2 Chicago White Sox targets that can replace Lance Lynn

Chris Paddack

The Chicago White Sox should consider adding Chris Paddack from the Padres.

After adding Sean Manaea, the San Diego Padres have an embarrassment of riches in their starting rotation. Manea joins a group headlined by Yu Darvish and Blake Snell. The Padres rotation also features Mike Clevinger and young arms in Dinelson Lamet and MacKenzie Gore.

Chirs Paddack is young and under team control. However, the Padres’ prelockout deal with Nick Martinez and trade for Sean Manaea seems to suggest that a player like Chris Paddack is expendable.

He is coming off a rough 2021 campaign. He struggled to the tune of a 5.07 ERA. During his rookie campaign, he had a 3.33 ERA in 26 games. He held opponents to a .204 batting average and stuck out 153 strikeouts. He also had an impressive 0.98 WHIP.

In 2020, his walk rate was amongst the top 10 percent of the league at 4.9%. In 2021, he cracked the top five percent with a 4.8% mark. His fastball velocity is also in the 75th percentile of the league.

There is already some trade buzz surrounding Paddack. The Padres reportedly came close on a four-player swap with the Mets this week that would’ve seen Eric Hosmer, Chris Paddack, and Emilio Pagan all sent to New York for Dominic Smith. It may be worth rolling the dice to see if Paddack can return to form. The talent is there.