MINNEAPOLIS — March Madness may be over, but the Twins and Padres have dropped one more buzzer-beater with a major deal just hours before the deadline to set Opening Day rosters.
The Twins brought in a pair of controllable pitchers in 26-year-old starter Chris Paddack and hard-throwing reliever Emilio Pagán, who are under contract for three and two seasons, respectively. That cost them Taylor Rogers, their closer and longtime fan favorite, in addition to once-top-prospect outfielder Brent Rooker, who was set to be involved in the club’s final roster crunch.
There’s a player to be named later heading to the Twins and cash considerations going to the Padres as part of the deal.
TRADE DETAILS
Twins acquire: RHP Chris Paddack, RHP Emilio Pagán, PTBNL
Padres acquire: LHP Taylor Rogers, OF Brent Rooker, cash considerations
This deal builds out Minnesota’s starting depth with Paddack, who was once ranked as high as the No. 5 prospect in the Padres’ organization by MLB Pipeline and had a big rookie season in ’19 before regressing over the last two years, posting a 4.95 ERA in 35 appearances (34 starts) with 157 strikeouts in 167 1/3 innings. Still, he’s a controllable, young starter who flashed the ability to get big league hitters out during that rookie campaign, when he had a 3.33 ERA in 26 starts.
It’s unclear how Paddack will immediately fit into a roster configuration that already has Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Dylan Bundy and Chris Archer holding down five rotation spots, with top starting prospect Josh Winder also likely to make the roster as a long reliever.
The Twins will also get Pagán, who has pitched for the Mariners, A’s, Rays and Padres across a five-year career, during which he owns a career 3.73 ERA with 308 strikeouts in 267 2/3 innings. His batted-ball metrics took a steep downturn while with San Diego, but his fastball averaged 94.9 mph last season and the Twins could continue working on his cutter.
The 30-year-old should immediately slot into the Twins’ leverage group alongside Tyler Duffey, Jorge Alcala, Joe Smith and Caleb Thielbar, though it remains to be seen what the closer situation will look like with Rogers out of the picture.
It will be tough for the Minnesota clubhouse to part with Rogers, who is one of the longest-tenured Twins and a clear leader of the pitching group in both his presence and his performance, which made him one of the elite relievers of the game across the last four seasons. He’ll bring a career 3.15 ERA to San Diego, hoping for health coming off a season-ending middle finger injury in ’21 as he enters his final year before free agency.
Rooker hit at every level of the Minors before arriving in the big leagues in 2020, but injuries and a roster logjam in the corner outfield have limited the opportunities for the 27-year-old, to the point where he might have been pushed off the roster altogether ahead of Opening Day.