San Diego Padres: Cal Quantrill Pitching Well In San Antonio

San Diego Padres RHP prospect Cal Quantrill now has three successful starts under his belt in Double-A San Antonio. Could he join Joey Lucchesi on the big league roster soon?

The opening weeks of the 2018 season have been nothing short of interesting for the San Diego Padres. Injuries to the offense (Wil Myers, Manuel Margot), suspensions (Luis Perdomo), and the loss of, arguably, the Padres’ best pitcher (Dinelson Lamet) for the year to Tommy John surgery, have all led Padres’ fans to expect the unexpected each and every day.

The first wave of elite San Diego Padres began to emerge with the early promotion of Joey Lucchesi. Lucchesi has been one of the more dominant pitchers in baseball and leads to fans asking, who’s next?

Will Cal Quantrill be next? He’s surely pitching as if he’s on the verge of earning a shot at the big leagues.

The fourth-ranked Padres prospect (40th in MLB) has three starts under his belt for Double-A San Antonio, each one better than the previous. Take a look at his stat lines over these three starts,

@ Arkansas: 3.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 91 pitches (48 strikes)

@NW Arkansas: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 91 pitches (62 strikes)

vs NW Arkansas: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 88 pitches (61 strikes)

As evidenced by his stat lines, Quantrill’s command has improved with each start. Having watched two of his starts, Quantrill has done an excellent job of keeping hitters from barrelling the ball and finding the gaps.

https://twitter.com/BaseballAmerica/status/984831232600100864

While the Padres’ organization remains high on Quantrill, some evaluators have taken a reluctant approach to his potential, citing a lack of a major league breaking pitch as their reasoning.

He’s attempting to prove those evaluators wrong in 2018, exhibiting better control of his breaking pitches early on, generating a few swings and misses along the way.

With Bryan Mitchell continuing to struggle and the guessing game of whether or not Luis Perdomo materializes still up in the air, Padres’ fans may see Cal Quantrill earn his first major league start sooner rather than later.

Last season was his first full work in the minors as he continued to rebound from Tommy John surgery. He tossed 116 innings between Lake Elsinore and San Antonio and is on an innings limit again this season.

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Hopefully, some of those innings come at Petco Park. Scratch off another lottery ticket San Diego, maybe you’ll hit on another winner.