One-stop shopping in San Diego

For Cubs fans of a certain age, the San Diego Padres owe us. Big time. Their crappy franchise had done basically nothing in their first 15 seasons. They had one winning year (84-78 in 1978) before they won 93 games and the NL West and then went down two games to none to the Cubs in the 1984 NLCS.

MLB was so sure that the Cubs were going to the World Series that they started printing up merch.

And then...

But it wasn't just that. In 1988 after Jim Frey traded away a Hall of Fame closer in his prime (Lee Smith) he went out and traded for a Hall of Fame closer well past his when he sent Keith Moreland and Mike Brumley to the Padres for Goose Gossage.

Moreland had plenty left and he hit...five homers for the 1988 Padres. Five? Oh well, never mind.

But what about Jed Hoyer's panicked Yu Darvish give away in 2021 when he traded Yu (who should have won the Cy Young in 2020) and Victor Caratini to the Padres for Owen Caissie, Ismael Mena, Reginald Preciado, Yeison Santana and Zach Davies. Caissie is one of the Cubs better prospects, but Mena and Preciado have topped out so far in low-A, Santana's not in baseball anymore and Davies didn't pitch last year.

It hasn't all been bad, though. I mean, this guy came to the Cubs from the Padres.

And the Cubs made a 1989 trade with the Padres that brought Marvell Wynne and Luis Salazar and then Luis did this (yes, I'm going to show this video for 1,237th time)

He singlehandedly beat the Cardinals in a huge game that sent both teams in different directions. It was basically the Sandberg Game but five years later. Or something.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that the Padres still owe us. Yes, Rizzo's one of our all-time favorite Cubs, but that should be just the start of the retributions.

The Padres are stuck in an awkward inter-family ownership squabble with Peter Seidler's widow duking it out in an ugly battle with his siblings for control of the team. As a result, the Padres have been basically inert this offseason and now it seems like they need to dump some payroll before the season starts.

As a result, the Cubs have been linked to them in potential deals for their co-ace starting pitchers Michael King and Dylan Cease and closer Robert Suarez.

Which of the three should the Cubs trade for?

Yes.

OK, how about two of the three?

Cease is a former sixth round draft pick of the Cubs who was traded in 2017 to the White Sox in the Jose Quintana deal. Cease and Eloy Jimenez were the headliners going back to the Sox. Eloy hit a bunch of homers against the Cubs and we got a sad little, "thanks Cubs" from Jason Benetti after one, but injuries (some hysterical) derailed Eloy and he's long gone. Cease was the Cy Young runner-up for the Sox in 2022 but they traded him to San Diego before the start of last season for a pretty underwhelming return. Cease finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting last year.

King was a big part of the Padres trade of Juan Soto to the Yankees. He'd been a key member of the Yankees bullpen the two seasons prior and had made nine starts in 2023. He was terrific for San Diego last year and finished seventh in Cy Young balloting.

King will be 30 and Cease 29 this season. Either would slot in near (or at) the top of the Cubs' rotation with only the preference of Craig Counsell determining the order of one of them, Shōta and Justin Steele.

Suarez is a really interesting guy.