Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
The Mets have acquired Joey Lucchesi from the San Diego Padres in a three-team deal that sent pitcher Joe Musgrove from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Padres.
Jeff Passan first reported Musgrove was going to San Diego, and the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee reported the Mets would be a third team in the deal. Passan also was the first to report a “large package of prospects” will be on the way back to Pittsburgh, highlighted by 19-year-old Hudson Head (No. 7 in their system, according to MLB Pipeline). The outfielder was drafted by the Padres in the third round in 2019.
In order to acquire Lucchesi, the Mets traded their No. 14 prospect Endy Rodriguez–a 20-year-old prospect from the Dominican Republic who played catcher and center field in Rookie ball–to the Pirates, according to Jonathan Mayo.
The Athletic’s Dennis Lin said lefty pitching prospect Omar Cruz (No. 17), David Bednar (No. 20), and Drake Fellows will be going to the Pirates, too.
As for the Mets, they are acquiring a pitcher who no longer had a spot in San Diego’s rotation after their flurry of moves this offseason. Lucchesi had an ugly 2020 where he was called up and down from the team’s alternate training site. He only appeared in three games–two starts–and had a 7.94 ERA (though a 3.01 FIP).
In 2018 and 2019, though, Lucchesi had a 4.24 FIP and 97 ERA+ across 293.2 innings. He has team control through the 2024 season, too, and looks to compete for an end-of-the-rotation spot heading into spring training.
In Musgrove, who was traded to the Pirates in the Gerrit Cole trade, the Padres get a guy who pitched to a league-average 100 ERA+ over the last two seasons to go with a 3.74 FIP and 2.3 bWAR in 210 innings. His underlying metrics suggest a he’s pitcher with even more upside, too.
The Padres seem to be doing everything in their willpower to make sure they have the one of the best rotations (on paper) in baseball. This is the third trade the Padres made for a pitcher this offseason and fourth since July, following the acquisitions of Blake Snell, Yu Darvish and Mike Clevinger.
As for the Pirates, they received a pretty decent haul for a guy who has been around or just above league average the last couple seasons and only has two years of team control left.
