The San Diego Padres have been busy lately. They are finalizing a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for pitcher Blake Snell.
The Return
In return, the Rays would get pitching prospects Luis Patino and Cole Wilcox along with catchers Francisco Mejia and Blake Hunt, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. The deal is pending physicals.
Snell joined the Rays in 2016. In five seasons he is 42-30 with a 3.24 ERA and 648 strikeouts. Snell will help the Padres rotation become stronger. Losing Snell will hurt the depth of the Rays rotation. However they are getting good players in return.
Patino is the Padres number three prospect and is expected to be a number-2 type starter in the majors. He had a cup of coffee with the Padres last season appearing in 11 games. Wilcox is the Padres number seven prospect and was selected in the third round in the 2020 draft out of Georgia.
Hunt is the number 14 prospect and has a good arm behind the plate playing in 89 games for A-ball affiliate Fort Wayne in 2019. Mejia was once a top prospect but is still a good player and is only 25 years old.
Signing Kim
In addition to finalizing a trade for Snell, the Padres have agreed to a deal with infielder Ha-Seong Kim, according to AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. Terms of Kim’s deal aren’t known and the deal is pending a physical.
Kim hit .306/.397/.523 with 30 home runs and 24 doubles this year in the Korea Baseball Organization. In seven seasons in the KBO Kim has hit .294/.373/.493. He has primarily played shortstop and third base but could end up playing second base.
The Padres aren’t done making moves yet. They are pursuing Chicago Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish as well.
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Main Credit Image: Embed from Getty Images
