Padres should make pitch for free-agent hurler Bauer
Take a bow, Padres, even if you’re still smarting from what the Dodgers dished out this week.
Getting swept in the NL Divisional Series doesn’t change what you accomplished.
You returned to relevancy on the baseball landscape.
You made good on ownership’s pledge, earning the franchise’s first playoff berth in 14 years. You were entertaining, brightening our days during a pandemic.
You nailed the style part, too.
You stopped dressing like Milwaukee and Seattle.
Reintroducing brown to your apparel, you established a unique look while also reconnecting to the franchise’s roots. Ron Fowler may not have liked it, but when he sees the merchandise sales, he’ll smile. ier.Now, though, it gets trick
The MLB mountain is steeper and slicker near the top.
Here is one suggestion for 2021, and it begins with owners Peter Seidler and Fowler because it’ll involve a large sum of money:
Make a serious offer to sign pitcher Trevor Bauer, a free agent.
You need a starting pitcher you can count on.
Bauer should be good for at least 150 innings next year, his f loor in the last seven “normal” regular seasons.
In today’s baseball, that’s the stuff of a workhorse. And Bauer is a very good pitcher. He can win in October.
The idea is to have enough pitching to get to next year’s World Series tournament and then win 11 more games against top competition.
You have several pitchers who throw lively pitches, but there are significant question marks regarding all of them.
The biggest one is this: How will co-aces Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet rebound from arm ailments that set them back last month?
Know this: One of the teams still in this World Series tournament decided against making Cleveland a strong trade offer for Clevinger in July, believing the knee surgery he had in January warranted a waitand-see approach through 2020.
Clevinger, like many pitchers, had Tommy John surgery early in his career. So did teammate Chris Paddack, who would benefit from an ace like Bauer taking heat off him.
As for Lamet, evaluators with other teams have long debated whether he’s best suited to starting or relief.
He’s a fastball-slider pitcher, solely. While his pitches are explosive, most starters need a third pitch to get through a long season. More than half of Lamet’s pitches this year were sliders. He had reconstructive elbow surgery two years ago.
Clevinger and Bauer, by the way, were former teammates with the Indians. Recently, Clevinger posted a graphic on social media, beckoning Bauer to join the 2021 Padres.
Bauer in Brown?
Just look to Padres history to see what a durable ace can do for a good San Diego ballclub.
Kevin Towers trading for Kevin Brown, months after Brown led the Marlins to the 1997 World Series title, transformed the Padres into a 98-victory squad that knocked off two 100-game winners in the ’98 playoffs.
Remember, the Padres, like today, were a good program when Brown came aboard for prospects headed by Derrek Lee. They’d won the West in 1996, only to get swept in the Divisional Series. In ’97 they had a terrific offense, but the pitching gave out. Sound familiar?
So, put Bauer first on the winter shopping list.
Appreciating success
What the Padres also got done by going 37-23 in this much-shortened season was to highlight other Padres successes.
Did you know that five other Padres teams — in 1984, 1989, 1996, 1998 and 2010 — had better 60-game stretches than 37-23, and three other Pads clubs — in 1978, 1985 and 1988 — also went 37-23?
So, who knows what these Padres would’ve done over six months? Point being, be sure to build on it.
tom.krasovic@sduniontribune.com