Los Angeles—Japanese star pitcher Yu Darvish was obtained by San Diego from the Chicago Cubs in a Major League Baseball deal to help make the Padres an immediate championship contender.
The Padres and Cubs completed a seven-player deal that sent 34-year-old right-hander Darvish, who went 8-3 last season to lead the National League in wins, to San Diego along with catcher Victor Caratini, behind the plate for most Darvish starts.
“It’s as good a combination of power, finesse, multiple pitches as anybody in the game,” Padres general manager A.J. Preller said of Darvish.
“His last season and a half has been as productive as anybody in the game. He’s a force.”
Together with a trade for Tampa Bay star pitcher Blake Snell, the Padres have assembled a formidable starting rotation.
“We’ve got a chance to win a World Series right away and you’ve got to love being a part of that,” Snell said.
“This team is lights-out. It’s time for us to put the work in and make this happen, because we have the team to do it.”
Darvish had a 2.01 earned-run average over 76 innings last season with Caratini calling what pitches he should throw, having caught 196 1/3 innings for Darvish, the most of any catcher in his career.
“He became part of the deal, in part, because of his great relationship with Yu,” new Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said.
“His ability to sort of potentially smooth Yu’s transition to San Diego, I think, was a big part of the allure… that was something that the Padres were pretty insistent upon during the deal.”
The Padres talent on the mound should be among the best in baseball.
“You can never have enough true front-of-the-rotation-type major league starters,” Preller said. “We feel like we have a bunch now.
“Everybody in the organization is fired up, from top to bottom.”
The Padres found a willing partner in the Cubs, who were looking for young prospects.
Chicago reached the playoffs in five of the past six seasons, including a 2016 World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians for the Cubs’ first MLB crown since 1908.
But the team hasn’t won a playoff game since 2017 and concern about an aging roster and the potential to lose top free agent talent in 2021 put the Cubs at a crossroads to try and revamp without rebuilding.
“We’re at that time right now,” added Hoyer. “Are we going to be competitive? Absolutely.
“But are we going to have an eye on the future and try to make sure that we continue to bolster our farm system and make sure that we can build a future that is as bright as the last six years that we just went through? That’s our goal.”
‘One eye on future’
In the trade, the Cubs acquired right-handed pitcher Zach Davies, 18-year-old outfielder prospects Ismael Mena and Owen Caissie, 17-year-old shortstop Reginald Preciado and 20-year-old shortstop Yeison Santana.
Hoyer won’t rebuild totally as he and former Cubs executive Theo Epstein did in 2012.
“I’m not going to run the same playbook that we ran in 2011 and ‘12,” Hoyer said. “I think that would be foolish, and I think, frankly, that playbook has been copied so many times it doesn’t work the same way anymore.
“We need to make moves with one eye on the future, but we also have a really competitive team.”
