D'you think...like, when the Padres traded Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek for Freddy Fermin, someone in the front office, anyone, had the thought of 'wait, is our pitching depth gonna withstand this move?'. Because I'd like to think one of them would have foreseen an April like this one, with a skeleton crew of a rotation trying to prove the team's legitimacy, and maybe gone '...don't we have anyone else we could deal?'
Right now, the Padres' rotation, which used to sport a treasure trove of excellent starting options and was slammed with depth basically every year from 2021 onward, consists of Nick Pivetta, Michael King, Randy Vasquez, German Marquez and Walker Buehler. Maybe three years ago this could have sounded promising. But Marquez is trying to convince people he can still pitch, and he's got a 4.50 ERA and only 5 Ks in 2 starts. Walker Buehler's looking pretty cooked, he's given up 7 earned runs in 6.2 innings. He's basically only starting due to lack of other options. Joe Musgrove is hurt and while he should be back within a month, because he hasn't pitched in a year or so, nobody's quite sure what he's gonna be working with. At some point Griffin Canning will return, but same concern. And so now that we're seeing Michael King and Nick Pivetta being around average so far...the concern grows.
Wildly, the best piece of this rotation so far has been Randy Vasquez, who at least showed promise in a swing role last year. In his first two starts, Vasquez has allowed only 1 earned run, struck out 11 and has a 0.9 WAR. He's displaying the sort of dominance he's wanted to work up towards, and with the number of questionable starting options the Padres have right now, it's a needed security. But considering that this rotation has seen commanding performances from Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Dylan Cease and Musgrove, being down to just 'well Randy Vasquez is here' is a little concerning.
It's even more glaring when you realize that next to no one on this Padres team is currently hitting. Only one guy hitting over .240, and it's Miguel Andujar, who the Padres are wisely starting at DH this year. Everyone else is barely moving the ball, hitting around .220 or just struggling to get anything done. Tatis, Merrill, Machado, Cronenworth and Sheets haven't done much. Xander Bogaerts has done the most contact work but he hasn't exactly gotten people home. A lot of guys on this team are defensive liabilities. And even adding Nick Castellanos didn't seem to work for some reason. You've got a team of overpaid guys not hitting, you bring in Nick Castellanos, what did you expect him to do? Hit??
It is, of course, early, and the team could lock into place, but virtually none of their competitors, save for one, have accomplished much this season at all. When the Diamondbacks are looking like the comparative sleeper hit, that's damning. The Padres still have time to erase this deficit, but it's gonna take more than just one series. The tide needs to shift, and this may not be the roster for that to make all the difference.
Coming Tomorrow- Towards the end of last season, a lot of people assumed he'd be traded or dealt with in some other way, and lo and behold he's still as valuable as everyone thought he was, Basallo be damned.
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