San Diego Padres: This Phenom Should Win NL Rookie of the Year
By Ben Fadden
Fernando Tatis Jr. and Pete Alonso come to mind when discussing the NL Rookie of the Year, but start paying attention this young pitching phenom from the San Diego Padres.
The San Diego Padres went into the off-season looking for starting pitching and third base help.
They fixed their third base problem by signing Manny Machado.
They weren’t able to add any starting pitching (yet), so they are riding with the youngest starting rotation in all of baseball.
It is headlined by Eric Lauer and Joey Lucchesi with Nick Margevicius and Matt Strahm as the third and fifth starters.
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But they might have found their starting pitcher- who was already in their farm system.
His name is Chris Paddack.
Every day he is starting on the mound, he is all business before he walks in the clubhouse. He wears a suit with his signature cowboy hat, a routine he started back in the minor leagues and has continued when he made it to Petco Park.
In his MLB debut, he only allowed one earned run with seven strikeouts. He looked like San Diego’s next ace, but he hasn’t stopped there.
He has an astounding ERA of 1.67 with 30 strikeouts in five starts and 30 innings pitched.
His best start yet and his first Major League win of the season came on Wednesday afternoon in San Diego against the Seattle Mariners, who went into the game leading the league in OPS.
He went into the contest feeling ill, as he woke up on Wednesday sweating, but didn’t have the flu.
Despite him feeling under the weather, Paddack went 7 innings, giving up just one hit and one walk (the first batter of the game), striking out nine batters.
San Diego Padres manager Andy Green was impressed by the rookie’s outing.
“He reaches down and the competition took over him,” Green said.
Chris Paddack has already undergone Tommy John surgery when he was in the minor leagues but has shown he has the ability to bounce back quickly when things go south.
He only pitched 90 innings but the minors last year so he will have his innings monitored, but so far he hasn’t elapsed the 90 pitch mark.
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With all things said, he will be in the running for Rookie of the Year along with his teammate Fernando Tatis Jr.