PADDACK BIG QUESTION MARK
The Padres have three players they can be relatively assured will do the job of a starting pitcher and get them deep into the game with a chance to win.
They have one, Adrian Morejon, who has thrown just 271⁄3 innings in the major leagues. (Unless it is Ryan Weathers, who threw 11⁄3 innings in one major league playoff game last October.)
And they have another who on Monday continued to struggle with his command and his ability to prevent an inning from getting away from him.
Chris Paddack has to be considered one of the team's biggest question marks heading into the season after a spring in which he failed to show he has made the necessary adjustments to rebound from a disappointing 2020.
“With the last chance to tune up, it was obviously not the way he or we wanted it to go,” manager Jayce Tingler said after Paddack cobbled together 21⁄3 shaky innings in Monday's 10-2 loss to the Rockies in the Padres' spring training finale. “At the same time, now it gets real. Now we've got to get to work. Next time he touches the ball is when it matters. … There have been some good outings out here, and we've got to get back to having those because it's about ready to get real.”
Paddack entered Monday's game in the fourth inning and left 31 pitches later with the bases loaded and one out. He had to that point allowed three runs on four hits, a walk and a hit batter, but all three runners he left scored as well.
Rather than having overcome the command that betrayed him, all Paddack could do was pretend he had made it out of his first inning.
A rule in place this year allowed pitchers to re-enter games in spring training, and Paddack did so in the fifth inning. He also pitched the sixth. It went better, but he never truly found the spots he was trying to pitch to on a regular basis.
He allowed a run in each of his final two innings, making his final line:
Seven hits, eight runs, three walks, one strikeout, 63 pitches in 21⁄3 innings.
He finished the spring with a 10.64 ERA in 11 innings.
While Paddack will be a starter at the season's outset, he is no more stretched out than Weathers and didn't have as good a spring as the rookie. However, Weathers has demonstrated he can be a commodity providing multiple innings out of the bullpen and Tingler said Paddack will be given the ball during the Padres' first turn through the rotation, presumably Sunday. The Padres have not yet made official that Morejon is the fifth starter, but he appears lined up to be so.
Up and down
Tingler confirmed Monday the Padres will be without their starting catcher and center fielder when the season begins Thursday, as Austin Nola and Trent Grisham will continue to work back from injury.
“There's the health component, and unfortunately with getting back and getting healthy they've lost some of the game action, the rhythm and timing of the game,” Tingler said. “There's going to be the health component, which we feel really good where guys are at. Now it's a matter of getting some game reps, repeating it, going back-to-back and things like that.
It had become apparent this was going to be the case. Nola has not played in a game since fracturing the middle finger of his left (catching) hand March 12. Grisham left a game a day earlier with a left hamstring strain.
Grisham has hit and done defensive drills but has not sprinted. Nola has done defensive drills but isn't as far along as Grisham hitting. Both have spent time tracking pitches in bullpens.
Tingler said he hopes the work they have done “will speed their curve up.”
With Jurickson Profar and Victor Caratini moving into the starting lineup most days to replace Grisham and Nola, the bench players for now will be catcher Luis Campusano, Ha-seong Kim, Jorge Mateo and Tucupita Marcano. While the Padres did not expect Marcano, their third-ranked position prospect who spent the 2019 season in low-A, to push for a spot, he has met all their challenges and played fairly extensively at six positions this spring. Brian O’Grady, who was signed in the offseason with the belief he would be a reserve outfielder, will remain at Peoria Sports Complex to start the season at the team's alternate site.
Tingler also confirmed relievers Austin Adams (elbow), Dan Altavilla (calf) and Pierce Johnson (groin) will begin the season on the injured list.
Adams and Johnson threw live batting practice Monday morning, along with most of the rest of the Padres' frontline relievers.
One of those players who won a job with a strong spring isWeathers, who Tingler said has made the team. Later Monday, right-handed reliever Nabil Crismatt was informed he would be on the opening day roster after a spring in which he allowed one run and struck out 12 in 101⁄3 innings.
Lamet gets in work
Dinelson Lamet was not as sharp in his 1 1/3 innings of work as he had been in his spring debut five days earlier.
But the right-hander came through healthy, and there is substantial time for him to tighten up his command.
“I'm trying to leave these outings healthy, and I was able to do it,” Lamet said of his 29-pitch outing in which he allowed a run on two hits, a walk and a hit batter in the first inning and retired the only batter he faced in the second.
His fastball, in particular, was errant. His slider wasn't much better. But his misses were close, and he will likely be at the alternate site another three to four weeks building up stamina and refining his command.
The Padres brought Lamet along slowly this spring after he didn't finish last season due to elbow discomfort. They maintain his elbow is structurally sound and they are merely trying to assure he is strong at the end of the year.
Lamet returned to San Diego with the Padres to be part of opening day ceremonies and throw his next bullpen at Petco Park. Games between teams in Arizona begin at the end of this week. Sources have said the tentative plan is for him to make his season debut in the season's third or fourth week.
“We up the pitch count and take things day by day,” he said. “It will always be based on how I'm feeling. Again, I feel really good coming out of that and I'm in complete agreement with how we're progressing and the decisions we're making.”