Padres: Clayton Kershaw weighs in on the Yu Darvish trade

Apparently, Clayton Kershaw wasn’t a fan of the Yu Darvish trade that took place between the Cubs and Padres. Well, that’s a shame.

The Dodgers lefty and future Hall of Famer, in comments to the Los Angeles Times, covered an array of topics – including large market teams not putting an effort in when it comes to contending.

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Of course, that led to him talking about the Chicago Cubs and their decision to trade last year’s NL Cy Young runner-up Yu Darvish to the Padres for a package of long-off prospects and one year of Zach Davies.

"“There’s a lot of smart guys in front offices. Figure something out that’s easier to do than trading away a [star]. Just, for example, a potential Cy Young [Award winner] in [Yu] Darvish, who has been one of the top five pitchers in baseball for a year and a half, for prospects that could potentially be good but they’re 17, 18 years old. And [Zach] Davies is a great pitcher, but to me, that’s just not . . . For the Chicago Cubs to do that, it’s not good. It’s just not good.”"

Now, he has a point. There are a lot of large market teams acting like they’re operating with a Tampa Bay-level budget. The pandemic-shortened, fan-less 2020 season is often what owners point to when asked why, but, as Padres fans are well aware, that hasn’t stopped San Diego from going all-in in an effort to build a World Series contender.

Padres are going for it while other teams sit back and watch

Despite being a mid-market team (San Diego is the 29th-largest media market in the US, according to Nielsen), the Padres went out and traded for Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove – while bringing back Jurickson Profar, signing Mark Melancon and landing the top international free agent in Ha-Seong Kim. 

Kershaw is spot-on in what he’s saying. And that’s good for San Diego. With fewer teams contending, despite historically being big players in free agency, etc. – the road to October is a bit clearer. Now, it’s up to the players to deliver on the promise we’ve all been dreaming of this winter and knock off the lefty and his Dodgers this season.