San Diego Padres: Projecting the 26 man roster in January

Spring Training is approaching fast, so we take a shot at predicting what the San Diego Padres 26-man roster could look like to open up the 2020 season.

With Spring Training just five short weeks away, pitchers and catchers report on February 12, I expect General Manager AJ Preller to make more moves to bolster the San Diego Padres roster.

But if the team reported next week, what would the 26 man roster look like for Opening Day?

This 2020 season offers a new challenge for the front offices of Major League Baseball. The 26 man roster debuts this season and every team must decide how to manage that extra player.

San Diego currently has two players on their 40 man who can play a position as well as pitch.

This gives AJ Preller greater flexibility in making the final decisions for who fills out his opening day roster.

My guess is that he will go into opening day with the traditional approach to determine if his roster can perform up to expectations.

There will be a lot of depth sitting in the AAA and AA teams to pull from if the initial assessment doesn’t ‘t pan out.

The starting five, barring injury or under performance, should be Chris Paddack fronting the attack with Garret Richards as the second man up.

The next up should be either Dinelson Lamet or Zach Davies  with the other being the fourth starter.

I fully expect Joey Lucchesi to win the 5th job but Cal Quantrill is the dark horse in this race.