For the third time this winter, the Padres made a move that might make White Sox fans envious. After acquiring Blake Snell from the Rays and Yu Darvish from the Cubs, the Padres have now rebuilt a majority of their rotation via trade. This one acquired Joe Musgrove in a three-way with the Pirates and Mets.
Musgrove's name had come up a few times, both during the Offseason Plan Project and in P.O. Sox, before and after his stuff was praised by a new Baseball Savant tool charting spin axis.
The details:
- Padres receive: Joe Musgrove (PIT)
- Pirates receive: CF Hudson Head, LHP Omar Cruz, RHPs David Bednar and Drake Fellows (SD), C Endy Rodriguez (NYM)
- Mets receive: LHP Joey Lucchesi (SD)
The Sox sorta have a version of Lucchesi in Reynaldo López, a previously durable starter whose performance has slid backward, but those kinds of pitchers are truly an eye-of-beholder situation, and Lucchesi's a lefty. The Sox don't have the equivalent of Head, a third-round prep center fielder who immediately performed in rookie ball in 2019. Likewise, while they have found a couple of international arms who made promising pro debuts at the rookie levels over the last couple of years, none are as advanced as Cruz.
Add it up, and the Padres managed to acquire two Cy Young presences and an analytical darling this winter. What's remarkable is that they've done it all while touching only one top-100 prospect. That was Luis Patiño, whom the Padres sent to Tampa Bay in the Snell deal.
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Baseball America was in a position to review the top-100 statuses of prospects involved in the deal, because it just posted its 2021 list on Monday. The White Sox placed four on the list, and they're the four that usually end up on lists like these.
- Andrew Vaughn (21)
- Michael Kopech (24)
- Nick Madrigal (40)
- Garrett Crochet (74)
There are a couple of concerning elements, starting with the idea that all four players could graduate off the list by midseason. Maybe two of them are replaced by Jared Kelley and Yoelqui Céspedes if they start their pro/stateside debuts on the right foot, but meanwhile, the rest of the division is running even or better in terms of prospect depth.
- Tigers: Spencer Torkelson (5), Tarik Skubal (20), Casey Mize (28), Matt Manning (30), Riley Greene (31)
- Twins: Alex Kirilloff (18), Royce Lewis (29), Trevor Larnach (39), Ryan Jeffers (60)
- Indians: Triston McKenzie (26), Nolan Jones (45), Andres Gimenez (66), Tyler Freeman (82)
- Royals: Bobby Witt Jr. (16), Daniel Lynch (25), Asa Lacy (37), Jackson Kowar (95)
Not all prospects are alike. It's a lot easier to visualize the contributions from the White Sox's farm stars than Kansas City's at this point, and those prospects would be joining a 26-man roster with many recent top-100 graduates.
It's just that the lack of another wave of prospects after this one makes it imperative for the White Sox to smash the window now, especially if the Indians are dealing from the top and the Twins are hesitating putting another foot forward. Success this year increases buying power for success in future years, and the Sox may need to buy themselves their next couple batches of additional wins until they get better at making prospect out of guys outside the top five.
(Photo by Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire)
