San Diego Padres Don’t Need Lincecum, Should Check Out Peavy

The San Diego Padres are one of the teams who will be in attendance to watch former Cy Young Award-winner Tim Lincecum workout in hopes of landing an MLB contract. But that’s not where their focus should necessarily be.

Sure, if Tim Lincecum has regained his stuff, the San Diego Padres should take a flier on him. If he really is back to being The Freak and teams start a bidding war for his services though, the Friars need to pass on him.

He looks to be in top-physical shape, based on the images below (Twitter: @drivelinebases). But it’s highly unlikely Lincecum will end up signing anywhere. It’s been over five years since he was an effective pitcher and there are major doubts that his arm is still durable.

Lincecum has been out of baseball since 2016 when he made nine starts for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2-6, 9.16 ERA). Although it’s always possible that a 33-year-old, two-time Cy Young Award-winning, three-time MLB strikeout leader can regain his form and make a comeback.

Unfortunately, Big Time Timmy Jim’s freakish delivery may have worn his arm down to the point that he’s just no longer physically able to perform as he did at his peak. But let’s face it, anyone who watched him during his hey-day knew that wicked arm angle would eventually cut his career short.

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And even though he’s thrown two no-hitters against the San Diego Padres, Tim Lincecum was enough of legend-in-his-time to warrant the franchise’s and fanbase’s best wishes in his quest to get back to the majors.

San Diego Padres should be looking at Jake Peavy instead of Tim Lincecum

If you all haven’t had the chance to read Jake Peavy‘s heartbreaking story on Bleacher Report, you need to. This is a San Diego Padres legend who is not that far removed from being not only effective but still dominating at times.

Will he be the Cy Young Award-winning pitcher from a decade ago? Definitely not. But if he’s still got the stuff AND he’s got a source of motivation that’s obviously deeper than just making his lost fortune back (which it seems he does), then why not?

Next: Friars on Base Spring Training Notebook: Day Two

Just like Lincecum, this would be a low-risk move. Even if Peavy made 15 starts throughout the season, the wisdom and knowledge he’d be passing along to guys like Luis Perdomo and Dinelson Lamet would be worth every penny the San Diego Padres would be spending.