With the Super Bowl marking the end of the football season tomorrow night, baseball season truly seems more imminent than ever. Pitchers and catchers are beginning to report to their respective training camps, and within a few days, every MLB player will be at their team's camp.
It definitely smells like baseball, anyway.
But despite the imminent start of camps, there are still a ton of free agents left to sign. Matt Chapman, Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, to name a few, are still free as the air at present.
And in addition to the big names, there are depth options that are always available. Among the lot, there is Hyun-Jin Ryu, who saw his contract in Toronto end after last season.
The veteran market seemed quite nebulous… but now according to Dennis Lin and Jon Heyman, the Padres are one of the teams that are eyeing the left-hander.
He is not the only starting pitcher in the Padres' sights (Michael Lorenzen and Eric Lauer would also be), but the San Diego team has reportedly chatted at the South Korean's camp to test the market for a potential signing .
Because in addition to outfielders like Jarren Duran, the Padres would like to solidify their rotation. Ryu would be a nice depth option for the Padres.
Remember that last year, Ryu made 11 starts in Toronto, returning from Tommy John surgery. The Blue Jays didn't give him a big workload (he rarely went beyond the fifth inning and never reached the 90 pitch mark in a single game), but he was still solid in the circumstances with a 3.46 ERA and one WHIP of 1,288.
So we'll see if it materializes into a signing, but Ryu seems to be a target of the Padres at the moment. A return to the West of the National therefore seems possible for the gunner, who will be 37 years old in March.
