The San Diego Padres have acquired Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays, according to multiple reports from The Athletic. ESPN’s Jeff Passan has also confirmed the report. The Rays will get back 21-year-old pitchers Luis Patino and Cole Wilcox and catchers Francisco Mejia and Blake Hunt in the trade.
This is a massive move for the Padres, who have been in attack mode in the trade market and free agency the last couple years. Snell won a Cy Young Award in 2018, and he was the best starter on a Rays team that made it to the World Series in 2020 (we all know how that World Series ended, don’t we?). Over his first five seasons, Snell has pitched to a 3.50 FIP and 130 ERA+.
The 28-year-old lefty has three years and $39 million left on his contract. He will have finished his age-30 season–still in the middle of his prime–when he reaches unrestricted free agency next.
The Padres have been in clear attack mode over the last couple of offseasons to pair with the rise of Fernando Tatis and star power of Manny Machado. They traded for Mike Clevinger during the 2020 season, though he will be out all next year due to Tommy John surgery. They also project their prized pitching prospect MacKenzie Gore to debut in 2021. They still have a nice pool in the farm to make trades, should they want to.
As for the Rays and their haul, Patino ranks third in the Padres’ incredibly deep farm system, according to MLB Pipeline, and got some major-league experience this season with the Padres in the form of 10 relief appearances and one start. He will head to a Rays team that will utilize his fastball and slider in all sorts of positions throughout a game, most likely. Wilcox (No. 7) and Hunt (No. 14) are also highly regarded in their system.
Mejia had recently graduated from the Padres’ prospect list in 2019 and has produced just a 78 OPS+ with 12 home runs and .668 OPS over 334 at-bats in the major leagues. He is still just 25 years old, but he is coming off a truly horrid 2020, where he only had three hits over 39 at-bats and produced a -11 OPS+. He will head to St. Petersburg to try to put a jolt into his career. He will have all the opportunities to become the starting catcher for the Rays, with Mike Zunino as the most prominent competition.
These two teams made a trade last offseason, too, with the San Diego team the clear victor. The Pads got Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth, who finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2020, for prospect Xavier Edwards and Hunter Renfroe, who was designated for assignment after the season. We may need more than a single season to see who won the latest trade between the Padres and Rays.
