Yu Darvish found out things move fast when San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller is wheeling and dealing.
The right-hander did not think that he would be traded away by the Chicago Cubs, but was caught up in Preller’s vortex.
Within the span of about 24 hours this week, the Padres obtained left-hander Blake Snell in a big deal with Tampa Bay and finalized a US$28 million, four-year deal with South Korean slugger Kim Ha-seong.
Photo: EPA-EFE
San Diego then obtained Darvish in another blockbuster deal.
Darvish found out about it on social media.
“When I woke up that morning, I saw the Snell trade go down and I thought nothing’s going to happen,” Darvish said through an interpreter during a videoconference on Thursday. “I wasn’t expecting the Padres to make another move, but I was receiving phone calls within the hour — and, yeah, I found out on Twitter.”
“I wasn’t expecting to be traded and obviously this happened in one single day, so I was pretty shocked. Not in a bad way,” Darvish added.
After running out of starting pitching during their first post-season appearance in 14 seasons, the Padres added two aces in moves that solidify them as one of baseball’s best teams and should make for an interesting National League (NL) West race against eight-time defending champions the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 34-year-old Darvish was 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA in 12 starts for Chicago during the pandemic-shortened season and finished second in the NL Cy Young Award race.
He has three years and US$59 million left on the US$126 million, six-year deal he signed with the Cubs before the 2018 season.
“I just want to study a lot from the guys in this rotation,” Darvish said. “There are a lot of great pitchers and, myself, I want to be able to watch their bullpens, watch their numbers throughout the season — and hopefully that can help me grow into a better pitcher.”
Darvish said that he has had his children watch highlights of the Padres’ lineup on YouTube.
“They’re a very strong team and I’m really excited to watch batting practice,” he said.
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