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It's easy to forget, but Ian Kennedy used to be a bad, bad man. He was 21-4 in 2011 with a 2.88 ERA and a 3.6 strikeout-to-walk ratio. At least 19 of those wins were against the Giants. He looked like a building block.
Instead, in the middle of his second straight down season, he's going to the Padres. Which, okay, so the Padres are taking a chance on him. That makes sense. But he's going for a left-handed reliever and a relief prospect. That's kind of a shock.
Considering the state of the Giants' 2014 rotation, I really, really, really wish the Giants could have beat that offer. Javier Lopez in a Diamondbacks uniform would be exceptionally off-putting, but there aren't a lot of exciting free agents to replace Barry Zito and/or Tim Lincecum, and a buy-low guy like Kennedy (who still has two years of team control after this season) would have been perfect.
Alas, he's going to be on the Padres, 1-0ing the Giants to death at Petco for the next couple years.
What an odd trade. This is almost certainly the biggest trade the two teams have ever made. Kind of wish the Giants were in the middle of it.