TODAY: The Padres have officially announced the trade.
DECEMBER 28: The Padres have an agreement in place to acquire Blake Snell from the Rays, report Dennis Lin, Josh Tolentino and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link). Luis Patiño, Francisco Mejía and prospects Blake Hunt and Cole Wilcox are headed back to Tampa Bay. The deal is pending review of medicals. R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports had first reported the two sides were in discussions about a potential Snell trade.
It’s a shocking, out-of-the-blue acquisition for San Diego. The Rays were known to be open to offers on Snell, but there had been no indication prior to tonight any deal was particularly close. Snell, 28, is one of the sport’s best pitchers. The 2018 American League Cy Young winner, he has posted a 2.85 ERA across 337.2 innings over the past three seasons. Along the way, he’s struck out 32.1% of opposing hitters, holding them to a .206/.279/.350 slash line. This past season, Snell worked to a 3.24 ERA/4.35 FIP with his typical strikeout and walk numbers.
Snell becomes the second big-ticket starting pitcher acquired by the Padres within the past six months. San Diego picked up Mike Clevinger from the Indians prior to the August 31 trade deadline. Clevinger, though, required Tommy John surgery after the season, leaving the Padres looking to add to their rotation. They’ve done so with a bang, picking up perhaps the top starter available on the trade market. Snell will join Dinelson Lamet, who’s coming off a Cy Young caliber 2020, at the top of a rotation that also features Zach Davies and Chris Paddack and should soon welcome top prospect MacKenzie Gore, to say nothing of fellow prized prospect Adrián Morejón.
The Padres are clearly aiming to push the reigning World Series champion Dodgers in the NL West in both 2021 and beyond. In addition to that high-end rotation, San Diego boasts an enviable position player core including Fernando Tatís Jr., Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth, Trent Grisham and a resurgent Eric Hosmer. It’s a win-now strike, but it’s not solely a move for next year. Snell comes with three seasons of remaining control under the terms of the extension he signed with Tampa Bay in March 2019. He’ll make a bargain $10.5MM salary next season, with respective salaries of $12.5MM and $16MM the following two years (his 2023 figure has potential escalators based on future Cy Young finishes).
Snell’s combination of high-end talent and cheap, long-term control meant the Padres had no choice but to offer an elite package to pry him from Tampa. All four players headed back to the Rays are highly-regarded youngsters, headlined by the 21-year-old Patiño. A 2016 international signee out of Colombia, the extremely athletic right-hander quickly emerged as one of the game’s best prospects. Each of Baseball America, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen placed him among the top twenty farmhands in the sport entering 2020. He draws praise for a mid-high 90’s fastball and plus slider and shows the makings of a plus changeup and above-average control, per Baseball America.
Patiño made his MLB debut, mostly working out of the bullpen, in 2020. His first 17.1 MLB innings didn’t go well, as he struggled to throw strikes and only managed a 5.19 ERA. But Patiño had only thrown 7.2 innings above A-ball entering the season and surely would’ve been given more minor-league time in 2020 had there been a season. He was nothing short of dominant in the low minors from 2018-19 and is a high-upside arm who could contribute for Tampa Bay in the near future. Patiño has yet to accrue a full year of service and comes with six seasons of team control. If he were to stick in the majors for good, he’d be controllable through 2026.
Hunt, too, has emerged as a top 100 caliber prospect, tweets Longenhagen. The 22-year-old catcher has “been hitting to all fields with power” and shown high-end arm strength in recent workouts, he adds. Hunt placed just 20th among Padre farmhands in Baseball America’s midseason system rankings but seems to have turned a corner in recent months. In 2019, he slashed .255/.331/.381 over 376 plate appearances in Low-A.
While Hunt may have the brighter long-term future behind the plate, Mejía isn’t far removed from being seen as an elite catching talent himself. The 25-year-old ranked among Baseball America’s top 35 overall prospects every year between 2017 and 2019 and headlined the Padres-Indians 2018 Brad Hand blockbuster. He comes with question marks about his aptitude behind the dish and has compiled just a .225/.282/.386 slash line in 362 career plate appearances over the past four seasons.
As MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk recently examined, though, it’s easy to understand the appeal he holds to Tampa Bay. Mejía’s a switch-hitter who demonstrated elite bat-to-ball skills in the minors and has a top-of-the-scale arm. Given his lack of MLB track record, there’s more risk in his profile than there may have been at the peak of his prospect status, but Mejía carries some long-term intrigue and can immediately step into the Rays’ catching mix with Mike Zunino. Mejía has two-plus years of service and can be controlled through the 2024 season. He’ll be eligible for arbitration for the first time next winter.
Rounding out the return is Wilcox, a 2020 draftee out of the University of Georgia. Selected in the third round, Wilcox was generally seen as a first-round talent who fell because of a high bonus demand as a draft-eligible sophomore. The Padres signed the 21-year-old for an overslot $3.3MM signing bonus. The right-hander has a high-90’s fastball with a pair of promising secondaries in his slider and changeup, Baseball America noted in their pre-draft scouting report. Wilcox was ranked twelfth among San Diego farmhands by BA.
From a broader perspective, the trade is symbolic of the respective team-building approaches of the two organizations. Padres GM A.J. Preller has shown a willingness to make bold acquisitions both through trade and free agency, leveraging the treasure trove of prospects the club accrued throughout their rebuild to support an emergent core of homegrown talent. The Padres still boast plenty of talent in the system they could leverage for future additions to the MLB roster, with the bullpen standing out as a potential target area.
Altogether, the addition of Snell cements the Friars alongside the Dodgers and Braves as the top three teams in the National League. The Snell acquisition brings the San Diego payroll to a projected $141MM after factoring in arbitration raises, per Roster Resource. That leaves a little bit of wiggle room under last year’s season-opening payroll of $157MM (before prorating) if ownership is willing to repeat that level of spending.
The Rays, meanwhile, continue to operate without regard to name recognition, showing a willingness to move anyone if they can recoup what they deem sufficient value. Tampa Bay continuously churns the major league roster while prioritizing long-term control and cost certainty. That’s helped them compile a farm system that was generally regarded as the league’s strongest even before today’s haul of prospects.
Between Snell and Charlie Morton, however, the reigning American League champs have moved on from two of their top three starters this winter. Tampa Bay now figures to add pitching this offseason as they look to compete with the Yankees and hold off the Blue Jays at the top of the AL East. With Snell’s contract off the books, the Rays’ payroll is down to a projected $57MM, per Roster Resource, $17MM shy of last season’s opening payroll of $74MM (before prorating).
This post was originally published on December 27th.
Oh wow. Didn’t expect Snell to stay with the Rays because of how expensive he’s getting. Rays get rid of money and get prospects. Sad that the Rays owner is cheap. Rays owner doesn’t deserve such a well-run franchise.
agreed highly. no reason they cant spend.
Especially with a reasonable contract and cost certainty.
I wouldn’t say there is “no reason the Rays can’t spend” but this is a big blow for a team that made it to the World Series.
I wouldn’t say there is “no reason the Rays can’t spend.” They have one of the smallest budgets in baseball because they play in a terrible stadium that is extremely difficult for fans to get to. But this is a big blow for a team that made it to the World Series last season. Snell was locked in for 3 more years on a reasonable contract. I think that he is obviously not the exact same pitcher he was when he won the AL Cy Young. He barely pitches for more than 5 innings now and he numbers are good but not as great as they used to be. I think The Rays noticed a decline and traded him when they thought his value would be at it’s highest. I’m sure they still love him as a player but maaybe they don’t feel like they can “lean on him” anymore like they used to. That seemed possible when Kevin Cash removed him for the game. Nonetheless, a World Series team losing Blake Snell and Charlie Morton is a big blow.
Simple. it explains why either the Tampa area doesn’t deserve an MLB franchise or why they should have New ownership. Either the team needs to move to be able to compete long term or they need an owner who will spend. A change in revenue sharing and a universal payroll structure is a third alternative but one that will not happen.
Dewey, Tampa already DOES compete long term. What are you criticizing them for? You need to rethink your misconception that spending=winning.
Ridiculous to say the Rays could spend. They have the worst stadium and deal in MLB and their fanbase is nonexistent, even when they are in playoff races. Look at their attendance in recent years when they were actually good, and keep in mind they are lucky to have large numbers of Red Sox and Yankee fans attending games at the Trop. If the Rays were in any other division their attendance would plummet even more for that reason.
Ridiculous to say they compete longterm. They have finished last 10 out of the past 22 years and finished 4th another 3 times during that same period. Only 6 times over the past 22 years have they finished better than 13 games out. You simply cannot consistently compete without the ability to spend, look at the Pirates as one of many examples.
Everyone complains that Detroit should have traded all their good players, like JDM, when their value was peak even though they were still in their window. They say it is why Avila is a bad GM. Tampa does exactly that, trading players at peak value, regardless of the fact they are in their window, and now you say that’s why they should take away their franchise! The off seasons not over. Let them fill the rotation before bichin.
There is a lot of teams that do spend & constantly field non playoff teams. Snell would be gone by trade in another season or 2. After his CY young award he had a injury year on top of a season being off. The Rays are in a area of St Pete that does not even draw a lot of walk up fans. A good amount of the Rays season ticket holders live outside of St Pete (I am one of them). I always thought if the right offer came along then any player on the Rays would be moved outside of a few prospects. This trade for me sets up the Rays long term & helps them solidify their catching situation for awhile.
I see the Yankee and the Sox fans are back into hating the Rays all over again. They can keep their over priced, frequently over the hill free agents which result in their typical bloated payrolls, and let the Rays do it the smart way because they have to. This move will make them better soon.
I’ve got an idea…..the Yanks should trade Stanton for multiple prospects! Oh wait….they can’t as no one wants or can’t afford that hugh contract. Damn!
If it’s so terrible in Tampa, why do they have a franchise?
Reply to I love sports:
I’m not a Rays fan, so I’ve got no skin in the game here- but I’ll never criticize a team for spending money. How are you supposed to build a fanbase if you don’t retain at least a few of your stars? It’d be like trying to root for a minor league team where you watch a guy for a year or two and he’s gone.
Snell was affordable. The fans in TB will never know if stars win championships or not because TB never retains stars long enough to see.
A final add-on to your point- what you’re saying about fans should be critical of teams spending and not winning is crazy to me. I’d love it to see an owner go all-in on winning. If they fail to win, then we should be critical of the FO for HOW they spent the money- not the team for spending it. I don’t buy jerseys with “Cost Effective” written on the back.
No offense Bovine, but it’s not really that hard to get to my friend, people don’t go because they don’t care, it is not a baseball city, Sternberg should be open to moving ASAP
And the talk of them moving the team to Orlando is stupid it would be the same thing here where I live, fact is they’re stuck in a bad lease through 2027 right? Got a figure a way to get out of that lease and move to a city that will support them
Orlando would be a much better spot than the current location. For a variety of reasons.
When they built the stadium for the Braves spring training at Disney World, they did it with a build out plan, they could move Tampa Bay into that stadium in no time
The Trop is located in South St Pete more closer to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge than to the Tampa Bay/Orlando area. Fans in St Pete have shown unwillingness to even have a good amount of walk up fans. I am one of the many more season ticket holders that live outside of St Pete. This trade while it does suck gives the Rays another good young catcher, a WC player (Meija) & a good Starting & Relief pitcher prospects to add their impressive farm system that boasts almost every position covered. The Rays if they cannot get a long term stadium in the St Pete/Tampa area gain leverage every year they get closer to their 2027 end lease agreement with St Pete. If they have to move then I totally understand & it will be a bummer for me but it is what it is.
As a Blue Jays fan, I have often wondered exactly that. Why do the Rays have a franchise?
I liked going to games at that stadium, but it holds about 7,500, so it’s not ideal for a MLB team. You’d draw some fans, but most of the people there are tourists going to theme parks. I’d imagine the locals would want to avoid the crowds at Disney World.
They compete for a playoff spot but don’t keep the superstar that can get them a trophy long enough so their window keeps closing opening again. While you should never fall in love with your roster, it’s too hard to have to re-tool like they do
Tampa makes trades primarily to keep total costs within a budget that is always far lower than the other four teams in their division.
Please scream this louder. This brand and model of baseball is atrocious.
dodger took like 5 years of spending boukou bucks to get over the hump, i hope to god neither the dodgers or padres do anything these next few years
The one big thing is Tampa focuses on the biggest bang for their buck. They do spend their bonus & international slot $. They also invest in the Latin American market. They cannot afford a $100mil to $300+mil FA SP. They trade their SPs when they are near the top of their trade value to get back younger more cheap controlled SPs. L. Patino if he reaches close to this ceiling will end up being a great acquisition by Tampa all by himself. This trade also brought back to Tampa 2 catchers that they needed for their long term roster.
Why would they need to spend when win without a huge budget?
you mean how they have won all 0 of their World Series?
Playing devil’s advocate, I’m a fellow Phillies fan and Middleton’s high spending the last several seasons have gotten them 0 playoff appearances let alone a league pennant.
@Black Ace57, you’re totally right, but the Phillies haven’t developed much talent internally either. The last decade has arguably seen the Phillies undergo the worst rebuild in MLB history. And they weren’t spending gor a good chunk of it. They need t learn how to scout, draft and develop talent.
I don’t care if my team wins a world series as long as the owner makes money!!!
The playoffs are a crapshoot. They’re not competing every year, being one of the best teams in the game, but then getting to, but losing the WS because of budgetary reasons. The 162 game season is a better reflection of a teams quality than a few playoff series. Baffles me how fans are so obsessed with their team overpaying aging players, more so than consistently winning.
No reason? Covid 19? The stadium situation.
The stadium is set up to host 25,000 fans, with another 20,000 covered seats.
they have never spent. any of those other reasons are excuses.
They’ve never needed to spend. The ymake solid trades and continuously develop a solid farm system
Yeah, and they’ve never played in a good stadium nor in a state where the richest half of the fanbase actually lives there during the summer.
…and they were recently denied mlb profit sharing funds, probably can’t blame that one on the stadium.
Tampa runs their organization the best they can as a business. If they spend, there is no guarantee of an increased return as the fan base is insufficient for long term success without a restructuring making all teams equal in the ability to retain talent. Assuming there will never be a true cap, I’ve previously suggested a free agency system that rewards all teams to re-sign their own. Contracts longer than 4 years, give tha old team a home field advantage. A new way to consider is eliminate the old revenue sharing system and allow those benefitting teams to only use that money on contract years five +. Spend it or lose it. The Stanton contract wouldn’t seem as bad for the Marlins if they only got revenue sharing money because they locked up Stanton. Idea has to be tinkered with but it does reward a small club and allows them to try to keep their home talent.
@I<3Sports
It actually doesn’t work the other way. Since 1995, a team with a top 5 opening day payroll has won 13 of those 26 titles. Another 12 of those 26 were won by teams that had payrolls from 6th to 15th. The lone exception of the 26 are the Marlins who entered with the 25th payroll. Meaning, teams ranked 16-30 have only won 1 championship in the last 26 years. To really sum it up, the team with the highest payroll has won 5 of those 26, 4 of those 5 being the Yankees.
They have had a few $80mil payrolls under Maddon.
The Rays will not be stuck paying Panda or Kemp type contracts & that is fine by me.
Aside from the fact that nobody goes to their games and they make no money, I can’t see ANY reason as to why they don’t pay players.
That’s a better argument that they shouldn’t have a team than it is they shouldn’t spend anything.
The Rays have a fan base, make no mistake. The question is, why aren’t they going to games? Is it too costly?
Look up where up the Trop is located.
Do google map directions by using Orlando, Tampa & even Sarasota as destinations (especially during rush hour).
The fact that they only get 5000 fans per game even pre-coivd doesn’t have anything to do with it??
5000 + fans during a weekday game
20000+ fans on weekends/big market teams
I mean, what they’re doing is working so it seems odd to complain about it. Maybe they’re just onto something. Too many fans get obsessed with having a high payroll, as if that’s the goal.
Cosmo, too many fans are stupid and yell the owner is cheap while drooling over themselves.
Exactly. Anyone who has spent time looking into the financial health of the Rays sees why they have to do what they do. It’s not being cheap it’s that with their stadium situation they are limited in what they can do. If they manage to actually get a new good stadium then things will change. Until then they are doing what they can.
I would like to look at the financial health of the Rays. I’d like to look at the books for all teams. For some reason MLB doesn’t want to release them. Perhaps because they’re all being untruthful about their losses?
Things will never change significantly as long as they play in the Snowbird State. Aside from a decent bump for a couple of years, getting a new stadium has never helped the Marlins draw even during the years they’ve had decent teams, has it?
lordd99: You can look at the financial health of the Atlanta Braves. They are a publicly owned corporate team so the legally have to keep the books open. They are a successful team with a lot more money in a much better stadium and in a much bigger market than the Rays are and they still lost a bunch of money. As far as other privately owned teams… They are just that. Privately owned. That’s why MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS and any other private businesses or individuals don’t release their financial records. If they should do that than you should, too. Why don’t you start a revolution about complete financial transparency for all private documents and just release your own finances here? I promise if you do that I will jump on board with your plan and encourage private businesses to release all their financial information. That would be someone worth listening to… A person that practiced what they preached.
“Snow bird” is a thing of yesterday. People are running to Florida to make it their permanent residence now
Perhaps because nobody shares financial anything when they don’t have to.
Lordd99, they are under NO obligation to prove their losses to you or anyone else. Like ALL companies, they choose to retain their right of privacy and run themselves as they like. Oh, and there’s the little matter of their constant success as opposed to many teams that spend much more.
This is exactly how Tampa has done business for several years now and it works for them. They acquire through both drafting and trading young power arms and get the best years out of them for very little $$ and then deal them to a contender for another great young arm or two and the cycle continues. Patino will be a dominant force in a year or two and with the Red Sox suc…g and the Yankees resetting their cap the Rays will still contend even in 2021.
Doesn’t matter how long snowbirds stay in Florida, they are snowbirds … they were born and raised north of Florida and they became fans of other teams. If you’re a Yankee fan or a Red Sox fan or a Cub fan or a Cardinal fan are you gonna switch allegiance to the Rays just because you move near Tampa? Of course not, people don’t switch allegiances very often.
It’s called “Escape From New York.”
The goal is what the Dodgers organization currently is. A well run franchise that can keep their star players while adding additional players to try to get into the playoffs every year and win it all.
Give the Rays the revenue streams the Dodgers have and they will be able to make the additions the Dodgers do. To compare the two teams is ridiculous. The Dodgers sell 3 million tickets EVERY season. It might take the Rays 5 years to sell that many.
4 million every year, expect for 2020
The goal is what Tampa Bay currently is: A well run franchise that is constantly turning over the roster, and building the farm to try to get into the playoffs every year and win it all. Might be why LAD and BOS have execs that learned in TB.
And just when does Bloom start in Boston doing what Tampa has done?? Oh yeah they finished last in 2020. Another a last place finish or two and they should b ready to contend again.
Except for 2020 and 2021
Don’t the Rays also have a pretty poor local TV deal?
I’m cool with a couple of down years, as long as they keep winning the World Series every for five years
Dodgers don’t remotely belong in this discussion. Best fan base in baseball for decades, with one of the best local broadcast packages and affluent ownerships. Where would the Rays move to? They’d be crazy to go anywhere that causes a change from Redsox/Yankees so Las Vegas is probably out. They know what their doing and received a nice package for a guy who they’ve lost some faith in and he vice versa
With all due respect, I’d rank their fanbase with the Cubs, and slightly ahead of the RS. I’ve been to Wrigley late in the season, with nothing on the line, and the place was still hopping.
But the best fan base is StL. It is neither a rich city nor a big city. But I have never watched a Cards’ game without seeing the place packed. It could be raining, and they could be in 3rd place, but there will be 30,000+ there.
The key is they’re able to draft well and develop talent. Plenty of teams don’t have the luxury.
I wouldn’t discount the fact that they trade players at peak value in order to replenish their team with youth while avoiding bad contracts and a reliance on big name players at the back end of their peak, or even after the peak has ended. While everyone else is trying to win by collecting, over paying, and holding onto former all stars the Rays are trading their own big names in exchange for players who haven’t yet reached their primes. Everyone assumes they win in spite of their frugal nature but I would suggest that they win BECAUSE of it.
You are exactly correct. The Rays avoid long term contracts that pay a guy for what he DID do and not what he WILL do. And they consistently have a great team. I don’t know anything about the return, but if you trade wisely at peak value, you’ll never have or need a huge payroll.
Rays trade their players at peak value is one of the zanier sober-sounding comments I’ve seen on here.
Obvious one is topic of this article, Snell: his peak value was coming off Cy Young. Others: Longoria peak was when he was a young MVP candidate, not an older player whose contract they they to pay down (!, the Rays) to get a decent prospect back. Price’s peak was coming off his Cy Young season when he had as much control left as Snell has now, not half as much.
Bring back the downvote, could have said this all with a simple clip and saved a lot of typing.
Spinach, I mean peak value in general as opposed to other teams that wait until obvious decline has set in or only a half a season of control is left. Not literally the exact peak moment of their career. Yeesh. I think the Rays constant year in year out success speaks for itself while most other teams spend, have varying degrees of competitiveness, then “rebuild” or tank through years of losing.
I’d also be a little weary of acquiring Snell, the Ray’s alwaysbsem to get rid of their great SOers right before time..
This is *how* they are successful–trading Snell at peak value, saving some $ to use elsewhere, and grabbing up players who will help succeed for the next few years.
…until they too are traded.
Lol
Same situation as Oakland a’s, except rays actually spend money once in awhile and lock players through arby years. Last A’s player that got an extension was Khris Davis that ended up being a mistake and Doolittle who was way back in 2012/2013
EXACTLY
To be fair that is quite the haul for Snell.
It’s quantity over quality in this deal. Nothing special
Quantity over quality? They’re getting a consensus top 10 prospect in all of baseball plus a third round pick, a catcher who ranks as one of their top 10 prospects in their farm system and another catcher who used to be ranked as a top 20 prospect who hasn’t gotten a good look at the majors yet for a starting pitcher who has one good year and has been very inconsistent. What more would you like?
Cole Wilcox isn’t your typical third round pick. He would have gone in the first round but teams weren’t convinced he’d sign.
Padres’ #3 prospect while being #2 in farm system. I think that’s good.
I didn’t even realize that. He was ranked as the 23rd best draft prospect on Pipeline and 18th on FanGraphs.
Patino looks good but the others aren’t anything special. Just because they’re the Padres “best prospects” doesn’t mean they’re “good” prospects. Hunt isn’t their best catching prospect. It’s Campusano. Mejía has yet to show he can hit in the big leagues.
@Michaelchavez22 Patiño is going to be an ace and keep your eye on Wilcox as well. The other two don’t hurt.
He has control issues
On which list is Patino a top 10 overall? He is high teens/low 20s at best. Still a great pick but he isn’t Gore.
I never claimed Hunt was their best catching prospect, but he is still one of their 10 best organizational prospects. Mejia has yet to show he can hit major league pitching, but he’s also yet to get a long look at major league pitching as well.
FWIW, to illustrate how Cole Wilcox wasn’t your typical 3rd-rd pick – his $3.30M signing bonus (largest ever for 3rd-rd pick in Draft history) was 17th largest in the 2020 Draft (tie with 26th overall pick: Tyler Soderstrom (OAK)). He was ranked 23rd overall in draft ranking (MLB.com). Considering he was a 4th year sophomore, some thought he was using leverage to return to UGA for another season to boost his stock, similar to another UGA SP, Emerson Hancock, whom went #6 overall (SEA) with a $5.7M signing bonus. (cha-ching)
I think Preller and Pads saw something that concerned them in 2020. Entering the season they were higher on Patino’s readiness than Gore.
Great haul for the Rays (insert obligatory prospect risk & pitcher injuries caveat).
Uh, the Rays owner pays for everything, including the people running the team. Ain’t a question of whether or not he deserves anything.
Rays owner is fantastic. Get that man a good ballpark. Very few large contracts work out. This contract wasn’t bad at all. They could have kept him and Morton if they wanted to. Just thanks to the padres the rays were able to trade 2019 2020 Snell for closer to a 2018 Snell prospect return.
Absolutely this. Everyone was upset when they traded Archer. Archer had one good season (2015 if I remember right) and then was average for the rest of his Rays career, but everyone called him an ace while he was with the Rays. Seems like everyone makes fun of the Pirates for that trade. While the Snell trade sucks, give it time. (I love KK, but I hope he learns to hit or they trade him, too. Then we can do this “Tampa Bay doesn’t deserve a team” dance again.)
They received a strong package back.
Let me get this straight: the Rays owners “don’t deserve such a well-run organization”?
What, that organization just fell out of the sky?
When do the Rays owners deserve the CREDIT for putting that organization together?
Do the Angels “deserve” a well-run franchise because they’ve spent money? Or does Arte Moreno deserve a lousy record–like so many owners who throw money around idiotically–because he can’t hire top notch people to run his club?
I just laugh at people who denigrate the Rays. They play in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees and go toe to toe with them with a quarter of the payroll. I find that to be genius, not something to tut-tut about.
Rich people bad. No time for critical thinking. This is the internet, after all.
They don’t go toe to toe with the RS and Yankees very often. They finished 3rd to 5th in six of the last ten years, 4th or 5th three times. They finished first exactly once, during the freakish 2020 year. That’s it. They are nothing like the perennial powerhouses many make them out to be. They just aren’t.
Until we realize that the Rays never lose trades and in hindsight this will be a steal for Tampa….
What did TB get for Crowenworth and Pham again?
Hunter Renfroe, Xavier Edwards and Esteban Quiroz.
Indeed! But his office is doing a fine job. Not only they got Patiño who could immediately replace him, they also got Mejía as well who can develop as their starting catcher.
Mejía, Arozarena, Lowe, Meadows, Margot, Brujan, Franco, Adames….not a bad group at all!
The SP however has taken a big hit with the departures of Proven arms in Snell and Morton. They need to get 1-2 at their own expenses to solve that for the time being.
The M’s Jerry Dipoto likes to trade with the Rays. Jerry thinks he is clever and he may be that and more…his ‘value’ trades are front and center this year and next…there is an angry mob at the playoff gates…
Dipoto is terrible, enough said.
And that’s how the 2020 Rays ended up looking like the 1997 Marlins. Wonder if they will win it all with Miguel Caberera in 2026?
wow didnt see it actually happening
It was only going to happen for The Godfather offer… which is exactly what they got
Over or under on snell needing tj during his time with padres?
1 or 2 seasons?
That’s it right there. Snell is an injury waiting to happen. Let’s see if he passes his physical.
Ohh no, not Clevinger 2.0..
NO WAY
The rays always come out on top what a trade!!!!!
drinking the kool aid, eh?
I like the Rays odds of winning this deal more than the Padres. The Padres gave up two really good prospects. Blake Snell at best is inconsistent.
It could go either way.
Inconsistent?? Ok? He’s played more playoff games than Trout. Snell is really good!
Snell is at WORST inconsistent, which I will agree, but he’s still darn good in spite of this.
In that case, Snell is better than Ted Williams.
Wow, that was really a dumb comment.
Snell can certainly be great. It’s a very interesting trade. I would not be surprised if the Padres ended up winning this deal, I just don’t think it’s a slam dunk. I’d bet on the Rays winning this deal, but it’s close bet.
So you really didn’t have much to say other than pointing out the obvious.
What are the Angel pitchers then AT best ?
Good grief, this is liking firing off a bazooka in a glass house let alone throwing stones, SMH
Ah yes, # of playoff games is a wonderful stat to measure an individual players’ consistency…
What I have to say is I like the Rays end of this deal better.
The Padres gave up a lot.
Jake Cronenworth says hi.
Hello guy who’s had exactly 54 games of MLB success…. let’s not anoint him a great success just yet.
Especially because he was just average during half of that
And what did Renfroe do and where is he now? Losing Cronenworth for Renfroe isn’t winning a trade.
@lordd99 Nor is losing Xavier Edwards for Tommy Pham
So you’re basically admitting my point. The Rays haven’t “won” this deal.
Can’t say who won in terms of outcome cuz the outcome hasn’t happened yet. But in terms of process, I’d say the Rays came out on top. The Padres are looking a lot like they wanna repeat their disaster of a plan from 2015, it’s just a slower burn version. These flashy trades and signings may impress fans, but I think their lack of patience is gonna hurt them.
Renfroe is a victim of circumstances. He’d still be on TB except for the fact that TB robbed outfielders from StL and PT, signed KK l/t, and acquired a pretty decent Margot from SD.
I’m a big Renfroe fan, but TB was not going to pay him to be their #5 OF.
Renfroe hits dingers and has a great arm. Once players stop running on him his value on D is somewhat reduced… doesn’t get on base enough… perfect filler for a rebuilding team, nothing more
I think he’ll rake in Fenway Park. There is certainly risk attached, if he doesn’t hit righties well enough, but if he has 600 ABs, I think he is hitting 30 HRs. I prefer OBP to SLG, but he’s averaged 41 HR/600 ABs.
So he’ll be non prime Dave Kingman with better defense at best. Still meh.
Croneworth is not in top four of Rays prospects at that position. No offense to him, but he was expendable.
That was a low risk high reward deal with Franco being a year or two behind that trade they were hoping renfroe would translate to that roster who needed more power
No way
Yes! Wilcox and Patino might sting down the road but it’s Snell! Got to give up talent to receive talent!
Let’s go!
Padres are going for it now and Snell will be a big part of their rotation and they still have their #1 pitching prospect. Good deal for both teams.
F Yeah!!! Go AJ!
WOW
wow,I figured I’d see Gore name involved
He killed the dodgers in the World Series this is a game changer for the Padres
Really? How did that Clevinger trade work out? Padres always trade their good young talent for big names to challenge the Dodgers and they turn around and trade the name players in two or three years LOL.
You’re right, they should have known Clevinger would get injured.
The signs were there.
not all trades work out but it’s nice to see ownership trying to win
Get real. Clevinger deal was solid. Couldn’t predict the injury. Padres will rule the next decade.
The Indians have a habit of trading damaged goods. I’d count my fingers after shaking hands with Cleveland after trading for one of their pitchers.
You’ll be shocked when you hear the Padres’ history with damaged goods.
Clevinger was definitely injured before that trade…see his last (delayed) start vs Angels 1.0 IP, and pulled early in the game before that.
Yeah just forget my previous comment…obviously forgot he had already been traded weeks earlier. Back to lockdown Zzzz.
His BB9 went from 3.0/9 to 4.4/9. That makes it suspicious, at a minimum.
Josh Naylor was a 6th OF, Pads aren’t missing him or Quantrill or Hedges. It was a no risk trade.
Nice to see a fellow Dodger fan gives props, big ups 445 , mucho respect, –
Total gamechanger is right – SD is legit AF
Speaking of a different AF, I wonder if this shifts him up in the gearbox a little more this offseason… I dont think it will be a money splurge (could tho) but more likely maybe they deal from our pond now to catch a big fish via trade as well-
Hader and JRam (not saying JRam is avail) would be my biggest 2 targets-
Suarez my 3rd if the cost is low enough
Very nice, hopefully Yankees favorite to win division now
Yankees could use some pitching themselves, and the Blue Jays have money they want to spend. Could be an interesting division, but yes, I think the Yankees may be the favorite on paper as of now.
True, but if you’re the Yankees looking at a season when you plan to get back under the luxury tax threshold, you have to feel better seeing your main competition keep weakening themselves for 2021.
Except Yankees have no real rotation outside of Cole where the rest are question marks, there’s still no DJ Lemahieu, and the bullpen is past their prime. The rays still have the rest of their roster. Honestly, looking at Snell’s stats, this is an addition by subtraction for the Rays. Snell only real good year was 2018.
I wouldn’t count the rays out yet. They could have someone ready to come up. Or could easily make a trade. Musgrove isn’t that far off from Snell and any pirate can be had for a couple of hard throwing 19 year olds.
Thank you Borat
Wow! I didn’t actually expect this to happen. Even more so to the Padres. I do believe that Snell wanted out and just didn’t make it public. He wanted to finish game 6 like any normal pitcher with any normal manager and franchise.
Padres are letting the Dodgers know that they mean business. As a Dodgers fan, I’m not worried. But my seat got a little uncomfortable all of a sudden.
They better just be happy they made it out of third place.
Don’t know why you’re uncomfortable as a Dodger fan. You guys just won the WS, you have your core in-tact while being young, and your farm system is top 5 in all of MLB. You guys can literally do nothing and still have a chance of making it into the WS in 2021.
Oh I know the Dodgers will be fine. They have the best team in baseball and will be highly probable for a second WS in a row. I’m a life-long fan that’s gone through many ups and downs.
It’s just never fun to see such a high caliber player be traded within the division, especially to the Padres who are already a good team.
Uncomfortable doesn’t mean we have lost faith in our org, it means that we have eyes that can see straight and it shows us a world where we will be facing a rotation of Snell Lament Clevinger Gore and Paddack for years to come-
Thats nasty AF, and the best rotation in baseball….even over OUR Dodgers
This isn’t Pleasantville; everythings not always black and white
I appreciate your response.
Patino is a talent that the Padres will wish they didn’t ship off quote me on that!!!
gotta give to get. if Snell is as advertised and Patiño is the only one who becomes something then that’s a win for SD.
Not the first time the Padres have unloaded good young talent for stars. Like I posted above Clevinger and Snell will both be traded in the next two to three years.
You hope, right?
@magnum, you wanted smoke last year got it and didn’t win a single game. We handled you during the season at full strength too, all I’m hearing are excuses. What will the excuse be when you are out of playoffs in May?
Yada yada yada
Magnum you got owned, now bow down to your supreme overlord the dodgers.
Bow to a team? Don’t think so
@jmac all he does is troll with no actual baseball iq, said padres were winning before dodgers and they couldn’t win a game against us in playoffs.
I looked through recent Snell posts (searched snell). Found 0 references of him mentioning Snell would cost a top prospect.
Mind posting the link where he said such?
if youre just going to reply with “do your own search” it’ll look like you’re the same person, which would be pretty sad if true.
Idk I can lay facts out for you and you seem to still not understand them so I don’t see wasting anymore time on someone with such low baseball iq. You still haven’t replied below….you basically proved my point lolol try to keep up.
I beg to differ seems to have issues with reading comprehension and understanding basic metrics. It’s okay man!
Good for Snell. After Cash gifted the Dodgers the World Series by pulling him while he was dominating, I figured they’d trade him. No way Snell would respect Cash moving forward
i dont think that has anything to do with it.
I think it did. Snell was angry after being taken out, and showed it.
“Fu#kin a man” yeah Snell wasn’t happy at all about being pulled and he let cash know.
I would’ve demanded a trade after that if I was him.
Cash turned into Joe Maddon for a second lol.
Snell probably headed for TJ surgery
Lmao
If the reported 4 player package is accurate, that’s pretty light for Snell. Nice aggressive Preller move.
I disagree
How is it light? Tampa has a track record of knowing when is the right time to get rid of someone. Patino is a very highly rated pitching prospect which Tampa also has a track record of knowing about. Tampa needs a catcher for the future. Mejia was highly rated and is still super young, will probably take now back in the AL and getting to play. I don’t l ow much about the other two, but seems about right to me. Especially considering there is no way SD resigns Snell in 3 years.
While the Rays do have a history of making great trades, I do wonder how long that can last when they’ve lost so many key front office people over the last couple of years.
Still going as of now. Rays won this trade. Not that padres can’t win as well but will have to see. It’s more of a formula you follow then who the gm is. When you continually trade players who are getting older,getting more expensive, and likely declining, for high rated prospects. You can’t lose. Only have to worry about the ones that you include prospects. Then you need the great talent evaluators.
The Pads gave up on Mejia for good reason. A catcher who’s all bat and no defense needs to also hit?
I bet that Chaldean priest, Father Simon on Tiktok, is happy.
Stove made me so hot I finally got a gf
Gotta become more original if your gonna keep her now
Wowzers. Big move.
Maybe SD will actually let him stay in the game and compete when he’s dealing in an elimination World Series situation!
He won’t have to worry about playing in another WS as the Padres won’t get a sniff.
True. Might be a while haha
Another starting pitcher and we will swap places with the Dodgers next season.
@vegas Price is coming back and offseason is only beginning. Padres have a window of 3/4 years before current roster prices out of what they can afford. Pretty soon it’s just gonna be machado and tatis on 300+ million dollar deals and not much else. Sorry to burst your bubble.
The d fans are so quick to get over here share their deep insights. Helps to calm the nerves?
@magnum you talked so much smoke all year then disappeared after not winning a game. Care to try again, from where I am standing all you can do is talk up to your dad (the dodgers)
3 World Series appearances
7 division titles
1 ring
Padres over 60 years
2 ws appearances
No wins
Handful of winning seasons overall
But go ahead and take pride in last years shortened season!
Oh please. Lamet couldn’t even handle a 60 game season. Paddack stinks. Davies has mediocre stuff. Cronenworth, Myers and Hosmer won’t produce at that level again. Dodgers are so much better than the Padres its not even close. Padres have no depth anywhere.
If you’re going to bash the season for being short, then you can’t claim a ring in the preceding paragraph.
@Vegas … Yep. We need one more. And then we have to hope Tingler/Preller take a course in managing a pitching staff.
“If you’re going to bash the season for being short, then you can’t claim a ring in the preceding paragraph”
Hahahah what BS
The 2020 playoffs were longer with few off days and more elimination rounds+games than any other playoff year EVER. Claiming anything from these playoff round is illegitimate is laughable.
Furthermore, LA went thru the 2nd+3rd best records to finish the last 2 rounds, then faced the best record in the AL. That level of competition rarely happens in a normal postseason setup
Let’s be honest, in 2020, both the Nats and Red Sox strategies in 19/18 would not work. They needed the off days. Both would have been eliminated well before the World Series
Meanwhile, trying to predict future production based on 1/3 of a season IS laughable. Because no season will ever be as short as 60 games again. Adding 100 games allows for slumps and hot streaks to balance statistics. Welcome to statistics 101
This playoff was a *larger* sample of playoff games than any other subset, while the regular season was the *smallest* sample of regular season games, ever. How TF do you think that is the same?
Why so many Dodger fans here?
Either it’s all legitimate or none of it is. You can’t cherry pick what you like.
Concern!
Doritos, it’s two different questions
Are the stats legitimate for each player in 2020? In my opinion yea, they happened. People who pretend 2020 stats don’t count are fools, imo
As did the title. And the playoff run
HOWEVER, the gap comes in when you want to use 2020 stats to project the future. For the reasons I described above
If you’re too dumb to acknowledge how those are two different conversations and have therefore zero impact on the other, even if they use the same basic information, you’re not worth my time
1. It’s the biggest headline in baseball in 3 weeks. Every teams fans are here
2. For the same reason that Cardinal or White Sox fans are on Cubs posts, the Braves fans are on met posts, A’s fans are on Angels posts…
To check the rivals fans when they claim one move makes them the better team. Hahaha
The Padres are better than yesterday. No doubt. But are they better than Sept 1 of this year? Questionable
What’s not questionable is the Padres continue to send a lot of talent out the door
8* division titles in 8 years
3 WS appearances (2 against cheaters*)
1 ring* (* because cheaters)
…but you make a point
What also isn’t questionable is the Padres have a great farm system, but historically haven’t been great at developing that talent. So maybe it’s actually for the best they send a lot of their talent out the door
Also at a certain point when a team has that good of a farm system they have roster issues because there are too many prospects that need to be added to the 40 man. Since they can’t get them all onto the roster they basically have to make trades in order to consolidate talent.
Padres went into this trade with a full 40 man and that’s after a lot of the recent prospect capital was traded out over the past year so they’ve been dealing with a crunch. In other words, the Padres are trading away a lot of talent, but it’s multiple prospects being exchanged for MLB talent because if they don’t cash in their prospects then they risk losing them in the Rule 5 draft since they don’t have any space on the roster for them.
Yea,… I Cant wait till 2025 man, when the Padres fade, that will teach them for trying to improve this year
Make sure to come back then and tell us that you told us first Tats !
As if our Dodgers arent going to be facing the same GD problem with Buehler Urias Belli Seager Smith ect ect
I love my Dodgers but some of our fans are total cringe worthy
Good for you Padre fans, I welcome the rivalry for many years to come
Game On!
Pricey old guy
Good riddance. He couldn’t even make it out of the 6th inning.
Hahaha, is that a joke?
Great when he is on but inconsistent and history of arm issues. Sounds like a AJ move.
Gave up a lot of depth to get over the hump here. Hope this one pans out and we get to see a lot of great baseball this summer.
No literally, he’s a five inning pitcher. The dominance in that playoff game was an aberration. If SD can get a deep bullpen, they’ll be fine. If not, this was a waste.
They have a deep bullpen
Definitely feels like a lateral move for the Padres in the long run. Short term success should be in their favor (3 years for snell) but giving up multiple years of Patino and Wilcox could prove to be a bad decision.
For the Rays definitely feels like they sold low on Snell.
Patino is a work in progress. Potential is there to be a great rotation arm but he need to work on his secondary pitch and needs a third to truly be a starter. He’s what 20? Needs work for sure.
Mejia and Hunt haven’t really lived up to expectations each came up.
Wilcox is a wild card. 1st round talent in this year’s past draft but didn’t pitch at all this past year.
Feel like the Rays could have gotten more but took a package with high risk and high reward as well.
Think of it this way, preller knows padres prospects don’t pan out. For the next couple years they have snell, Clevinger, lamet and Davies and hope for more breakout performances from younger guys etc. Rays will get the most out of these guys and continues the model they have known for and how they can stay competitive.
Whoa
to me this looks like a massive overpay. I am not the biggest snell fan though
They are getting more and more solid
Sorry to see Patino and Wilcox go, but I love this for the Pads.
Scraps? The Padres gave up two top 10 prospects, another prospect and a young catcher who was recently a highly-touted prospect. This was not a cheap giveaway.
Padres stans earlier saying they won’t part with any blue chip prospects lololol patino plus! Darvish will cost much more.
Darvish won’t cost more. Not even close.
3 years for 60 million as a tor pitcher? He is definitely costing more, get back to me once you look up going rate for aces (35+ million.)
Darvish is age 35 and that remaining $60m will drive down the prospects they get in return.
Yeah, Darvish’s 34 (22mill), 35(19 mill), and 36(18 mill) seasons are going to cost more than Snells’s 28(10 mill), 29(12.5 mill), and 30 (16 mill) age seasons.
Lay off the holiday eggnog.
Darvish’s age and price tag arent going to net more than Snell.
@i beg to differ so the same snell that has a career fip over 4 just cost 3 top prospects? Darvish is hands down better and coming off his best season to date at a bargain for an ace caliber pitcher. (Get back to me when you look at going rate for an ace, I will wait)
Get back to me when you get some original comebacks instead of reusing the same ones.
Here’s some knowledge for you. Here are the pitchers that make 30+ mill and the age they signed the contract.
Degrom 32
Cole 30
Greinke 32
Strasburg 31
Scherzer 31
Verlander 36
Price 30
Kershaw 31
Sale 30
Padres aren’t interested in taking on 3 years and 60 mill for a pitcher who’s already 34.
1st 2 years of the contract Darvish has 219 innings of 4+ FIP.
76 innings of 2 FIP doesn’t negate the bigger body of work he’s produced so far with the cubs and doesn’t warrant giving up prospects to do so.
“Darvish is hands down better and coming off his best season to date at a bargain for an ace caliber pitcher.”
76 innings lol.
Still doesn’t support your weak argument what does darvish have in common with all these pitchers
Era+
Darvish 125
Greinke 125
Scherzer 132
Verlander 129
Price 123
Kershaw 158
Sale 140
Cole 128
Strasburg 129
Now using your sound logic, mentioning what they get paid would you rather have darvish for 22 million a year with declining amounts or Cole on a 9 year 340 million dollar deal?
Darvish is a bargain even for any casual like yourself, you should theoretically be able to put 2 and 2 together.
2018
Darvish had an era + of 85
2019, his most recent full season of work
Darvish had an era + of 110.
178 innings of era + 110 isn’t worth taking on 60 mill for a gamble that a. he stays healthy and b. 2020 isn’t a fluke.
addition doesn’t seem to be your forte. nor does baseball.
So instead of using overall body of work you try to piece together a weak argument of only using certain years lololol I’m done. All while missing last years era+ His best year to talk about 2018 lolololololol I cant talk to someone as unintelligent and uninformed. Whatever you say chief
Not disagreeing with you regarding darvish
I Just hope it’s abundantly clear how this logic applies to Wil Myers and therefore why no team will want him, even with his 2020
Man I beg to differ is really trying to stretch his argument here by convincing others that omitting certain years equates to a lower value. Overall body of work including last year showcases that darvish is a bargain. Sorry you can seem to understand true value. I’m willing to bet tatsumaki is right on this aswell.
Padres or any team acquiring Darvish gain nothing from his age 25-33 seasons. What he did prior to signing with the cubs is irrelevant.
His last 2 seasons where he was expected to pitch at an elite level were atrocious and not worth the price tag.
End of discussion. It’s pretty sad you have to use two or more accounts (you and jmac at least) man.
Get some help. Multple accounts being used on the same thread for likes and support is noth healthy.
Wish you the best man. Seriously.
For the Padres to unload Myers they either had to find another contract to take back.
Snell and Kiermaier for Myers and prospects would have been interesting.
Or the Padres would have had to attach prospects and money to unload the contract.
Given the grim financial situation I dont see the Padres moving Myers. Had it been a normal season they may have found a taker for another contract or prospects and money.
But to my knowledge I haven’t seen anyone seriously suggest the Padres would be able to net anything worthwhile for Myers contract.
Cherry picking. Darvish has never had a bad year in the Majors with the exception of 2018 when he pitched….eight games. Sure, for the sake of your argument you want to throw away Darvish’s most recent season when he was great, but you at the same time want to highlight his 2018 season a few years back when he pitched in less games and threw less innings than 2020.
Padres, nor any team, are interested in:
1. giving up top prospects
2. taking on 60 million when teams are slashing financial commitments
3. taking a gamble on Darvish at his current price.
For a pitcher that
1. is 34
2. his 2 most recent seasons he was injured and pitched like a #3.
Padres, nor any team, signed him to the contract based off his previous success. Cubs did.
Padres, nor any team, value him at that contract. He’s not worth the financial costs given the fact owners lost/didnt make as much revenue in 2020 and will likely have the same issues in 2021 and 2022.
Theyre not going to trade away cheap players for an aging and expensive player at full price.
If the cubs want to knock his price tag down to less than 10 mill a year they may increase interest. Lance Lynn and his 8 mill contract netted Dane Dunning #98 top prospect. But I dont see the cubs doing that.
3 years and 24 mill should net them 1 prospect in the 60-90 range or a couple (3) good/quality prospects (5-15 range in a system) but they won’t be getting elite talent back for Darvish.
On darvish vs Snell. All I know is, which team in the times we are in has given up the best packages for top pitchers? I would say the padres twice. Only way I see darvish return topping snells is if padres trade for him.
As far as who is worth more, that is tuff. Who is the real darvish? 2020 or 2018. Same with Snell. I think they are close. Can’t ignore price and age.
Cole. No disrespect to Darvish.
@Laughing … Regarding Wil Myers, I think most baseball people are smart enough to realize that he just had the best 60 game stretch of his career. That stretch might raise some eyebrows, but it still doesn’t make him worth his contract.
Guess Tatsumaki was dead wrong in his trade value of Darvish. Not even a top ten from Padres prospect list. Not even close to the Snell package.
Gonna have to change user name again.
Darvish didn’t cost much at all, it turns out.
This didn’t age well.
This didn’t age well.
they dont need Darvish now and if he was going to cost more then good luck to the Cubs unloading him.
What is with you people and Darvish? No GM who values his job is going to give up top talent for that guy.
Funny how everyone said snell wouldn’t cost a top prospect and Tatsumaki was one of the few that did, guy knows his trade values unlike you basement gms!
Who said Snell wouldn’t cost a top prospect?
Everyone? I never said that and I am sure there are others. Tampa doesn’t just give value away.
Hello KD
By everyone he means a couple 12 year olds said it earlier and now he’s creating a narrative, not to mention the second account KD style
I assume that the Padres would not have been able to afford or willing to pay Darvish’s full contract amount. So the Cubs would have had to eat maybe half the contract. If so, I can see the Padre package being a lot more generous. Only way the Padres were going to get Darvish is if the Cubs ate half of the contract or they are able to trade Myers without having to eat that contract. Very unlikely on the latter.
As a Padres fan, I am seriously concerned that Preller will way overpay for Darvish. He’s 34, and still has three years and $59 Mil. And he’s had one good year in the last 5.
No he won’t
@tatsu looks like by your metrics Preller just fleeced Chicago with an even better deal than for Snell. No blue chip prospect.
Wish the Mets got him, but i understand trying to rebuild the farm system, good trade for both rays and Padres
The Rays are Rays-ing. It’s worked I guess. Can’t imagine being a rays fan knowing that any great player will more than likely get traded to restock the young cheap talent pool. I like the aggressiveness from the Padres. These windows close quicker than you think.
Don’t worry all 5,000 Rays fans will get over it.
A+
Our TV ratings seem to show otherwise.
Also we’ve paid less per win than any other team in baseball the last ten years. Congrats on your wasted money and one championship in the past 34 years? Maybe we’ll win one on our third try too.
Retirees and transplants. Fans of other teams looking to watch something. Really can’t see them developing a strong and young fanbase when they consistently trade away any potential fan favorite. If they had Mike Trout, he’d have been traded after three seasons. Rays fans will never get a chance to have their own Mays, Seaver, Pujols, etc. even if they were lucky enough to have them at the start. They’ll never have a franchise player. No heroes for children to grow up with. Just admiration from non-Rays fans that they were able to get their payroll down to $57M. Even this thread is evidence. Most posting here are not Rays fans. They exist in very small numbers because they’re a difficult team to root for. The players they just received? Congrats. If they turn out good they’re already traded.
Social Distancing is NOT an issue at the Trop.
Great rays fans comment by jr. And these windows close even faster if you trade away prospects who can amount to something. I would rather be rays on this trade but let’s see how things pan out. Rays fans are used to these trades. And they don’t go to games anyways so doesn’t really matter how they feel.
And you’re a person typing at a keyboard so it doesn’t really matter how you feel.
Is that how that works?
Man, that was easy.
Ouch. Overpay.
Nah
1st person voted out of the Tampa tribe… Blake
What about Renfroe and N. Lowe?
Adames is probably gone soon too if Wander Franco is legit
Wooooooow…
Are the Rays still considered contenders in the AL with how much pitching they’ve lost? Their hitting was already not that great and now it seems like their trying to rebuild just a couple months after making it to the World Series. It seems very bizarre.
yeah hard to take them seriously without Snell and Morton (AKA Charlie Clutch)
As of now no. But just takes one prospect or trade to fix it.
I really thought it would Patino and Campusano as headliners. However, Patino, Mejia with Wilcox and Hunt is a good get for the Rays if the Rays still see Mejia as an option behind the plate.
Mejia can’t hit! He was probably just a throw in at this point.
Mejia can certainly catch.
Asking him to pitch frame, throw out runners, and excel defensively is a different story though.
Expect Mejia to improve on all the above now that he’s being reunited with his catching coach from when he was originally drafted..
It needs to be said, AJ Preller is one of the best GM’s in todays game. His bold moves aimed at helping the major league roster has transformed an entire franchise, for the better! This is how a team, with the intent of winning right now, should be run. A+
Great deal for the Padres.
Is it the way a team should be run? The Rays, the team on the other side of the trade have had much more success than the Padres, who, a few years back went for it by acquiring a bunch of big names and fell on their face, leading to the rebuild that got them here: looking ok but with minimal actual success so far. It’s definitely the way fans THINK a team should be run, but the success levels of the two teams involved would suggest otherwise.
Not sure he is the best or top 5 or what not. Never ranked them. But sure. Let him give out big contracts and trade prospects for players and the padres are one of the better teams right now. He certainly built a great farm.
Totally agree, and Im glad you said it
For the life of me ill never understand why this board cares so much about the {potential} of 2025
If it was up to 80% of these posters they’d kick the can down the road as long as they can boast a “top 5” farm system year to year
Baseball needs AJ Preller, and are lucky to have him, as is SD….Same goes for Jerry D, who deserves a kind word as well ,he also gets constantly ripped in here
I’m going to preface this with the fact that I absolutely have nothing against the Padres.
Haven’t his big moves and signings really just left his teams around .500? Seems to spin his wheels a lot when it comes to the expectations that following season.
Trades and free agent signings are calculated moves by teams (some more than others) to stir the pot and drum up fan interest for the coming season. It’s not so much that the team actually measurably improves, it’s more that the ownership and senior management is trying to improve the club.
Padres fans are excited because, after decades of austerity by ownership and letting good players go for nothing, the team is finally trying to get better at the major league level. That sells tickets.
Mejia is nothing more than a backup catcher. Patino is the catch here but for a cy young winner the haul is a little light. Wilcox you don’t know. 1 yr from draft pickup and nothing yet to show beside hearsay. Good short term for SD but long term they’re hurting a little. Rays stocking up their farm system some more but that’s it. Many chips in the lot and hopeful some payoff.
Excellent comment.
Is Meija bad defensively or something? Seems like he has decent pop and offense for a C.
Mejia is atrocious defensively
Mejia is one of the worst defenders I’ve seen. He needs to be moved to the outfield, but his bat won’t play as well out there.
Mejia is far from atrocious now, he is consistently getting better. He had issues receiving the ball (very stabby with the glove) but is maintaining an upwards trajectory with his defense. By all accounts, he was expendable to us but he should continue to grow offensively as well. My gut says he just needs pt to grow quicker. He was backlogged in San Diego with Nola here and Campusano being ready. We wish all 4 ex-Pads well but love having Snell now.
Mejia got consistently worse. The more he played, the worse he got.
Quite the blockbuster trade. Rays must be throwing in the towel on 2021 and probably 2022.
The Padres *really* want to contend for the World Series. They’ve been making very big moves to upgrade the roster and affect a change in their win-loss percentages.
I commend the move. I think it may have still happened even if Clevinger had remained healthy.
Hardly. That team has so much pitching talent, it just reloads! Remember Brent Honeywell? Yeah at some point he will be healthy. Patino is actually ML ready, nothing left to prove on the farm. Rays are not tearing it down, they are re-loading and won’t miss a beat next season – you watch!
Patiño has a ton left to prove on the farm. 7.2 innings in AA before he got called up to the majors.
Rays are still in. For less then they received for Snell, they can get a replacement. 3 strong playoff teams in the east.
YES YES YES YES YES YES.
This is amazing. I wanted this trade so badly. Giving up Patino and Mejia is a perfect price for Blake Snell. We kept the important players who can help us win now, and we added a Cy Young winner. This is amazing.
To be honest, I wanted to trade Patino for Luis Castillo, but I’m thrilled with Blake Snell.
Castillo wasn’t and isnt getting traded without whoever acquires him taking one of Cincy’s big contracts
Short sighted
Where is the know-it-all Pads Fans aka Koamalu aka outinleftfield who SWORE that Luis Patiño wasn’t getting traded?
Koamalu is an Angels fan
No he’s “Pads Fans” posing as one.
Preller will trade anyone. It’s why he’s a great GM. The fact that he’s held onto Gore and Abrams just shows that he has a handle on which talent he values the most – rightfully so.
Guess someone should have told that to Trea Turner and Max Fried.
That’s funny Ryan. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. What is even funnier is that one of your many other accounts is right above this post.
Stuff like this is why no one believes your claims (with no link to back them up) about “Preller said this or that” or “ownership said this or that.” Just like no one believes your stories about sitting above the Padres dugout during the Mexico series and overhearing Eric Hosmer make a rude comment to Andy Green after he hit that home run in game 2. Or about sitting next to Dan Lozano on a plane and him personally telling you that Manny Machado was going to sign with the Padres. Or about having a realtor sister who sold Freddy Galvis a house in San Diego. Or about buying up a bunch of farmland from bankrupt farmers.
I gotta hand it to you tho, you got one Hell of an imagination.
Damn it I wanted Snell for the Mets lol
Everybody who acts as though Dombrowski is an imbecile should become Rays fans. We’ll see who finishes with more rings.
Dombrowski’s last 3 stops have been in places where ownership would purposely overpay for old free agents.
Well, I guess *somebody* has to make an attempt to beat the Dodgers. Nobody else in the NL West seems interested in doing that.
Cubs are like “you guys still want Darvish right?”
I can make a pretty damn good argument that Darvish has been better than Snell.
and I can make a pretty good argument that he’s more expensive, older, and more injury prone
Darkside outside of 2 years darvish has been a workhorse and better in terms of all metrics. The only thing snell has is being younger but has still had as much injury concerns as darvish has.
era + 130 for Snell whos 7 years younger, 20.5 mill less expensive, and a better pitcher than Darvish ( era + 125)
Except for all those facts right?
We’re all very proud of you.
But can you make a good argument that he’ll be better than Snell over the next three years?
Yes. Outside of 2018 Snell has averaged 1.2 WAR.
FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!
I get that Snell is closer to a mid rotation arm than an ace like some people think but this is still a pretty light return considering Snell’s affordability. The Rays usually do well in trades though and while this might look bad in the short term I wouldn’t be surprised if this winds up being a good long term move for them
How is the return light? Patino is one of the most highly touted SP prospects. Wilcox was a highly rated player coming out of college last year. easily first round in a normal year but he was banged up a bit, nothing tho with long term effects. Mejia is probably the most talented catcher the Rays have EVER had and Hunt is a very solid catching prospect that hits well enough to play 1b/DH as well. Great move for the Rays as I see it
The Rays seem to be good at blocking out the noise and acquiring the players they think have the skills to complete at the MLB level. Sometimes those are the obvious players and sometimes they aren’t, but they obviously trust their scouting and analytics to hit more than they miss.
Patiño is the only blue chipper in that package. Mejía is now 25 and can’t hit big league pitching to go along with his awful defense. Wilcox has yet to make his pro debut so he’s still a huge question mark, although he does potentially have high upside. Lastly Hunt is a 22 year old who hasn’t played above A ball yet. Considering Snell won a Cy Young 2 years ago and is very cheap, that’s a light return
That’s a lot to give up for 2nd place lol
they would probably be the favorites in at least 4 of the other 5 divisions.
Lol ahahaha that was a good one.
If you disagree that they are the 2nd place team in the division, you’re drunk
Careful. When they have Clevinger back, that’s going to be a formidable rotation; and this year their lineup was third in runs scored. I wouldn’t sleep on this team if I were a Doyers fan.
So…in 2022 at the earliest?
I wouldn’t make that assumption. They made the postseason this year and they just added Blake Snell. They might be good enough next year and still better in 2022..
Seattle missed their chance.
Seattle isnt close enough to contention to make this deal
Castillo,musgrove or plesac which one are the Ray’s trading for now from the deepest minor league system in baseball.
None of the above.
why would they trade for a SP after dealing away one?
Agree none. Reds if anyone. Cle will probably hold onto him. Pit wants the young high upside talent Tam doesn’t want to part with.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. The Rays will suck major monkey balls next year without Blake Snell and Charlie Morton. Gonna be disappointing.
Or….OR….contend for a division title again.
I’d love to see it. But it’s hard to count on young players who are coming back from injuries.
$21.5 million to go away. Dang.
I’m not going to say they’ll suck but if they have a couple of their key players regress they will be very mediocre. They do have a loaded farm to work with buts it’s hard to expect them to come up and be key pieces to a wanna be contender.
When you’re the rays, you HAVE to trust your farm to continue to churn out players
And like LAD, they deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to player development
I think guys like Franco and Patino will be stars, I have no issue with their player development. But if they’re coming off a World Series appearance and expect them to be reasons they’re back next year, they will be proven wrong. It’s a joke that they don’t seem to want to be in the winning business, they desperately need to move to somewhere else and get a new owner.
One of those rare time where I think both teams benefit. Padres have a plethora of good prospects. Needed a replacement for clevinger. Rays looking to shed salary as usual, get 2 prospects relitively close to the majors and 2 young guys who are ready.
I think both teams usually benefit. Least recently with bell and Lynn.
I love how people just assume the world is ending for Tampa…. R-E-L-A-X
Front office always sees things others dont
you know they arent psychics, right?
I agree bud, but their track record of identifying talent speaks for itself.
Their scouting and analytics departments are top notch
With the way the Rays keep trading their stars for max value the year before their production drops, you’d think they were psychics.
They’ll definitely be fine without Snell, because they were great when he wasn’t helping much in ’19. As a Blue Jays fan this trade is good news to me of course, but I’m not going to pretend catching the Rays will be easy or probable.
Rays won this one, book it! (not a rays fan)
Replacing two 3 something era guys isn’t an impossible task.
It’ll be unfortunate watching one of those “How it all failed” documentaries on the Padres in about five to ten years or so. As a Mariner fan, watching that return come in that we got for Nola blew my mind. And looking through this little package they’ve sent for the pitching equalivent of Bryce Harper in terms of stats is a little rough. Mejia and Patiño? Tampa’s going to have fun with that group of guys, without a doubt. Just hope it pays off for SD
Agree. They have a deep farm, but if I am sea cle Tam I am happy with my returns.
Like 2009 the Rays will be back to irrelevant after a World Series. Pathetic franchise.
That’s what happens when you aren’t a big market. Padres will be in same boat in 2/3 years when the max out tatis and can’t afford a semi decent rotation. Might as well shoot for 2nd place for a couple seasons before giants come back to form and battle with dodgers.
@Jmac2020 – you are completely wrong. The Rays struggle to spend $60 million in a normal year, whereas the Padres can afford to spend past $150 million. We can afford an extension for Tatis without compromising the rest of the team.
Also, there is no way that the Giants will pass the Padres anytime soon. Sure, they have recently outperformed expectations, but nobody has ever confused this Giants team with being good. And don’t get me started on their farm, because their farm isn’t good enough to get them into contention.
As highlighted by padres consistent “top rated farm” yields little in terms of great players over 60 years the developed tony gywnn and dave Winfield and possibly tatis. Management has already shown no means to blow past 150 million so in 3/4 year factoring in arbitration and raises for several players padres will be in same boat as astros are with less depth and ability to develop major league talent. Padres are one of the worst franchises at developing talent and the talent they do have will get expensive in a few years. Enjoy second place for a few more seasons my money is on giants being built similar to dodgers in terms of longevity while also being big spenders and being able to keep their talent
It was 2008 but I get your point
From 2009-2013 the Rays averaged over 90 wins per season, had 4 90+ win seasons and made the playoffs 3 times while playing in the sport’s toughest division. Hardly irrelevant.
Pretty cheap of the rays if you ask me. Yes they got a solid haul in return, seems like they could have done better, but definitely not bad. But just keep snell, he wasn’t that expensive, especially for a cy young pitcher smh
I was sure the Rays would *eventually* trade Snell, but I thought they’d wait one more year, building interest and gauging multiple trade options, while still getting the benefit of his services in 2021. They moved much more quickly this time, even by their standards.
Best time to get the biggest value would be now when he has three years of control rather than two years. Probably wouldn’t have gotten as much as the Rays are getting now. Especially if Snell struggles even more than he has the past two years where he’s averaging less than 5 IP/G. The Rays in trade negotiations could say “2019 was an off year while 2020 stats are not indicative to what he can do”. If Snell performed the same as 2019-2020 then it becomes a trend going downward and would have hurt his trade value.
Seriously?? They just got an incredible package from arguably the best farm. Sure, “they’re just prospects”, but Snell was threatening possibly sitting out 2020 and they just three controllable (underpriced) years for an impressive collection of prospects. Few teams best TB in trades.
The writing was on the wall as soon as Snell publicly disagreed with the Game 6 decision; that combined with his increasing salary pretty much sealed his fate. Padres are giving up prospects for more certainty; Snell was great last year and will top the rotation this year for the Pads, with Lamet, Paddack, Davies, and either Gore or a fill-in. Then next year, if Clevinger is healthy, they’ll have a very formidable rotation at a reasonable cost.
As for the Rays, it’s business as usual, though they were a little more focused this time around. One reason this deal made sense for them is it helped build their catching depth, which Erik Neander had publicly bemoaned. Mejia will split time with Zunino this year and take over in 2022, giving time for Ronaldo Hernandez and Hunt to develop. Mejia can play other positions, so when one of the other catchers is ready for prime time, they can shift him.
Patino and Wilcox are probably the “headliners” as the Rays continue to stream, Patino in particular. The Pads used him in relief this year, and he was woefully unprepared for that due to the pandemic. My guess is that he’s already the #2 starter for Tampa Bay behind Glasnow, since they don’t have much else now. Wilcox was just drafted, so he’s a bit further away, and may end up as a power reliever.
I’d love to see the Rays get their stadium situation settled so they can have some revenue certainty and be able to lock up their young stars to long-term contracts without trading them about half-way in. Look for Kiermaier to go next…
“The writing was on the wall as soon as Snell…” began to make more money.
Well, Snell was right. If mgmt was unaware of that fact, they were the only ones.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Let’s see who it makes more sense to side with. Snell, a guy that has proven he cannot go deep in games vs the FO with the most wins in the AL the past 3 seasons?
A healthy Lamet is better than Snell. So is Clevinger when he returns in 2022. If Paddack returns to his rookie level of performance which is a really good bet or Gore is as good as everyone thinks he is, then Snell is the #4 on that Padres staff in 2022.
A healthy Lamet is an Ace. But he came up with an arm issue at the end of a 60 game season, and like Clevinger, he’s already had one TJ. Since he went through PRP treatment after the season, I think it’s questionable that he goes the full season. Question mark.
Who cares about Clevinger in 2022? This season is 2021.
IF Paddack … is a huge IF. The league started to figure him out at the end of 2019, and he hasn’t been able to adjust. If he can’t figure out that throwing letter-high fastballs won’t cut it in the big leagues, he might need to finish developing in AA ball. Another question mark.
Gore? Do you really want to pin your hopes on a rookie who spent what should have been his first full year in AA, pitching in glorified training camp?
As of right now, our most dependable starter is Zach Davies. Counting Snell, that makes a 4-man rotation. (I’m not counting Gore unless/until he legitimately makes the team).
You can hate on Snell all you want, but we have holes in our starting pitching. And I can think of worse ways to fill them.
Got a sneaking suspicion Patiño is better than Snell in 2022. Bringing him up at all in 2020 was a mistake but with stuff and a work ethic like his, this trade will work out fine for Tampa.
No, Patino is a ways off from being as good as Snell. He is only 20, and he has only been pitching for about 4 years. He still could develop into an elite pitcher, but probably not for a couple years. His time to excel will come in the 2023-2024 range. The Padres window of contention is open right now, which is why it is a good thing that we traded him for Snell.
lol
Patino will put up more WAR in the next 3 seasons than Snell. Snell has put up 1.4 WAR or less every season other than 2018. If you saw Patino pitch, you know why all the projections are for him to be a top of the rotation starter.
Who cares about that fake number? Will he keep his team in games without blowing up? Will he keep men off base? How will he react in critical situations? How will he react when the SS boots a ball? Can he throw strikes, or will he walk the bases loaded? Will batters light him up when he gets behind in the count? Will he give his team a chance to win?
Adding on, Preller once again can’t seem to resist the allure of “name” players or trading with the Rays and Indians (which is generally inadvisable as those two teams do not lose trades).
Snell is a former AL ERA champ and Cy Young award winner who is young and cheap. hardly just a name.
Key word: Former
Snell is money if healthy. Great trade for the Padres.
Keyword. IF. He has missed 21 starts in 2019-2020. And he is only money for 4.5-5 innings per start. After that he is loose change in your couch cushions.
The keyword in your post is “Former”. Snell is an injury prone pitcher that has had a 3.96 ERA the past 2 seasons while missing 21 starts and only going 4.62 IP/G.
I doubt he’s that for any of the years with the padres, but that’s not really what they need him to be anyway. This was a decent package to give up, but if the Padres think their window is the next 2-3 years, this makes sense for them.
Snell will look great going 4 2/3 or 5 innings every 5th or 6th day in a Padres uniform. He’s definitely a workhorse.
In related news, the Rays announced they’ve proactively traded Luis Patiño, Francisco Mejía, Blake Hunt and Cole Wilcox in advance of projected increasing salaries in several years.
I’ve scrolled by this comment three times and laughed each time like it was new.
Did no one learn anything from the Archer trade?
Apparently not Preller
This isn’t even remotely close to the Archer trade. Patino is the only elite player being traded, and he is still a few years away from truly becoming elite. I like Mejia, but he has proven that he doesn’t know how to catch, so he will have to be a DH or an outfielder, where his bat won’t play as well. Hunt isn’t even our best catching prospect, and Wilcox is too young to really make a decision on. He could be good, or he might be a complete bust, it’s too early to tell.
Lol. Dan, your review of the trade “I don’t know about the guys so it won’t hurt”
Doesn’t quite work that way
Did the Rays not learn from the Hunter Renfroe trade?
The one where they traded a good prospect and dumped the salary of an declining player for a even better prospect?
Because Tommy Pham is smashing it up in San Diego and because Xavier Edwards doesn’t exist?
I’ll ask you again. Where’s the win for the Rays?
The Rays got a good haul in trade, the downside is that it looks like they’re giving up on making the WS this season. We’ll see on the moves ahead.
Yes we are contenders. Yes these are great pitchers. We are just sooooooooo poor that we must trade them away for some of your top prospects.
We are trying to contend and Clevinger is fantastic. It’s just he broke our protocol and team is mad, that’s the only reason he is available for you today. Lots of teams are calling, you don’t want to miss out on this ace. Come on aj,how often is a pitcher of this quality available to aquire?
Snell is a solid talent, but two things are evident here.
1. I think he’s very much a similar talent situation to David Price. Teams are going to eventually pay 30mil/year for services the Rays can get for 10mil/year or less, so might as well get the return you can now, when he’s not taking up too much of the Padres’ payroll.
2. Snell is kind of a whiner with an attitude not many people liked. He’s always got that cockeyed smirk on his face that is kinda trashy looking. Not saying he was a problem in the locker room, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was.
I also never really thought of his stuff as unique or special, so it’ll be fun to have a guy like Honeywell replace him or we can do the opener situation with a Fleming or Mcclanahan. They’ll be fine.
This is too much for a 5 inning pitcher
As an Indians'(or whatever we’re going to be called) fan, I like the return for Clevinger more. Having said that, you get Clev healthy and put him and Snell in the top of your rotation you got something special. Good luck Pads! I would love to see you unseat the Dodgers and it looks like Preller is trying his best to do so.
What are two things both the Rays and Padres have in common (other than being awesome teams)? Both will be better than my Chicago Cubs this year.
I am frustrated that the Cubs did not pull the trigger on a Darvish trade to the Padres. They need to get younger. Plus, the Rays are the team I envisioned Contreras going to.
Hopefully there’s still good trades out there for Darvish and Contreras.
Gotta hand it to Preller for being aggressive. Padres will be tough this year!!
With Snell available, the Darvish trade may not have been an option considering his salary. Or, if you want to be optimistic,. the Padres will still look to add in Darvish also.
Good deal for the Padres. Sure, they gave up a couple of good prospects, but they received a young, proven SP who is a lefty and is on a favorable contract for the next three years.
Didn’t expect this. Padres are gonna be dangerous. I’m putting $50 on them to make the world series now.
Wow, nice job Padres in getting an ace! Also, gotta congratulate the Rays on once again getting good prospects. This will help the Yankees for the immediate future and make the Padres even more watchable
Padres didn’t get an Ace. An Ace stays healthy and pitches deep in games. An Ace doesn’t go 2 season with a 3.96 ERA. Snell is a decent #3 on most good teams.
Given that we need at least two SPs, I’ll take him as a “decent #3” with his track record.
And these are the consequences of Preller overpaying in multiple mid season deals. He’s now touching “the untouchables”
All to basically replace Clev for 2021. They are praying Clev in 2022 is his old self, which is where this trade will truly be felt (at current roster constructions). But for 2021, are they really any different than the 2020 team, in term of threat to LA? Not at this point
Seems like a massive haul for TB. Long term sure, but a lot of talent going back. This is how TB stays competitive. All 4 of these guys likely spend multiple years contributing to the future of the rays, for cheap
Last two years, Snell has averaged less than 5IP per game, so that’s a concern, but moving to the NL can quickly improve his performance. Especially if no DH.
You hit it on the head!!!! Rays can actually develop talent unlike padres. They might get 4 everyday players for 1 pitcher that can’t go more than 5 innings. Patino looked special when he wasnt rushed up to majors to try and help padres thin depth.
NL west is gonna be a dog fight.
Great trade for the Padres.
Sad day if you’re a Rays fan. One would hope the Rays would improve the MLB roster to try to win. The Rays are winning nothing.
As a Yankees fan, great deal for both sides. Mejia and patino could both be impactful this season and the Padres get a pretty cheap #2 at worst. The Rays are a bit like the Cleveland Baseball Team in this, that they trade for talent that will make an immediate impact.
We are not allowed to declare both teams winners. One must lose!
You are correct.
Rays always surprise me with these trades. You think they dont get enough (Adames/S Price, Liberore trades) but then their return ends up solid. Adames was a risk but that paid off. I wonder if they’ll win this trade too or if San Diego will fleece them again like for Cronenworth.
Rays overachieved in 2020 in the shortened 60-game season. The grind of at least 130 games next year would have pulled them back into the pack. Now add in the loss of both Snell and Morton and they’ll be pushed further back. The real winners: The Yankees and the rest of the AL East, as well as the Padres who landed an excellent replacement for Clevinger for 2021, who they can then pair up with Clevinger in 2022. The Rays will be fine again as they start building toward their next World Series appearance and loss in 2032.
I dunno the Yankees have a lot of holes especially pitching wise. And if they lose DJL they will be at a severe disadvantage compared to last season.
Just here to see MetsFan22 try to say NYM is better than SD. lol. What a trade.
Me too buddy, me too!
They are
Thank you Pads and Preller!!!!Tis an amazing Merry Christams gift! Wow!
But hey. At least now Snell is reunited with his best friend Tommy Pham
Ironic that in the end Snell was also traded for “slapdick” prospects.
I hope this starts getting the off-season going.
I’m tired of seeing headlines about some player I’ve never heard of signing with some KBO team. I want to see some big names and hopefully my team gets some of them.
There are only so many trades and big free agent signings every off season. The off season is long. By definition, every off season is “slow” if you expect big moves one after another. We go through this every off season. It’s not unusual and no one should be surprised that there aren’t multiple big headline deals every week. To expect so is irrational. This off season hasn’t been slow, it’s been normal. Sometimes big moves group together early, sometimes late, sometimes they’re spread out, but there’s nothing unusual going on here.
Sad to see him go, but those two pitchers are a solid haul…and if Mejia can come close to his billing, this is a very good trade for the Rays.
Good deal for the Padres in a win-now mode. The Rays are good at identifying talent, so Patino might help immediately in 2021, although it wouldn’t shock me if they keep him in the minors for additional development in 2021 and to push back his arbitration clock. Mejía has a promising bat, but he really doesn’t fit what the Rays like in a catcher glove wise. Curious what they do with him. Blake Hunt and Cole Wilcox? I wouldn’t expect much from the former. I won’t dismiss Wilcox by saying he’s a lottery ticket, but he’s a ways off regardless if all works out well.
Only the Rays can do a deal like this, purposely weakening themselves after going to the World Series and then trading away a young top lefty starter with three years of control at a reasonable salary, yet the media is ready to proclaim they’re brilliant. It’s bad for baseball when a team can’t or won’t retain talent they can afford. The Rays either need a new stadium or a new city. I vote for the latter.
I’d argue to the contrary, I actually think this is good for baseball. Snell is going to a talented SD team for his prime year 28-30 seasons. Also goes to a playoff team with Machado and Tatis which consolidates some star power onto one team. SD is pretty marketable with the names they’ve acquired.
In exchange TB gets another batch of prospects just like they always do to replenish their ranks.
Moves like this are how TB stays competitive. Makes sense for both teams, SD is probably a top 3 team in the NL and they’re in win now mode while TB gets long term value. Doing the constant rebuild like TB does is better than some of the other teams who tear it all down and don’t spend (PIT, BAL..) because at least TB is competing while churning their roster.
Padres and Braves are the biggest challengers to LAD in the NL.
YoU fOrGoT tHe MeTs!
The Mets still have some moves to make. Off season not over yet.
He is being sarcastic. Mets have huge holes to fill and one offseason won’t take them from last place to the playoffs.
Yea I get it. But they were only last over 60 games… the right moves they can definitely take the division
This, right here, is why the Rays are bad for baseball, or rather their business model, which is becoming a trend across the sport, is bad for baseball.
Winning efficiently isn’t enough. If you want to grow the sport you need to develop good players into stars. Then you need to keep your stars. Then you need to market your stars.
Without teams like the Rays there aren’t teams like the Padres so I think whatever you’re trying to say doesn’t add up.
The Rays model is bad when it comes to marketing the sport.
Exactly.
The Rays and A’s can’t build anything until they get new stadiums. They both are in limbo until then
Lol sure. They do develop players, which is why they are consistently successful. They are too smart to overpay, thus they continue to build through trades. Whine all you want, this is a successful model that will continue to be successful. Not every franchise has to follow the same model…give them credit for winning without the huge payroll! Maybe other teams should take note?
Winning doesn’t matter if you can’t fill the stands. Winning doesn’t matter if you can’t move the meter in TV ratings. Winning doesn’t matter, if you’re not marketable.
The Rays have been to the World Series. Twice. They’ve attracted record low ratings. Twice.
I know it’s hard for some minds to grasp, because the sport is still profitable in the general sense–which is purely circumstantial, and won’t last–but this sport is losing casual fans at a horrifying pace. Ratings have been dropping for years. Attendance has been dropping for years. My god, the best story in MLB in the last quarter century was the Cubs/Indians Series and it attracted huge ratings and it did not carry over. At all. The popularity of the sport has been regressing for several generations and it’s getting worse, fast. They’ve done exactly nothing of value in all that time to try to grow the game, and the upcoming labor war will only make it catastrophically worse. It has to change.
Now, I’m not saying the Rays aren’t impressive. They are. They’re a testament to the ability to do something with less than nothing. Good for them. Good for their fan base, such as it is.
But it’s objectively bad for the sport.
What the Rays are doing–for other teams that’re more marketable–is proving that instead of growing and investing in the game to increase revenue in order to make it more profitable, you can just cut payroll and take more profit out of what little is already there. Meanwhile, the reach of the sport continues to erode.
The bottom line is that baseball needs to start growing. NOW. Or better yet, yesterday. And for teams to win isn’t enough. They need to win in a way that’s entertaining, in a way that’s marketable. They need to market star players and that means teams need to HAVE star players to market.
And no, it’s not just about bad stadiums, or else the Marlins would be a draw. To think that just getting better venues will change the world in Tampa or Oakland is provably false, and stunningly lazy thinking.
Why the hell is this so hard to understand, folks?
So move the team to a more profitable location but let them keep their winning plan in place. Higher payroll won’t equal more fans. Not enough anyway.
You’re missing the point. Intentionally, I suspect.
This isn’t about higher payroll per se. This is about organizations building teams that can be marketed, which means having recognizable, marketable players and keeping them, at least on occasion. That does draw more fans, and will draw more fans that that is an absolutely provable fact.
And this isn’t about the Rays, specifically. They’ve got no choice but to do what they’re doing. This is about the Rays’ business model being a model for many teams across the sport, including teams that can spend money, but don’t want to.
The Rays business model is good for them, because they’ve got no options. But–as I’ve stated very clearly several times now–it’s bad for the sport.
I do get that die hard fans–who make up the overwhelming majority of this site’s traffic–don’t get it because they’re not leaving the sport. But it’s not about the die hards for exactly that reason. The die hards will always be there. But there’s not enough of them, never was, and never will be. The profit margin comes from causal fans, and in order for baseball to attract them, the game needs to be more entertaining and stars need to be marketed, and not just in NY and LA.
The kind of efficient, low cost baseball the Rays play isn’t terribly entertaining, and while they’re great at developing talent, by the time their stars are marketable, they’re playing for someone else.
And, again, that’s fine, for them, because they have no choice. It’s not fine for the sport.
Got it now?
I didn’t think so.
Minus the sarcasm, excellent posts. You’ve captured the essence; the Rays have to operate that way, but it does nothing for the “brand” of MLB. And there’s a lot of luck in what the Rays have done. Think the Archer deal was a great heist? What did Meadows hit this year? Convinced Glassnow can overcome his obvious problems? Others aren’t convinced. And they’ve uncategoricaly LOST some of their trades; see Dickerson, Colome, Ordorizi, et al.
The owner has done nothing to improve the brand, and has profited simply because the rest of MLB has had a Golden Age, an age that’s rapidly evacuating. Their franchise value increased because of what the Red Sox and Cubs did; nothing of what THEY did. And add a dollop of new technology, again, nothing that they did.
Nah, I just somewhat disagree. I don’t think marketing is dependent upon individual stars in this sport as you do and if baseball wants more money it needs smarter placement of teams around the continent, to eliminate local internet blackouts, and lower ticket prices. Lower salaries would make lower prices easier. Shorter commercial breaks… an organization that looks out for the game rather than one for players and one for owners… all of this would improve marketing more than every team feeling obligated to overpay stars. Folks are turning away from this sport due to blackouts, long commercials and high prices, not because the Rays are smart with their team. Plus, I think the idea that the sport is dying is overstated. If teams are losing money it’s because we’ve arbitrarily decided that star players need to be gazillionaires