The San Diego Padres have continued their Christmas Shopping Spree by trading for Cy Young runner-up Yu Darvish. This more than solidifies a rotation that was already looking very strong with the likes of Darvish, Blake Snell (Who the Pads just traded for the day before), Dinelson Lamet and Chris Paddack. The Padres also will look forward to the return of Mike Clevinger in 2022. A fifth arm that could be available soon is prospect MacKenzie Gore. In other words, the Padres have an absolute elite rotation and a dominant bullpen that almost single-handedly took out the Cardinals in the 2020 Wild Card Series.
Matt Kemp and Justin Upton were two big signings going in the 2015 MLB Season for the San Diego Padres
However, the Padres have been known to go on such shopping sprees -the same thing happened in 2014/15 and no championship or playoff run was to be found. During that offseason, the Padres traded away some of their best prospects including Yasmani Grandal, Max Fried and Trea Turner. In return, they were able to snag some fine players at the time such as Matt Kemp, Justin Upton and James Shields. However, this wasn’t nearly enough for the Padres to compete for a World Series Title.
The question is, what is different this time? The answer is clear - the Padres are already good. In 2020, this team proved what it could do and had every chance to stand toe to toe with the Dodgers until unfortunate injuries to both Clevinger and Lamet. With a powerful offense that includes Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Eric Hosmer go go along with their potent pitching staff, the Padres enter 2021 already as a favorite to at least win a Wild Card. Hence, the new additions this time are being added to a team that is already ready to win - and this just improves their chances going in 2021.
Ha Seong Kim, recently signed by the San Diego Padres out of South Korea
Furthermore, these signings may even be better. Instead of decent bats like Kemp and Upton, the Padres are signing two elite starters that can jump right into that rotation. They even tapped into the Korean market and signed the powerful Ha-Seong Kim to provide more depth in the infield. All this has happened before the New Year. Although the Dodgers may still be the favorite going in 2020, the Padres have done everything needed to attempt to dethrone them. If a World Series Hangover occurs, look for the Padres to run away with the West in 2021.
So, there are three ways that these moves differ from the 2015 offseason. Firstly, the team is already excellent (unlike in 2014 when they finished in third place with a 77-85 record. Second, the signings themselves are better. And finally, this team already has chemistry and gels nicely - the additions are not expected to do it all; they are just enhancements (albeit HUGE enhancements) to an already amazing ballclub.