Padres Insider Predicts Friars Will Trade for Former Cy Young Winner

This would fix one of the Friars' only weaknesses.

With all of the additions your San Diego Padres have made over these past few seasons, they haven't really toyed with the idea of parting ways with their best prospects just yet. The Juan Soto acquisition saw them deal away some of their young pitching talent but they were still able to hold on to marquee names in Jackson Merrill and Dylan Lesko.

However, we're going to get a good look at the Friars very soon and determine whether or not their roster is good enough to go the full mile. A lot of it will come down to their production at the pitching mound as all their star power at the plate will do them no good if they give up just as many runs to the opposing teams. 

The Athletic's Dennis Lin believes that San Diego will reach a point where they look to improve their roster even more and part ways with prospects to land a former Cy Young winner in Corbin Burnes.

To get right to the core of it all, we asked @TheAthleticMLB staff to make their predictions for this upcoming season, including:

◻️ World Series winner
◻️ MVP
◻️ Cy Young

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— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 29, 2023

"The Padres trade for

Corbin Burnes

," said Lin. "Plenty of people in baseball think San Diego’s rotation lacks a true ace. Some team officials think so, too, though you could argue that overall depth remains more of an issue than frontline firepower. General manager A.J. Preller, of course, tends to aim big. Acquiring Burnes, the NL Cy Young Award winner in 2021, would be as big as it gets. The Padres regard top shortstop prospect Jackson Merrill as virtually untouchable, but with Machado and Bogaerts both signed to long-term deals, they may be willing to make an exception if it nets them a true ace. Burnes would certainly qualify."

(Via The Athletic)

In 33 games at the mound in 2022 for the Milwaukee Brewers, Burnes was able to record a 2.94 ERA, .965 WHIP, and struck out 243 batters. He did not match his production from the prior season but he still proved to be among the best in the league.

This would be a dream come true for the Friars if they could pull off this trade but we will first have to see how Joe Musgrove, Blake Snell, and Yu Darvish lead the current pitching group.