San Diego Padres Are Big Winners in Trade for Mike Clevinger

It’s a great time to be a fan of the San Diego Padres as the hits keep coming with another big trade deadline acquisition from AJ Preller.

After making a flurry of moves on Sunday, San Diego Padres general manager AJ Preller may have made the biggest move of the 2020 trade deadline by acquiring starting pitcher Mike Clevinger.

When I went to bed Sunday night it was being reported that the Padres were out of the discussion for the Cleveland Indians starting pitcher and that the price was deemed to be too high.

But Preller was having none of that come Monday morning as he shocked us all by pulling the trigger on a blockbuster deal.

Now that we have the full specifics of the trade it seems like an easy for the Padres on paper.

Of course, you can’t really give a full evaluation of trades like this until years later, but for now this appears to be a steal for San Diego.

The 29-year-old righty has quietly been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the last four years.

His 3.18 ERA that he currently holds in 2020 would be his highest ERA total since 2016.

The Padres just got a top of the rotation starting pitcher and didn’t have to give up any of their top 100 prospects.

As soon as I heard the Padres were trading for Clevinger I was waiting on them to announce Luis Patino or CJ Abrams as the headliner in the deal — knowing MacKenzie Gore is untouchable.

But instead, it was Gabriel Arias who you could say is the headliner.

I happen to love Arias and look really good in the first spring training. But the Padres are obviously set on the infield for a while now with Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Jake Cronnenworth.

Joey Cantillo is someone that has some potential upside, but again, someone who was expendable for a Padres team that has several pitching prospects ahead of him.

Owen Miller seems destined to be a utility guy.

Josh Naylor, Austin Hedges, and Cal Quantrill were all expendable.

The depth of the Padres system is what allows them to make this deal and not really be that affected.

They got a top of the rotation arm and still have one of the best farm systems in all of baseball.

Perhaps Arias or Cantillo go on to be great Major League players one day, but looking at this trade you can’t see it any other way but as a win for the Padres.