Padres Keep Adding, Acquire Yu Darvish From Cubs

Less than 24 hours after acquiring Blake Snell, the Padres swung another blockbuster trade to bolster their starting rotation.

The Padres reportedly acquired Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini from the Cubs on Monday night in exchange for veteran righthander Zach Davies and prospects Reggie Preciado, Ismael Mena, Yeison Santana and Owen Caissie. Kevin Acee and Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported the complete list of players involved in the trade.

Darvish, 34, finished second in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2020 while Caratini gives the Padres an experienced backup behind Austin Nola at catcher. With Snell and Darvish, the Padres now have a pair of established front-of-the-rotation starters that should allow them to contend in 2021 even with Mike Clevinger out for the year following Tommy John surgery and Dinelson Lamet's health status uncertain after he missed the postseason with an elbow injury and received a platelet-rich plasma injection.

It is the latest deal in which the Padres have traded from their vaunted prospect depth to bolster the major league roster. Since the 2020 trade deadline, the Padres have traded 18 prospects as well as recent prospect graduates Cal Quantrill, Josh Naylor, Francisco Mejia and Ty France, among other major leaguers, in eight separate trades.