San Diego Padres add new pitcher to rotation — and he’s a Grossmont High alum
Joe Musgrove, an East County native, is headed from the Pirates to his hometown team
The Padres have added another starting pitcher to their rotation, this time bringing home right-hander Joe Musgrove.
The team acquired the Grossmont High alumnus on Monday in a three-team trade that resulted in Joey Lucchesi going to the Mets and four other players heading to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Padres sent relief pitcher David Bednar, outfielder Hudson Head (their No. 7 overall prospect), left-handed pitcher Omar Cruz (No. 17) and right-hander pitcher Drake Fellows, who was a sixth-round pick in 2019, to Pittsburgh.
The Mets reportedly sent catcher-outfield prospect Endy Rodriguez to the Pirates in exchange for Lucchesi.
Musgrove, 28, had a 3.86 ERA in eight starts last season and has a 4.33 ERA over five big-league seasons with the Astros (2016-17) and Pirates (2018-20).
His 12.5 strikeouts per nine innings last season were a career high. His 33.1 percent strikeout percentage ranked 10th in the majors among those who threw at least 30 innings.
Musgrove will make $4.45 million and is under team control through 2022.
He is the third starting pitcher acquired by the Padres this season, following trades for Blake Snell and Yu Darvish on successive days near the end of last month. Snell and Darvish have contracts that run through ’23.
The trio will presumably join Dinelson Lamet and Chris Paddack to comprise the starting five, with Adrián Morejón and MacKenzie Gore also competing for spots.
Sources inside and outside the organization continue to maintain Lamet, who finished last season on the injured list with an elbow injury, will be ready to pitch in spring training. However, they also say they can’t be sure about his ability to go 100 percent on opening day until he makes starts in the spring.
The addition of Musgrove ups Fangraphs’ WAR projection for the Padres rotation to 17.3, just behind the Yankees’ league-high 17.4 projected WAR.
Lucchesi, 27, made 56 starts for the Padres in 2018 and ’19, most on the team. He posted a 4.14 ERA and 2.15 WHIP over 293 2/3 innings in that span but made just two starts in 2020, allowing five runs in 5 2/3 innings.
Bednar, 26, made 13 major league appearances in 2019 and four in ’20. He had 19 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings.
The 19-year-old Head, a center fielder, was the organization’s second-ranked outfield prospect. The center fielder, drafted in the third round in 2019, spent last season at the team’s alternate training site. Cruz, 21, made 10 starts for low-A Fort Wayne in 2019.
Updates
7:16 a.m. Jan. 20, 2021: This story was updated with further reporting.
Sign up for the Pacific Insider newsletter
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Pacific San Diego.
