The San Diego Padres still contribute to their rotation. The Padres plan to acquire right-hander Joe Musgrove in a three-team deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan and the San Diego Union Tribuneis Kevin Acee. None of the three teams announced the trade.
Here are the trade details:
- Addresses received: RHP Joe Musgrove
- Mets received: LHP Joey Lucchesi
- Pirates receive: RHP David Bednar, LHP Omar Cruz, OF Hudson Head, RHP Drake Fellows, C / OF Endy Rodriguez
The Padres get Musgrove for Bednar, Cruz, Head, Fellows and Lucchesi. The Mets get Lucchesi for Rodriguez. The Pirates get everything for Musgrove. Do you have it all? Well.
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Musgrove, 28, was a trendy breakthrough attempt after 2020, given the mechanical adjustments he made in late 2019. These adjustments led by far last season to the highest pass rate (33.1 percent), swing-and-miss (14.4 percent) and baseball (48.4 percent) in his career. Musgrove will earn $ 4.45 million in 2021 and remain under team control in 2022.
Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal recently reported that the Padres were still seeking rotation help, even after acquiring Blake Snell and Yu Darvish, who led them to Musgrove. All the recent additions show that San Diego is concerned about Dinelson Lamet’s health. Lamet ended a season with a biceps injury late last year and has a long injury history.
The Padres will be without Mike Clevinger next season, another pitcher who suffered a biceps injury at the end of last year, without the Tommy John surgery. San Diego’s rotation depth map currently looks like this:
- RHP Yu Darvish
- LHP Blake Snell
- RHP Dinelson Lamet
- RHP Joe Musgrove
- RHP Chris Paddack
- LHP Adrian Morejon
- LHP MacKenzie Gore
- LHP Ryan Weathers
Even if Lamet misses time next year, it’s an impressive depth. Morejon hit more than 30 percent of the innings last year and was a former prospect in the top 100, and Gore is arguably the best prospect in the game. Weathers themselves are a top-100 prospect. If you have two talented youngsters in the number 7-8 spots on your depth map, you are living right.
Lucchesi, 27, threw nearly 300 league-average innings from 2018-19 before spending most of 2020 on the alternative field. The Mets have a top three of dynamite (Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco) and Lucchesi will join David Peterson and Steven Matz as the depth of rotation until Noah Syndergaard returns after the Tommy John operation.
As for the Pirates, they are early in their rebuilding, and Musgrove was the team’s best brand other than the presumably off-limits Ke’Bryan Hayes. Musgrove has ruled for another two years and it is unlikely that Pittsburgh will contest the two years. Given the inherent risk of injury in pitchers, it was excessively smart to trade him. Cash him in while you can.
The Padres selected Head in the third round of the 2019 draft and MLB.com ranked the 19-year-old ranger as the top number 7 in their system. Their reconnaissance report states that he “could end up with average or better instruments across the board.” Cruz, a 21-year-old leftist, was ranked 17th in San Diego’s farm system and Fellows, a 22-year-old judge, was not ranked.
MLB.com ranks Rodriguez, 20, as the No. 12 prospect in New York’s farm system. He is a natural fielder who started practicing behind the board. According to their reconnaissance report, he is a switch with ‘advanced approach and natural fly-to-ball skills’.
Bednar (26) is a reliever with a knockout container and a history of strong strike rates. He has been drinking a few cups of coffee with the Padres for the past two years and decided to see more action with the Pirates.