Blake Snell Traded to the Padres

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Traded for some slap dick prospects:

 

 

Probably kills the chances the Cubs trade a catcher to Tampa.

[Bertz]

The Padres are so damn fun

 

I feel like this is bad for the Cubs' wheeling and dealing though. Padres were probably the most fun Darvish option, and the Rays made the most sense for a catcher. And neither team was a threat to fill their need through FA. So now it's basically wait for FA to play out and then take advantage of whoever is left holding a bag of money.

[Cubswin11]

Snell will probably break by Memorial Day, because you don’t trade with the Rays for pitching.

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Yeah, I thought I had more to say but really this is an awesome trade for the Padres. I like Patino and even Wilcox some, but Snell's got an awesome combo of stuff, health, youth, and experience that I think can keep him one of the better pitchers in the league for a while. He was making guys miss in the zone with some nasty stuff the deeper they got into the playoffs it felt

 

The saving grace really for the Rays is that Snell has thrown so few innings that they don't need to cover a whole lot to maintain being awesome. Patino's never thrown 100 innings, Wilcox probably hasn't either, Mejia's got a potential impact bat at catcher but also is a really bad catcher, Hunt is a catcher who spent 2019 in A ball...I'm guessing door is plenty open on a Contreras trade, possibly more open than ever since they just freed up cap space

 

Hunt is a popular breakout candidate:

 

 

 

With Mejía and Zunino at the bigs, I can’t imagine the seats will allocate the resources to acquire another catcher (especially at Contreras’ cost).

[Tryptamine]

Zunino is a great guy to work with Mejia and try to get his defense passable. I still feel confident he'll hit.

[Cubswin11]

Is there like a long history of Rays pitchers falling apart after leaving? Price was awesome with the Tigers and Blue Jays, won a ring with the Red Sox. Shields was the ace on those really good Royals teams, also won a WS. Even Garza came over and almost posted 5 fWAR in his first year

Long history, don’t know. But recently it seems every pitcher they trade falls apart and breaks at both the major and minor league level and they always seem to unearth the best player in the trade the last ~3 years

[toonsterwu]

Damn. That's a fascinating deal. Tbh, there's a tendency to pick winners and losers ... and I like it enough for both sides. Tbh, it sort of reminds me of the Cubs Quintana deal - a win-now move giving up high end talent. The Rays were going to move on from Snell sooner than later, and getting a legit headliner in any trade these days is tough, but Patino is a legit headline prospect, and is close to ready. The Padres get ages 28-30 for Snell at a solid rate, make a play to win now in their window hoping the Dodgers slip a bit. If they believe they can make that jump, then this is a logical move. Patino and Co. aren't going to be the help they need this year, particularly with Clevinger out, and Hunt and Wilcox are lottery tickets that you sacrifice to make a play.

 

The Rays have to feel confident in filling their pitching. If they do, I can't blame this deal. They have to maximize their assets while they can, and dealing early gives them a better return, and they got a pretty damn good return. It's rare to see high end upper level talent get moved. I like Patino ... if the Rays can tighten things up for Wilcox, though ... I wouldn't be surprised if he's a stud in a few years. I don't love Hunt as much ... all that said, he does sort of remind me of Tyler Flowers, and Flowers ended up having a few solid years. Not sure how I feel about Mejia now, but he's probably a better fit back in the AL.

 

Is it me, or do the Rays really need to make a move for pitching? I also think the Padres are more likely than the Rays to pursue catching, as their depth is what, Nola/Campusano now?

[Bertz]

!?!