San Diego Padres: Ideas For The Back-End Of Friars’ Rotation

The San Diego Padres have a glut of talent among their pitching corps. From top-to-bottom, the Friars are in a position to let the spring competitions play out as they may and fill out their rotation based on those performances.

The first three spots in the San Diego Padres’ starting rotation are, in all likelihood, going to be occupied by staff-veteran Clayton Richard, and two of the Friars’ promising young hurlers, Dinelson Lamet and Luis Perdomo.

After those three, though, the rest of the Padres’ rotation spots are up-for-grabs. Whether manager Andy Green decides to go with a five-or-six-man rotation doesn’t hold much bearing, since such a defined designation would likely never become permanent.

As the season wears on, with hot-arms, off-days, early-exits in blowouts, and whatever other variables may find their way into the Friars’ plans, there may be a spot-start here and there. But I highly doubt Green would go with a true six-man rotation unless the situation deemed it necessary.

So after the top-three, who pitches next for the San Diego Padres?

After Richard, Lamet, and Perdomo (not necessarily in that order) pitch, the San Diego Padres have a number of options to follow them up with. Young hurler, Matt Strahm figures to forcefully throw his name into consideration for one of those spots.

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With the recoveries of Robbie Erlin and Colin Rea still ongoing, there’s a decent possibility that Strahm could find his way into the rotation to start the season.

Both Erlin and Rea looked OK in their respective outings yesterday. If they can continue to show Andy Green that they’re ready to compete, it could make for a very interesting home-stretch to Spring Training.

Throw in Friars’ fan-favorite Tyson Ross, beginning his second stint with the Padres, showing promising signs early on and Bryan Mitchell looking very good in his first outing of the spring and, folks, we’ve got ourselves an old-fashioned spring competition.

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Whichever way manager Andy Green decides to go, or if he even sticks with his initial game plan, is yet to be determined. Let’s let the Cactus League continue to provide all of the answers the Friars’ brain trust will need to come to their decisions.