San Diego Padres: When will MacKenzie Gore be ready?

Fans of the San Diego Padres have been looking for pitching heroes.  We want the likes of Clayton Kershaw or Madison Bumgarner to inspire the next generation to take up the game.

We want a new generation to come to Petco Park sporting their favorite star’s jerseys, to tune into Fox Sports SD to support the San Diego Padres on a daily basis, and more.  Come twenty twenty-one, we might have such an inspirational hero. The wait might be finally over when MacKenzie Gore takes the mound!

That’s right, the Padres and A.J.Preller seem to have found a winner in the form of MacKenzie Gore when they drafted him third in the 2017 MLB draft.

The eighteen year old Gore attended school in North Carolina and as a junior.  He possessed an impressive 12-1 record as a starter.  In this span, he struck out 174 hitters in the 188 1/3 innings he pitched, with a 0.08 ERA.

He was impressive in the handful of games that he started in the Arizona rookie league.  In the 21.1 innings, Gore struck out 34 batters and had a 1.27 ERA.  The coming season will give us more insight into how Gore progresses.

Every Padre fan will be curious to know when can Gore will take the mound for the Padres.  In the below section let’s see how the other stalwarts started, and how many years did they actually take to pitch in the majors.

Clayton Kershaw

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Drafted seventh in the first round of 2006 MLB draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kershaw pitched around 280 innings over a span of two years, playing in the minor leagues before being called upon to start for the Dodgers in the 2008 season.

He was twenty years old when he made his major league debut.  In his debut season for the Dodgers, Kershaw pitched in 107.2 innings with a 5-5 record and a 4.26 ERA.

Madison Bumgarner

Growing up in a place nicknamed Bumtown for the abundance of Bumgarners, Madison Bumgarner was drafted tenth in the first round of 2007 MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants.

He pitched around 272 innings spanning two years in the minor leagues before making his debut for the Giants at the age of twenty in the 2009 season against the Padres.  Prior to the start of 2009 season, Baseball America considered Bumgarner to be the ninth best pitching prospect.

Mackenzie Gore falls into the same bracket as Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw.  These south paws were drafted straight out of high school in the first round.  They have all signed billion dollar contracts, very young.

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If things fall in place, Gore is 250 innings and probably twenty-four months shy of starting in the majors.  He should come into his own this year and put up exceedingly good numbers. He should take the mound come 2020 or at worst 2021.  Until then, the fans will wait with bated breath.

GO GOre GO!!!