The San Diego Padres Threw A Prospect Haul At The Tampa Bay Rays To Acquire Blake Snell Out Of Nowhere

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Hoooooly shit the San Diego Padres got a little taste of that October baseball and I think they'd like some more, sir.

From the damn clouds. Without a single rumor, a single tweet, or a single writer linking Blake Snell to the San Diego Padres, then BOOM the Friars land the 2018 American League Cy Young award winner just like that. Well, not really just like that as in the Rays handed the left-hander over for nothing, no. You know how Tampa does things. They got their money's worth and then some by acquiring a boatload of prospects, not of the slapdick variety.

And here's what's scary, perhaps borderline terrifying -- the Rays were already regarded as having the number one farm system in baseball prior to this deal. Then they just fucking added the number three (RHP Luis Patino), seven (RHP, Cole Wilcox), and fourteen (C, Blake Hunt) prospects from the third best farm system in baseball. While it's nice to make a deal and say you added a pair of top ten prospects in a trade, it certainly matters what farm system those top ten prospects are coming from.

Let me reiterate -- the number one farm system in baseball just acquired two top ten prospects from the number three farm system in baseball. And I think it's safe to say that the number fourteen prospect included in this deal would undoubtedly rank as a top ten prospect in several other farm systems in baseball, so you might as well call it three theoretical top ten prospects. Long story short, the Rays are going to continue to be that low payroll, high win total team for a while. They've mastered that formula at this point and made it an art form. And while it certainly sucks to get to the World Series and then promptly trade one of the most outstanding performers from that American League pennant-winning team, rest assured that the Rays organization knows what it's doing.

So, yeah. Fifteen minutes after this deal has hit Twitter, I'm ready to call it a win-win for both sides. As far as the Rays are concerned, the rich get richer from a top prospects standpoint, and as far as the Padres are concerned, the rich get richer from a starting pitching standpoint. But they're gonna have to wait a year before that can really come to fruition, as Mike Clevinger will miss all of 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery a couple of months ago. Nevertheless, your 2022 Padres rotation is going to have Blake Snell, Mike Clevinger, Dinelson Lamet, Chris Paddack, and they're still very much in on Trevor Bauer.

Dare I say this Snell trade just made San Diego an even more attractive destination for Bauer than it already was? Pray for the damn league if that happens on top of this.