San Diego Padres Playing it Safe By Shoring Up Rotation In-House

In order for the San Diego Padres to compete this season…scratch that, be competitive this season, they’ll need their pitching staff to perform. With an early injury, keeping it in-house is the safe move. Alas, there are other options…

When Dinelson Lamet got hurt earlier in the week, it surely put a crimp in the San Diego Padres’ early-season plans, as far as the pitching staff goes. Although this group wasn’t projected to be a strength on this team, it was still a heavy blow, nonetheless.

With Lamet expected out (fingers crossed) until May, at least, the Friars’ rotation will, as per reports, be filled out with the guys who already won their spots and group of in-house candidates to assume the vacancy.

After Clayton Richard, we can only assume Luis Perdomo moves up a spot in the rotation. Padres’ manager Andy Green announced, just hours before Lamet got hurt, that his first three starters would be these three guys, with Lamet going between the two.

San Diego Padres have a next-man-up mentality

Now that the team has released Chris Young, they will likely look to Robbie Erlin. Of course, we could always see Young back in San Diego if he doesn’t find any other suitable offers as he surely shops his services around the league.

So with Richard, Perdomo, Bryan Mitchell, presumably Tyson Ross, and then Erlin (for now, at least) filling out the starting five, and given the highly unproven track record of 60-80% of this rotation, there’s a good chance the Padres’ offense will need to keep them in games early on this year.

More from Friars on Base

• Padres News: Fernando Tatis Jr. trade rumors, Seth Lugo chase, Manny Machado
• Padres barely missed out on high-end veteran starting pitcher
• This veteran DH target seems ideal for contending Padres roster
• Padres got steal with Xander Bogaerts after Carlos Correa’s mega-deal
• Failed Padres top prospect makes stunning return with minor league deal

If that does indeed turn out to be the case, in this writer’s estimation, the brain trust of AJ Preller & Co. would be hard-pressed not to explore their options via a trade, or at the very least via the waiver wire.

The available number of starting pitchers who are not expected to make their team’s final roster and will likely be released if they haven’t already, all with moderate levels of MLB service-time, is startling.

Yet another course of action

With the starting pitching situation being as it is for the San Diego Padres, and their understandable reluctance to bring up highly-touted prospect Joey Lucchesi, the team is in a tough spot.

If a viable trade can’t be worked out, this could be an alternate course of action for the Padres’ other hopeful 2018 All-Stars, their front-office.

Next: Adam Cimber Makes Opening Day Roster

For now, we can probably expect to see the above-mentioned group to begin the season for the San Diego Padres, but with Preller’s itchy transaction-finger being busy over these last few months, you just never know.