Padres Finalize Opening Day Roster

The countdown to the start of the Padres 2016 season is winding its way down to zero, but until Sunday the Padres still had a lot of final decisions to make. For now – those decisions have been made a Padres fan favorite will find himself down in AAA El Paso to start the season. Colin Rea was also finally named the 5th starter after Drew Pomeranz was given the fourth spot earlier this week.

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With Rea kept, Robbie Erlin was sent down to AAA along with utility infielder Alexi Amarista in favor of Adam Rosales. Jose Pirela and Jemile Weeks will also start the season in El Paso. Weeks had a terrific spring and Manager Andy Green also indicated that just because certain players are starting the year in AAA certainly doesn’t seal their fate there for the entire season. “It’s not the defining moment of the season” he insisted.

The finalized bullpen looks like this: Fernando Rodney, Brandon Maurer, Kevin Quackenbush, Carlos Villanuea, Luis Perdomo and left handed pitchers Ryan Buchter and Matt Thornton.

The team seems to have pretty good versatility with speedster Travis Jankowski to go along with the veteran Adam Rosales and Brett Wallace providing some left handed power off the bench as well as being a backup first baseman behind Will Myers.

Next: Blash Jankowski Stay - Good or Bad?

All three Padres catchers hit well in the spring, but you knew the Padres couldn’t keep all three. In somewhat of a surprise Austin Hedges was the odd man out and sent down to AAA again after spending most of the year with the major league club in 2015. When Christian Bethancourt was acquired in the off-season, there as a lot of talk about the Padres trading one of their three catchers but barring another Opening Day Eve trade they will still have all three.

Any moves you disagree with? Which player do you think will be the first to get called back up?