Not to overuse the simian reaction here, but I just saw this tweet and I can’t get past my initial dumbfounded reaction.
That is to say … wut:
https://twitter.com/r_j_anderson/status/1343609905685655553
Financially, I guess you could stretch and say there’s a reason this isn’t crazy for the Padres if they were, for example, also attaching Wil Myers and his contract? And if they’re signing Ha-Seong Kim, maybe this makes Jake Cronenworth a tradable piece (in whom I guarantee the Cubs would have extreme interest, given the versatility, the controllability, the ability to play second base, and the high-contact bat). And if they were also sending the Cubs a young pitcher in the deal, there’d be all the more space in the rotation?
I’m stretching a bit. That’s not to say the Padres don’t still have plenty of ammo to get a deal done – the cost on Darvish would, in my estimation, be similar to the substantial price paid for Snell – but are they really going to unload even further from their prospect pool to bring in ANOTHER starting pitcher? That’d be three extremely pricey pitching acquisitions in the last five months (Mike Clevinger, Snell, Darvish). That is to say, are the Padres really going to ALSO trade away Cronenworth, and Adrian Morejon, and C.J. Abrams or something? That’s just an absurd outflow of young talent, even if you got to keep MacKenzie Gore (who, no, I do not think is at all in play).
Although I believe Anderson is hearing this – he’s solid – my bigger question is why are other, rival teams hearing it? And saying it? Any chance it’s the Cubs wanting this message out there because they’d like to see some team step up with a similar offer for Darvish like the Rays got for Snell? It’s just odd. The rumor, itself, is odd, given the Snell trade, and it’s also just odd that it’d be coming not from the Padres or Cubs, but from rival teams.
Stay tuned, I guess? Because, by the way, this was Anderson’s tweet last night FOUR MINUTES before Jeff Passan broke the trade:
https://twitter.com/r_j_anderson/status/1343409407955263488
UPDATE: Oh my. It’s probably happening.