Padres Land Blake Snell In Trade With Rays

The San Diego Padres have just finalized a trade to land starting pitcher Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Padres receive: Blake Snell

Rays receive: Luis Patiño, Francisco Mejia, Cole Wilcox, and Blake Hunt

Patiño is considered to be one of the top pitching prospects in the game, so the Rays get quite the return for a player they had no intention of keeping on payroll. That payroll was just $28.3 million in 2020, so Tampa was looking for a deal like this.

San Diego's rotation is now one of the best in baseball. They will lose Mike Clevinger for all of 2021 due to elbow surgery, but Snell should replace the missing production nicely.

Time will tell how close the Padres are to surpassing the Los Angeles Dodgers as NL West champs after this deal. Judging off of last year's results, we shouldn't expect too much yet. Regardless, the Padres are going for it and should be applauded for doing so.