SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres made a move to replace their ace.
The team on Sunday night was close to finalizing a deal to acquire starting pitcher Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Luis Patino, Francisco Mejía, Cole Wilcox and Blake Hunt. Multiple sources confirmed the deal, which was first reported by The Athletic.
Snell moves into the spot atop the Padres’ rotation left empty when Mike Clevinger underwent Tommy John surgery last month.
Snell, 28, won the American Cy Young award in 2018 and has a 2.85 ERA and 1.10 WHIP over the past three seasons. He had a 3.24 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in 11 starts (50 innings) last season.
The left-hander is owed $40.8 million over the next three seasons.
While much of the focus for the Padres has for the past four years been on building a farm system that would ostensibly be able to perpetually restock the major league roster, the acquisition of Snell is added to the list of significant moves involving big-name players that General Manager A.J. Preller has made in the past three years — joining Eric Hosmer, Manny Machado and Clevinger.
