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Padres trade for Yu Darvish insurance in beneficial swap with Pirates

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Friars On Base

Philadelphia Phillies v Pittsburgh Pirates / Joe Sargent/GettyImages

The San Diego Padres' saga with Yu Darvish this season has been widely covered at this point. The team would love to have him around, but Darvish is clearly going through something and there is little indication that he will be taking the mound anytime soon.

While the team respects him enough to give him the space he needs, Darvish's absence from the rotation needed to be addressed by July 30.

With word that Garrett Crochet wasn't going to be traded at the deadline, any hope of a big blockbuster move from AJ Preller to address the rotation went out the window. However, that doesn't mean the Padres left empty-handed, as they made a trade for veteran Martin Perez at the buzzer.

Padres News: San Diego adds rotation depth with last minute trade for Martin Perez

So, the good news is that Martin Perez is an experienced starter that has a reputation for covering innings and generally not letting games get out of hand. He also had a good year as recently as 2022 when he posted a 2.89 ERA in 32 starts with the Rangers. While not a frontline starter by any means, the guy has carved out a nice niche as a fifth starter type.

That is pretty much where the good news ends, though. Perez has never gotten much in the way of swing and miss, walks more guys than you would like, and sports a 5.20 ERA in 2024 while being 33 years old. While his floor is fairly high given his experience, his ceiling might be a guy that keeps San Diego in games while never dominating opposing hitters. That's why it's comforting to know the Padres didn't give up much for him.

For now, Perez is a worthy gamble as a stopgap in their rotation. They may only need Perez to give them a handful of starts once Joe Musgrove gets healthy and (hopefully) Darvish returns. A guy like Tyler Anderson would have been more ideal, but sometimes two sides can't line up on a deal, especially this year with how high price tags ended up being.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.