3 years later, this Padres trade looks better than ever

This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell's Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SAN DIEGO -- Time for a mea culpa. I need to own up to something:

When the Padres dealt Hunter Renfroe, Xavier Edwards and a player to be named later to Tampa Bay in December 2019, I called it "the Tommy Pham trade."

Oops.

More than three years later, that deal registers as one of the Padres’ best trades in recent memory. But it's very much about the other player the Padres landed in that transaction. It’s "the Jake Cronenworth trade" now.

On Saturday, San Diego signed Cronenworth to a seven-year contract that will keep him on board through the 2030 season. It's one of those deals that's simultaneously a complete surprise and totally sensible. Of course, the Padres would want to lock up one of their most valuable players.

Cronenworth is capable of playing anywhere in the infield and hitting anywhere in the lineup. He's now under contract at an affordable rate through his age-36 season. Meanwhile, Cronenworth will make $80 million over the life of that deal -- the type of serious long-term security that isn’t often afforded to players who broke into the big leagues at age 27.

"He works as hard as anybody here," said Padres manager Bob Melvin. "He's driven, always, to make himself better. He's a team guy -- he'll play anywhere for you. ... And he's just a great guy on top of it. Happy day for Jake."

Cronenworth's success story is not linear. He struggled in the early Minor Leagues. He didn't make his big league breakthrough until he'd already spent three years in college and five years in the Minors.

The Padres gave him a chance. But to be perfectly clear: Cronenworth seized that chance and drastically exceeded even their expectations.

"He definitely was not the ‘throw-in’ player in the deal," said Padres general manager A.J. Preller. "But he's clearly worked his way from a player that we were excited to acquire to a core member of our nucleus. He's the epitome of what we're looking for from a Padre."

At the time of the trade, I reached out to a few other people in the Padres' front office about Cronenworth. They told me that, while Pham was the headliner, it wasn't entirely about him. I wrote that they’d said that. I also rolled my eyes a little, because, well, they always say that.

This time they meant it. And they were right.

What an acquisition Cronenworth was.