San Diego Padres: Breaking Down the Starting Rotation
By Ben Fadden
4. Chris Paddack (Starting Sunday)
San Diego Padres rookie Chris Paddack underwent Tommy John surgery in 2016, but ever since then, he has been one of the most impressive pitchers in the Padres farm system.
To recover from the surgery he did not pitch in 2017 but had a stellar 2018 season. Between Class-A Advanced Lake Elsinore and Double-A San Antonio, Chris Paddack had a 2.10 ERA with 120 strikeouts in 90 innings.
90 innings is definitely not the 200 innings that star pitchers like Chris Sake and Jacob deGrom are pitching, but the Padres understandably wanted to limit his innings coming off of the surgery to ensure he would be ready for the first important Spring Training of his career.
You read that right–his first spring training, and he is in the Padres rotation. This is the first time he is facing major league hitters, and over four Cactus League Spring Training games, he has an ERA of 2.13 with only three earned runs in 12.2 innings pitched.
At one point he was the best pitcher in all of Spring Training (Cactus and Grapefruit League). He struck out 20 batters in those four starts not including a backfield game he pitched a week ago when Andy Green pushed his start back a day to put him on schedule for the second game of the regular season against the San Francisco Giants.
Do not be surprised if Chris Paddack is the Padres’ ace in 2021 when they are contending for a World Series.
3. Matt Strahm
Matt Strahm got traded to the San Diego Padres from Kansas City in 2017 that sent bullpen arms including Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter to the Royals. Strahm’s role started out in the bullpen in 2018 as he had an injury history, so the Padres wanted him to settle in.
Then, once some starters in the rotation got hurt or struggled, Strahm got some starts and flourished. He finished the season with a 2.05 ERA in 41 games and had 10.1 strikeouts per nine. He was the ‘opener’ in most of his starts, not pitching more than 3 1/3 innings in any game, but has stretched out in what turned out to be a very successful audition for the Opening Day Rotation.