San Diego Padres: Who is Dillon Overton?

The San Diego Padres have added another starter, who happens to be slated to start Saturday night. The only problem is, fans haven’t even heard of him.

Today the San Diego Padres announced they would be calling up LHP Dillon Overton to start tomorrow night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Who?

I certainly wasn’t paying attention when the Friars claimed Overton off waivers from the Seattle Mariners on June 19. Of course, I was on vacation at the time so that’s no surprise.

But I was floored when the announcement came today that he was on the 40 man roster and would be the one making the spot start to replace Trevor Cahill in the rotation this week. Chances are good that Cahill will be off the DL in time to make his next start.

So who is Dillon Overton?

Overton was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 2nd round of the 2013 draft out of Oklahoma. That’s the same draft class as Jon Gray and Overton was the Friday night starter on that  Sooners team.

He is 25 years old, 6 ft 2 in tall and 175 lbs. He made his 2016 debut for the Athletics and posted a 1-3 record with a 11.47 ERA in 7 games with 17 K’s.

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The Mariners traded for Overton in January of this year and he posted a 6.38 ERA in 18.1 IP. They waived him earlier this month and the Padres claimed him and sent him to El Paso. The lefty posted a 0-0 record with a 1.80 ERA in 5 IP.

According to a scouting report posted on Bleacher Report, Overton throws an 88-93 mph fastball with good command. He also has a good slider that he throws for strikes as well. His third pitch is an inconsistent changeup which is good at times and not so good at other times. He was projected to be a number 3 thru 5 starter, depending on how his change up developed. He has mostly been used out of the bullpen over the past two seasons.

Next: The Dodgers are coming, the Dodgers are coming

It is not too late for this lefty to develop into an everyday major leaguer but throwing him out there against this high powered Dodgers team seems a bit brutal. But it will save the bullpen from carrying the load of a bullpen start and there isn’t much else on the 40 man roster as far as depth is concerned. Everyone else is on the DL that could start unless they promoted Kevin Quackenbush and threw him out there. He has not history as a starter so the young lefty will have to take a hit for the team. A team he has only been a part of for 11 days.