Sources: San Diego Padres acquire Blake Snell from Tampa Bay Rays

Blake Snell

For all the talk about the San Diego Padres being the hip team in the National League -- if not all of baseball -- they are still looking up at the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

The Padres need to swing big if they are to catch up, and they did so Sunday by acquiring left-handed starting pitcher Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays.

Snell, the 2018 Cy Young Award winner in the American League, played five seasons with Tampa Bay, going 42-30 with a 3.24 ERA in 108 starts. He's an established top-of-the-rotation pitcher, and he has three years and $40 million remaining on his contract.

With those years of team control, Tampa Bay needed to get a good package of players in return, and the Rays did secure four players: pitchers Luis Patino and Cole Wilcox, and catchers Francisco Mejia and Blake Hunt.

More on those guys in a minute, but for the Padres, they needed a solution for their starting rotation with Mike Clevinger injured and out for 2021. Dinelson Lamet was injured at the end of the 2020 season, too, and missed the playoffs. Beyond that, San Diego has Chris Paddack -- who was excellent as a rookie in 2019, but struggled this year -- and veteran righty Zach Davies. 

So, even with Snell, and assuming good health for Lamet, the Padres have only four starting pitchers in place. MacKenzie Gore, a high-end left-handed pitching prospect, also is a candidate for the San Diego rotation. But the Padres have a lineup that is ready to win now. They are coming off a 37-23 season, and they needed to get a little more predictability in their starting rotation -- the injuries to their pitching staff caused them to get run over by the Dodgers in the playoffs.

Snell is a great fit for that need, and San Diego may not be done yet. The Padres are rumored to be in talks to acquire Cubs ace Yu Darvish. Stay tuned on that.

As for the Rays, I'm guessing they look at Patino as the main piece of the trade. The 21-year-old made it to the majors in 2020, appearing in 11 games. The right-hander throws 97 mph and has three pitches, and he was the No. 2 pitching prospect in the San Diego organization, behind only Gore. He sounds like the kind of pitcher the Rays make into someone good.

Wilcox is a bit of a lotto ticket. He was the Padres' third-round draft pick in 2020, but he was given first-round money. He's a right-hander with a big fastball. He's 6-foot-5, 232 pounds and has the SEC pedigree, having played his college ball at the University of Georgia.

Mejia is a familiar name. He was once a big prospect in the Cleveland Indians organization. He was traded to San Diego as part of the Brad Hand deal. He fills a need for Tampa Bay, but he's yet to prove he can hit in the big leagues -- as shown by his .225 career batting average and .668 career OPS. To be fair, Mejia has accumulated only 362 career plate appearances, but he's also 25 years old now. If the breakout is coming, it needs to happen soon.

Hunt is a 22-year-old catcher who played in High-A in 2019. He was the No. 14 prospect in the Padres' organization, and he is said to have a good throwing arm behind the plate. At 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, there is hope he can develop power as a hitter, but he only homered five times in 89 games in 2019.

This is a decent haul for the Rays, especially if Patino develops quickly. But if you're the Padres, this is a move you have to make if you want to catch the Dodgers. I applaud them for making it.