The San Diego Padres are about to make their second exchange for a star pitcher in as many days, and the team is expected to take over righthanded Yu Darvish from the Chicago Cubs, according to sources familiar with the deal.
Darvish and catcher Victor Caratini, who emerged as the Chicago righthanded’s personal catcher, will move to San Diego as soon as the deal closes, sources said.
In return, the Cubs are poised to acquire right-handed Zach Davies and four young prospects: outfielders Owen Caissie (18) and Ismael Mena (18), and shortstop Reggie Preciado (17) and Yeison Santana (20).
Darvish, 34, is in the midst of a $ 126 million six-year deal he signed with the Cubs ahead of the 2018 season. After an elbow injury knocked him out of the game that year, he began to recover in 2019, leading to a great campaign in 2020. He put together a 2.01 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 76 innings, and finished second in the NL Cy Young Award for Trevor Bauer.
Sources told ESPN on Sunday that the Padres are also making a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays for former Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
Like Darvish, that change has not been officially announced. But once they do, the two-star pitchers will join Dinelson Lamet and Chris Paddack to form a formidable rotation in San Diego. Right-handed Mike Clevinger is also part of the team, but will miss the 2021 season following Tommy John surgery.
For the Cubs, the Darvish trade is starting a reboot under new baseball operations president Jed Hoyer. That reboot includes salary cuts as Darvish owes $ 59 million over the next three seasons.
The team no longer bid for leftfielder Kyle Schwarber, which also saved him money.