After a slow start to the off-season, the San Diego Padres have lit the heat with a few mega deals for starting pitchers. First, San Diego acquired 2018 American League Cy Young winner Blake Snell for potential clients of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Padres then turned to add 2020 National League Cy Young runner-up Yu Darvish, along with catcher Victor Caratini ahead of right-handed Zach Davies and four young prospects in a mega deal with a now rebuilding Chicago Cubs. As if that wasn’t enough, San Diego also made room on its free agent signing schedule by adding Korean infield player Ha-seong Kim.
Will San Diego’s Christmas shopping be enough to catapult the Padres above the Los Angeles Dodgers as the team to beat in MLB? Will the moves be the biggest buzz for any team this winter? And what are the Cubs supposed to do now that they have traded their bait? We got ESPN baseball experts Bradford Doolittle, Jesse Rogers, and David Schoenfield to answer these questions and more.