3 players the San Diego Padres wish they signed last offseason, 1 they are glad they didn't

The San Diego Padres should be thankful they didn't sign Tyler Anderson

The Padres have one of the best trios in baseball at the forefront of their rotation with Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, and Joe Musgrove leading the way. That's all great, but you can't navigate a 162-game regular season with three starting pitchers.

The Padres needed to address the back of their rotation with Sean Manaea and Mike Clevinger leaving in free agency, and they did so with Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. Lugo has been better than advertised as a reliver converted into a starter, and Wacha has been arguably the best pitcher in the Padres rotation this season.

What if San Diego went in a different direction? The Los Angeles Angels were a team linked to both Lugo and Wacha but signed Tyler Anderson instead to help fortify their rotation.

The deal looked reasonable at the time (three years and $39 million). Anderson was coming off of the best season of his career with the Dodgers, posting a 2.57 ERA in 30 appearances. He was an All-Star in 2022, but has been anything but in 2023.

For the Angels, Anderson has an ERA of 5.25 in 16 appearances (15 starts). Among pitchers with at least 80 innings pitched, Anderson's ERA is the seventh-worst in all of baseball. Not great for the Angels' big ticket free agent addition.

To make matters worse, Anderson received the qualifying offer which meant the Angels forfeited a second-round pick to sign him. The Padres made two signings that didn't look perfect at the time of signing, but it's turned out great. The one that looked great at the time has been a disaster.