Padres Editorials: What Would Padres Rotation Be Today?

Jun 23, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Diego Padres relief pitcher Brandon Maurer (37) throws a pitch against the San Francisco Giants during the ninth inning at AT&T Park. The San Diego Padres defeated the San Francisco Giants 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Let us start by eliminating a couple people who are easy to do so with. After the signing of long reliever Carlos Villanueva, Despaigne is redundant in the bullpen. We could throw Villanueva’s name into the mix, but he hasn’t been a regular starter at really any point in his career and when he has started, he has a career ERA of 5.00. Anyways, back to Despaigne. If he doesn’t make it into the rotation, then he will likely either be sent down to the minors or be released. In his 125.2 innings, including 18 starts in 2015, Despaigne had an atrocious 5.80 ERA. It seems as if major leaguers caught up with his funky windup, arm angles, and arsenal of below average pitches. With that 5.80 ERA, Despaigne is getting kicked off of today’s mock rotation.

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I should also address the minor league signing of Brandon Morrow. He was excellent in his five starts as a Padre. But Morrow is injury-prone and heading into his age 31 season. Little faith should be had for him to put up a good enough showing to make the rotation.

In his age 24 season, Maurer pitched well, compiling a 3.00 ERA and 3.31 FIP in 53 innings. The idea of having him transition into the rotation, as has been rumored, is a bad one, despite him telling MLB.com’s Padres beat writer Corey Brock that he wants to start. In his 108.2 career relief innings, Maurer has an ERA of 3.40. Note how he improved upon it in 2015. But as a starter, crank that ERA up to 6.62 in the reasonable sample size of 102 innings. This is likely due to the fact that the former-Mariner has only two good pitches – his fastball and his slider/cutter. His changeup needs improvement before he can transition back to starting games. A starter needs three pitches unless he has two excellent ones (see Sandy Koufax).

Now, we move to the candidates who should be looked at the most closely for the rotation before coming to the decisions.

Luis Perdomo is one of four Rule 5 Draft picks the Padres have on the roster. His is the number 9 prospect on MLB.com’s Padres prospect list. Unfortunately, they estimate that he won’t be ready for the big leagues until 2018. Between A and high-A ball, Perdomo had a 3.98 ERA in 126.2 innings. Perdomo possesses a mid-90s fastball that, along with his other pitches, have become more controllable since a change in his mechanics. He will turn 23 in May.

Next: Other Rotation Options

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