Pirates send Joe Musgrove to Padres for 4 prospects, receive Mets catcher in 3-team deal

The Pittsburgh Pirates continued to dismantle baseball’s worst team, trading Opening Day starter Joe Musgrove to the San Diego Padres on Monday in a three-team deal that returned five players.

The Pirates, who finished an MLB-worst 19-41 last season, will receive center fielder Hudson Head and pitchers David Bednar, Omar Cruz and Drake Fellows from the Padres. They also get switch-hitting catcher Endy Rodriguez from the New York Mets, who receive left-handed pitcher Joey Lucchesi from San Diego.

Musgrove, a 28-year-old right-hander, returns to his native San Diego and joins a rotation that has added Yu Darvish and Blake Snell this offseason. Musgrove avoided arbitration on Friday by agreeing to a one-year deal for $4.45 million.

Musgrove was 18-26 with a 4.23 ERA in 58 starts over three seasons for the Pirates, including 1-5 with a 3.86 ERA and 55 strikeouts in five starts last season, since being acquired as part of a four-player return from the Houston Astros in the Gerrit Cole trade in January 2018.

It marks the third major trade for Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, who is parting with the club’s top players to restock the minor league system with young, high-ceiling prospects. Last January, Cherington dealt two-time Gold Glove outfielder Starling Marte to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a pair of 19-year-old prospects, shortstop Liover Peguero and right-handed pitcher Brennan Malone. On Christmas Eve, Cherington sent All-Star first baseman Josh Bell to the Washington Nationals for pitchers Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean.

The headliner for the Pirates is Head, 19, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound center fielder who was ranked the No. 8 prospect in the Padres’ system by Baseball America, which describes him as a “lean, twitchy athlete who is a plus runner, has explosive bat speed and is ambidextrous.” Head, who throws and bats left, was a 2019 third-round draft pick who signed for a record $3 million out of high school.

Cruz, 21, a 6-foot, 200-pound left-hander, was ranked as the Padres’ No. 17 prospect. Bednar, a Mars graduate and 35th-round pick out of Lafayette in 2016, was 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in 17 appearances with the Padres since making his major league debut in September 2019. Fellows was a 2019 sixth-round pick out of Vanderbilt.

The 20-year-old Rodriguez signed with the Mets for $10,000 out of the Dominican Republic in July 2018. MLB.com called Rodriguez, who also has played first base and the outfield, “an athletic and agile defender who moves well behind the plate, with solid catch-and-throw skills that should continue to improve.”