After Bullpen Session Padres are Optimistic about Mike Clevinger Return for NLDS

The San Diego Padres continue to hold out hope that they’re key acquisition at the 2020 trade deadline will be available for the NLDS.

Even though the San Diego Padres were able to scrape by the St. Louis Cardinals in the Wild Card round, it took a massive toll on their bullpen.

They likely won’t be able to survive that same way against the Los Angeles Dodgers. They’ll need their starters to work much deeper into games.

Mike Clevinger could certainly help that situation if he’s healthy and ready to go at any point in the NLDS.

He threw a bullpen on Sunday and apparently everything went well.

Of course, he also threw a 23-pitch bullpen just before the Wild Card series and we thought that might mean he was ready to go then but that was not the case.

However, Bob Nightengale tweeted Monday morning that the Padres are “optimistic” about Clevinger’s chances of pitching in the NLDS.

However, he also mentioned that Dinelson Lamet likely won’t be ready for this series with the Dodgers.

But even if San Diego can just get Clevinger back, and get him back as close to healthy as possible, it would be a huge boost for this team.

I don’t think the Padres can go toe-to-toe with the Dodgers if Chris Paddack and Zach Davies are their two best starters.

If you add a healthy Clevinger to that mix then I think they have a chance.

That’s also the key question here, is how healthy will Clevinger be if he does pitch?

I mean, I’d take Clevinger at 75 percent over most of the other starting options they have right now. But will he be on a small pitch count? Can he work deep enough into games to save the bullpen?

We probably won’t know the answers to those questions until it actually happens. Just having somebody with the stature of Clevinger though can boost the confidence of the team.

Let’s all just hope that Clevinger feels good enough that he can pitch in this series with no restrictions.