The San Diego Padres are going all in for the upcoming 2021 MLB season, a year after they made the playoffs but were eliminated by the eventual champion Los Angeles Dodgers. San Diego has built one of the best hitting lineups in all of baseball powered by Manny Machado and rising star Fernando Tatis Jr.
But they are lacking pitching and have made that a point of emphasis this offseason.
Just hours after the Padres were able to land starter Blake Snell in a deal with Tampa Bay, more rumors surfaced that they had their eyes on another ace. That ace? Chicago’s Yu Darvish.
According to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin, the Padres are in deep talks with the Cubs about Darvish:
Even after landing Blake Snell, the Padres are deep into talks to acquire Yu Darvish from the Cubs, sources tell @PJ_Mooney, @sahadevsharma and me. If the deal is completed, multiple players would head to Chicago.
— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) December 28, 2020
The Padres sent prospects Luis Patiño, Francisco Mejía and prospects Blake Hunt and Cole Wilcox to the Rays in exchange for Snell on Sunday night. Landing Darvish would likely have to include more top prospects but would the Padres be willing to part ways with MacKenzie Gore? I doubt it.
A few names to watch could be Adrian Morejon and Jake Cronenworth, both who have some big league experience. I’d imagine the Cubs would also like prospects included in the deal.
Something else to note is that Darvish isn’t the only Cubs player being talked about in the deal. Per Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman, both Victor Caratini and Willson Contreras could be a part of the deal:
Have heard the same as Jon on this, that Caratini or Contreras could be in play as part of a Darvish deal from #Cubs to #Padres https://t.co/pKihuuyMjk
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 28, 2020
Caratini makes more sense as he is Darvish’ personal catcher and has established some experience with him. But if the Cubs do send a catcher as well, and want to fully get the rebuild going, they could land a nice haul of talent back.