With the San Diego Padres fan base on “wild-card clinch" alert, the big question going forward will be how they set up their playoff rotation. As good as the Pads pitching has been, this setup comes with some fascinating questions that will need to be answered in the week to come.
Start with who starts game one. The knee-jerk answer here would be Dylan Cease, based on the fact that he just posted his fourth season with over 200 strikeouts.
Not so fast, though. Veteran starter Nick Pivetta can also make a serious case for this role. He’s been more reliable than Cease, plus he’s been able to go deeper in games.
Pivetta has given up just nine earned runs in his last five starts, and he was lights-out during his lone previous playoff appearance with the Boston Red Sox back in 2021, posting a 2.63 ERA to go with 14 strikeouts in 13-2/3 innings. Cease, of course, had an ERA of 14.40 during last year’s playoffs.
The questions go beyond the top of the rotation, too. The status of the third starter should also be an intriguing decision. Randy Vasquez is the most obvious candidate, but Vasquez is just 26 with no playoff experience, and his ERA this year is 3.76.
Under normal circumstances the answer would be Michael King, who’s been trying to pitch himself back into shape for the playoffs after struggling with knee inflammation after a nerve-related shoulder injury.
King has had some solid starts since returning, but he’s been on a pitch count a lot of the time. He left everything up in the zone last Tuesday against the New York Mets, and King ended up with an ugly line of eight earned runs in just three innings.
Which brings us to the real question: Would the Padres actually go with an opener for a playoff game? It make sense given the uncertainty at the top of the rotation, especially given the ongoing excellence of the San Diego bullpen. It’s one of the best pens in baseball, so why not go there and capitalize on that?
The good news is that there’s now plenty of time to make the call. The Los Angeles Dodgers are four games up in the NL West with just seven to go, and the two teams don’t meet head-to-head, so there’s no reason to address the possibility of a comeback.
The Padres return home to face the Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks to close out the season, but it’s the non-game decisions that will make this week very intriguing.