Why Darvish Was the Best Acquisition for the Padres this Offseason

Yu Darvish has quietly dominated throughout his MLB career. Still at the age of 34, Darvish has mowed through hitters with his signature cutter and more. By being traded to San Diego, Darvish brings a strong boost to the Padres rotation. Throughout his nine years in the league, Darvish has posted a 71-56 a 3.47 ERA and has 1,392 strikeouts in 1127 innings of work.

In a 60-game 2020 schedule, making the expanded postseason was already a sign of relief for an exciting Padres team that has slowly built its core. Throughout the past few years, Padres GM A.J. Preller has made significant changes to the roster in order to build a championship caliber team and compete with their new rivals in the Los Angeles Dodgers. After making it on the SportsCenter highlight reel and defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in the Best of 3 Wild Card Round, the Padres were stopped by injuries that had them swept by the Dodgers.

Knowing that they have already built so much talent, Preller wanted to take his chances on acquiring more pitching, a struggle for the franchise. On back-to-back days in late December, the Padres shocked the MLB community by acquiring both Tampa Bay Rays former Cy Young Winner Blake Snell and Cubs' pitcher You Darvish. Both trades were considered a win for the small amount they gave up, but Darvish is in the shadow of Snell during this busy offseason. After he ultimately cost the Dodgers a World Series in 2017 despite the cheating scandal, not many people took his game too seriously anymore. However, after signing a massive deal with the Cubbies, Darvish was one of the best pitchers in the game again and 2020 shows that. Yes, Snell is younger and dominated in the playoffs, but Darvish at 34 is still just getting started. His pitch repitore is as disgusting as they get in today's game of baseball. For every team out there, watch out when Darvish is on the mound.