The San Diego Padres have agreed to terms on a contract with free agent right-handed pitcher Michael Wacha, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reports. Wacha, a 10-year journeyman and 2015 National League All-Star, has pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox.
The San Diego Padres have agreed to terms on a contract with free agent right-handed pitcher Michael Wacha, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reports.
Wacha, a 10-year journeyman and 2015 National League All-Star, has pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox.
After struggling in 2020 and 2021 with the Mets and Rays, Wacha put together a remarkable 2022 season, logging an 11-2 record, 3.32 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 127 ERA+ over 127.1 IP innings pitched in 23 starts.
Wacha joins a Padres rotation that features Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Blake Snell and Seth Lugo. After pitching primarily in relief in recent years, Lugo will have a chance to crack the Padres pitching rotation this season.
Lugo and Wacha will essentially replace Sean Manaea and Mike Clevinger, both of whom the Padres traded for, but did not re-sign this offseason.
The Padres traded Adrian Martinez and Euribiel Angeles to the Oakland Athletics for Manaea and Aaron Holiday last April.
In 2020, the Padres traded Austin Hedges, Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill, Gabriel Arias, Owen Miller and Joey Cantillo to the Cleveland Guardians in exchange for Clevinger, Greg Allen and Matt Waldron.
The Padres had high hopes for Clevinger, but Clevinger required Tommy John surgery just months after the trade, missing the entire 2021 season. In 2022, his only full season with the Padres, Clevinger went 7-7 with a 4.33 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and 86 ERA+ in 22 starts and 114.1 innings pitched.
Clevinger signed a one-year contract with the Chicago White Sox in November, and is currently under investigation by Major League Baseball for domestic violence.
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