Padres acquiring Joe Musgrove in three-team trade with Pirates, Mets

The San Diego Padres are taking advantage of a slow Hot Stove season by adding Joe Musgrove to their starting rotation.

No team has been more active this winter than the San Diego Padres. After falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Division Series, they used their offseason to bolster their pitching rotation. With Mike Clevinger sidelined for the 2021 season, the Padres essentially replaced him with Blake Snell and Yu Darvish. If you thought San Diego was finished, then you haven’t been paying attention.

According to ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan and Kevin Acee of the San Diego Tribune, the Padres are acquiring right-handed pitcher Joe Musgrove from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-team trade also including the New York Mets. The Pirates will receive outfielder Hudson Head, left-handed pitcher Omar Cruz and right-handed pitchers David Bednar and Drake Fellows from the Padres, while also receiving outfielder Endy Rodriguez from the Mets. New York will receive left-handed pitcher Joey Lucchesi from San Diego.

The deal is pending medical review.

Padres receive super starting rotation

Musgrove has been with the Pirates since the 2018 season, where he was acquired in the blockbuster trade with the Houston Astros for Gerrit Cole. In his first two seasons in the Steel City, Musgrove posted ERA’s above 4.00. But in this past campaign, Musgrove’s numbers improved. And yes, we’re looking past the 1-5 record.

In eight starts, Musgrove posted a 3.86 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 55 strikeouts over 55.1 innings of work.

Musgrove recently settled with the Pirates for $4.45 million to avoid an arbitration hearing this past Friday. The 28-year-old is under team control until the conclusion of the 2022 regular season, which is great news for the Padres. Musgrove will now join a rotation consisting of Darvish, Snell, Dinelson Lamet and Chris Paddack.

As for the Pirates, they’ve now added to a farm system that desperately needed replenishing. In this one trade, Pittsburgh received San Diego’s No. 7 (Head) and No. 17 (Cruz) prospects and New York’s No. 14 prospect (Rodriguez).

Meanwhile, the Mets get a left-handed pitcher in Lucchesi to add to the back of their rotation. In his three seasons with the Padres, Lucchesi accumulated a 4.21 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 308 strikeouts over 299.1 innings of work.

While the Pirates and Mets received what they wanted, the Padres acquisition of Musgrove is going to dominate the headlines. If the Padres weren’t World Series contenders before the trade, they definitely are now.