Piggy-backing on his report Darvish was being made available, Heyman offered the Padres as a possible suitor. They will be without Mike Clevinger (Tommy John surgery) for the entire 2021 season, and their ties to starting pitchers have gone from free agency (Trevor Bauer?) to the trade market (Sonny Gray).
If Darvish is really available, one of many great fits would be the Padres. SD has great prospects to trade, lost its ace Clevinger for 2021, has opportunity to challenge the WS champion Dodgers at the moment and GM AJ Preller was part of the group that brought Yu to Texas.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 21, 2020
Padres general manager A.J. Preller was the initially the Texas Rangers Director of International and Professional Scouting before becoming assistant GM over the course of 10 years there. As Heyman cited, he was a key part of the group that brought Darvish stateside from Japan’s Nippon Ham Fighters in 2012.
The Padres have long had a top-notch farm system, and even as it bears major league fruit they were still No. 3 in MLB.com’s 2020 midseason rankings. That pipeline would certainly get the Cubs’ attention as the basis for a Darvish deal.