Padres' NLDS roster vs. Dodgers includes obvious Joe Musgrove swap, extra arm

After taking down the Atlanta Braves with relative ease in the NL Wild Card Series, the San Diego Padres next have to deal with Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series.

While LA was one of the favorites in the National League coming into the season, the Padres find themselves with tons of momentum and an ever-growing number of experts that think they could upset the Dodgers in the NLDS.

The Padres' already possess an incredibly deep roster with most players pretty well-entrenched in their roles ahead of the upcoming series. However, losing Joe Musgrove to Tommy John surgery presented a bit of a challenge that San Diego was not expecting, but the club is fortunate enough to have options to address his absence. On Saturday, the Friars released their NLDS roster with a couple notable changes.

Padres add Martin Perez and Alek Jacob to NLDS roster in aftermath of Musgrove's injury

Again, the Padres' roster mostly resembles the one they ran against Atlanta in the previous round. The lineup is pretty much set in stone and the top three arms in the rotation (Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish, and Michael King) were mortal locks for inclusion. The only questions became who would replace Musgrove, and what the bullpen would look like?

Unsurprisingly, the Padres will go with Martín Perez in place of Musgrove. The Padres traded for Perez at the deadline to provide some rotation depth and he'll serve in that role again during the NLDS. In 10 starts for San Diego this season, Perez was surprisingly good, posting a 3.46 ERA in 52 innings of work. Perez's numbers in Pittsburgh were...decidedly less good.

Also making the cut for the Padres this go-around is Alek Jacob who only saw limited time with San Diego this season, although he performed well when he did play. The Padres decided not to carry Nick Ahmed in the NLDS to make room for Jacob as an extra bullpen arm which could help if Perez (or any other Padres starter) struggles. It certainly helps that Jacob has been VERY tough when it comes to limiting hard contact.

The Padres NLDS lineup is now set and the roster is locked in. All that's left now is to figure out if they can take down the rival Dodgers and keep the good times rolling.

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