Padres' Updated Starting Rotation After Reported Yu Darvish Trade

The San Diego Padres are all-in on the 2021 season.

On Monday, Sahadev Sharma, Dennis Lin and Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reported the Padres are acquiring pitcher Yu Darvish and catcher Victor Caratini from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for pitcher Zach Davies and prospects Reginald Preciado, Owen Caissie, Yeison Santana and Ismael Mena.

The stunning move comes on the heels of another marquee trade involving a household name at pitcher.

Lin, Josh Tolentino and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Sunday that San Diego traded for pitcher Blake Snell, sending the Tampa Bay Rays Luis Patino, Francisco Mejia, Blake Hunt and Cole Wilcox.

The additions of Darvish and Snell means the Padres will have one of the best starting rotations in all of baseball:

• Yu Darvish
• Blake Snell
• Dinelson Lamet
• Chris Paddack
• MacKenzie Gore/Joey Lucchesi/Adrian Morejon/Ryan Weathers

What's more, they will have Mike Clevinger available in 2022 even though he will miss the 2021 campaign because of Tommy John surgery. Adding him to that group will make San Diego even better over the course of the next couple of seasons, which is surely concerning to the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

San Diego has won just one playoff series since it reached the World Series in 1998 but has the pieces in place to change that with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado leading the offense and Snell and Darvish spearheading the rotation.

Snell was the 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner who helped lead the Rays to last year's World Series, while Darvish was a Cy Young contender last season who helped lead the Cubs to a National League Central title.

Darvish finished the 2020 campaign with a 2.01 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 93 strikeouts in 76 innings.

If he comes anywhere close to that in 2021, the Padres will be on the short list of championship contenders.