Friars are Buyers, Not Sellers, Thanks Preller

 
Six years ago, the San Diego Padres got Craig Kimbrel, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Derek Norris and Wil Myers during the offseason, beefed up their team with contracts and looked to be a contender for the 2015 season. Despite A.J. Preller's best efforts, they didn't. Solely because they didn't have a good enough foundation before getting several contracts. All they had was Will Venable, Alexi Amarista, Tyson Ross and...some hope.

Well...five years passed. Manny Machado, Eric Hosmer, Mike Clevinger and Tommy Pham arrive in San Diego, and Chris Paddack, Dinelson Lamet and Fernando Tatis have come up. Now we've got a solid foundation, so if A.J. Preller wants to sign and trade for some people, he can go right ahead.

And so he did.

Firstly, he commandeered a wily trade that got Blake Snell, the Rays' chief fireballer, to San Diego in exchange for Francisco Mejia and some prospects. That alone is pretty cool, as it gives the Rays something they lacked last year after Clevinger and Lamet got injured- a solid staff ace. Snell, if he stays healthy, will give the Padres 200+ strikeouts, some major velocity, and an ace presence that will hopefully be around for more than 5 innings per game. 

Then Preller did the most ill-fitting bit of the deals, and signed Ha-Seong Kim, the Korean infielder who was looking like one of the biggest international pieces on the board this season. Kim will be a great contact asset and infield boost...but the only problem is he's a SS-3B type, and Fernando Tatis and Manny Machado sure aren't moving. There's also Jake Cronenworth on 2nd, and he put a lot together for that position in 2020. What's probably going to happen is Cronenworth is gonna move to left, and Kim will just play there next season. Which hopefully will work, I mean I trust Cronenworth's versatility. But...it seems slightly excessive. Would Kim have fit somewhere that truly needed a middle-infielder over somewhere that would make Kim fit regardless? Probably.

But, thankfully, Preller rebounded with the biggest trade of the 24-hour period. 

Not only did the Padres manage to land both Yu Darvish AND Victor Caratini, but they kept most of their big prospects on the board and only gave up one established star, Zach Davies. 

So, now two of the biggest strikeout artists in baseball are on the Padres. Darvish nearly won a Cy Young last year, and is coming off one of his best seasons. I am worried about his learning curve in Chicago, and that the results may not come immediately in San Diego, but he's still a league-great asset and will definitely aid San Diego's playoff attempt. Plus, I reckon Victor Caratini will chase Austin Nola for the starting catching position, and possibly get it comparatively. Caratini is a great catcher that's just looking for a free enough climate to start games, and SD looks like that.

So...yeah, the Padres now have two amazing starting pitchers, a new option for catcher, and an infield phenom, and only got rid of a few established stars and prospects. Therefore, once again, Preller has an early lead over the offseason. It remains to be seen whether or not this will amount to a playoff run, though...it would be nice, wouldn't it?