Padres should unleash pitching chaos the moment their playoff rotation hits trouble

There was a long stretch of baseball this summer when the San Diego Padres didn’t really have a rotation. They had Michael King, a lot of openers, and a bullpen that got a call far too early on many nights. Craig Stammen called it “pitching chaos,” and getting through those days with the chaos is a big reason the Padres are on the precipice of clinching a trip to the playoffs once again.

The rotation is finally whole, or something close to that. King, Walker Buehler, and Nick Pivetta are there from the start of the season while acquisitions Robbie Ray and Casey Mize have joined them. Stammen now has options, which he didn’t have for a while. That’s absolutely a good thing, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing if Stammen thinks back to the chaos once October starts.

How pitching chaos saved the Padres' season

At the start of the year, the Padres’ rotation was a weak link, sitting near the bottom of the league in most of the major categories. King was doing his thing, but the rest was a revolving door that included Randy Vasquez, JP Sears, Griffin Canning, German Marquez, and others. 

Stammen and pitching coach Ruben Niebla, along with bullpen coach Ben Fritz, started scripting games before they started. Starters gave them minimal innings on purpose. A pitcher like Sears became a piggyback arm instead of having to navigate a lineup three or more times. It would be difficult to hold up, but it was always a survival tactic with an expiration date.

And…it worked. It held the Padres together until the bats woke up. The offense started hitting, and a team that was hovering around .500 caught fire. Fernando Tatis Jr. found his power. Jackson Merrill got back to being Jackson Merrill, and the Padres have gone 34-17 since late July (through Tuesday’s action). Now they are about to go back to the playoffs.

The blueprint for holding it together came from Detroit in 2024 when AJ Hinch’s Tigers went 31-13 down the stretch with Tarik Skubal and a bullpen that worked hard. They took that same approach to October and beat the Astros in the Wild Card Series without even having a true starter in either of the final two games. Stammen said the Padres studied it, but his version came with a difference. The Padres have better relievers than the Tigers did. 

Mason Miller is incredible. We all know that. Adrian Morejon is going to make a ton of money this winter based on what he’s done this season. Bradgley Rodriguez has been a bit of a surprise, but continues to get big outs down the stretch. If it’s not the best bullpen in baseball, it’s right there. 

That doesn’t include Yuki Matsui, who has broken out in a big way, along with Wandy Peralta and Kyle Hart and others who just continue to pitch well for them down the stretch. Very few teams can cover five or six innings with their bullpen, but the Padres are just deep enough to do it, and they already have this year.

The rotation is better, but it isn't bulletproof

King is your Game One starter without a doubt, though he might be needed to clinch home field in the Wild Card round, so he’s lined up to start the regular season finale if they need him. But if not, he’ll open the Wild Card series. Pivetta has looked sharp in three starts since coming back earlier this month. Those two are solid. 

But it’s not as easy after that. Buehler has been fine lately, but he’s been fighting for a playoff spot for weeks, and he hasn’t always been very efficient. Mize and Ray cost them some prospects at the deadline, and they’ve been inconsistent at best since their arrival. Nobody in that final group has earned a full benefit of the doubt in a game where the season is on the line. 

King isn’t even perfect, though who is? He gave up five runs on six hits in four innings on Tuesday night against the Dodgers. You can believe in him, but the question becomes what does he do if he has another night like Tuesday?

It’s an easy answer. If the starter is struggling, bring back the chaos. And be ready to bring that chaos back before it’s too late. Stammen has said that part of the point of it is to stop leaving a pitcher in for one or two more batters. It removes all guesswork. That logic shouldn’t disappear simply because the stakes are higher because that logic worked. 

There’s a little more room for patience once you get to the LCS and World Series, but a best-of-three series leave no room for patience. A best-of-five only leaves marginally more room. The Padres can and should be willing to turn any game into a bullpen game on next to no notice, and the bullpen has the luxury of having done it before. 

And hey, there’s some symmetry here. In the 2020 Wild Card series with the Padres out of healthy starters, some guy named Craig Stammen was the opener in a winner-take-all Game Three against the Cardinals. San Diego won that game and moved on. Stammen knows better than anyone that a little chaos can be a good thing in October. The Padres have the juice to be chaotic.

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