THE PADRES KEEP BUILDING ON A JOYOUS 2020

In a 2020 that was dreadful and depressing on so many fronts, the San Diego Padres provided a joyous contrast, making the playoffs for the first time since 2006. All-MLB First Team stars Fernando

Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado led the team to the second-best record in the National League. The

Padres trailed only their division rival Los Angeles

Dodgers, the eventual world champions, winning games at a pace that would have yielded 100 wins in a season that wasn’t shortened by the pandemic.

Now Padres General Manager A.J. Preller has further burnished his reputation and sent Padres fans into 2021 giddier. This week, he traded prospects to the Tampa Bay Rays to acquire Blake Snell, 28, the American League Cy Young award winner in 2018, and to the Chicago Cubs to obtain Yu Darvish, 34, the runner-up for the National League Cy Young award last season. Yet even after the deals, the Padres retain a core of highly promising young prospects — starting with pitcher MacKenzie Gore, shortstop CJ Abrams and catcher Luis Campusano.

Will this be enough to catch the Dodgers, a team that swept the Padres out of the 2020 playoffs? Maybe not. Last season, the Dodgers were a juggernaut that outscored opponents by nearly 2.3 runs a game and won at a pace that would have produced 116 wins in a normal length season. A case can be made that they were the best team in at least a half-century. But L.A. is used to having stellar sports teams.

San Diego is just getting started. Whenever San

Diegans can squeeze back into Petco Park, it’ll be a party. Until then, the Padres will be must-see TV.