter on the staff.
Here come my fellow Padre fans to talk about prospects Gore and Patiño like they’ll be Cy Young candidates out of the gate …
At this point, Snell and Lynn look pretty good. And Preller looks pretty stupid for the way they treated and alienated Garrett Richards.
Do teams say they “are in” on a player for no other reason than driving up the price for other teams that are legitimately seeking a players services?
And, if so, does that hurt all teams in the long run by artificially driving up salaries?
Yes to both of your questions. By forcing a team to pay that extra money for a player it makes it harder for them to sign anyone else.
The problem with this is that it, as you said, drives up salaries. If Bob has a good year, but not stellar year, and someone better hits free agency next offseason, their asking price will go up based upon what Bob earned.
Stupid Bob
And for a specific example-
All the players the Padres gave up for trammell ended up in Cleveland. Padres could have had Bauer for past year and 1/2 yet took trammell over Bauer. So no way they are swallowing that pride today and going all in on a guy they desperately needed 6 months ago- so it’s all bs they are considering Bauer and they are driving the price up
Sunk cost fallacy
@bot … I tend to agree. Preller makes a lot of head-scratching decisions, and I think a lot of them are ego-centric. He’s given up a lot of talent for little return.
Bingo for 7 years doing these moves Preller is a joke no one gets
Don’t think Gore or Abrams are not going anywhere,which is why I don’t think they can get Snell.
So you do think they are going anywhere?
Aren’t going anywhere
Isn’t this kind of just what AJ Preller does? If someone is good and available he’s pretty much guaranteed to check in on them.
Him and Dipoto have to be two of the most active GMs around. At this point I would have been more surprised if he was not looking into Snell.
It’s a standing joke that Preller “checks in” on everybody.
Many guys have “spit-balled” the concept of trying to date Bella Hadid. Doesn’t mean any of them will actually do it.
You brought up Bella Hadid last March as outinleftfield.
Lynn pitched with the Twins in ’18 and while he wasn’t terrible has pitched much better since. I could see him with the Padres though
At this point, Preller should sign as many decent veteran SPs as he can afford. We have no depth at at all, and you can’t manage the staff the way they did last season and expect to win.
At this point Preller should do opposite of whatever he wants to do