The San Diego Padres continue to play rotation roulette, and Lucas Giolito could be next up this weekend.
The San Diego Padres haven’t announced their starter for Sunday’s series finale against the Seattle Mariners, but fans have to be hoping it’s Lucas Giolito. The Padres have been playing rotation roulette at the back end, and Giolito is a cut above the pitchers they’ve been sending to the hill.
His backstory coming into this one is intriguing, to say the least. The 31-year old starter went through the winter unsigned, which was surprising given the paucity of pitching in MLB, especially viable starters. The Padres signed him to one of A.J. Preller’s creative contracts, as the GM did a deal that has Giolito collecting a base salary of just $3 million with an additional $5 million in incentives available if he pitches well.
Giolito was shut down late last season by the Boston Red Sox due to an elbow issue, but he had some impressive moments as he went 10-4 while pitching to a 3.41 ERA, and Giolito struck out 121 hitters in 145 innings.
The right-hander has made four rehab starts as he builds up after missing spring training, and the results have been uneven, according to Steve Adams of MLBTradeRumors.com. He’s posted a 4.76 ERA in 17 innings, with a strikeout rate of 19.5 percent to go with a walk rate of 7.8 percent walk rate.
His last start was against the Athletics’ Double-A affiliate, and Giolito went six innings and allowed one run on three hits with no walks, so there’s really no point in keeping him down on the farm if he’s healthy.
There will be more of those uneven moments with Giolito, but at this point the Padres are used to this. Matt Waldron got bombed by the Milwaukee Brewers when they set him up with an opener, and erstwhile starter Griffin Canning stumbled badly against Milwaukee yesterday. Starts like these put the Padres in a deep hole they can’t climb out of, especially with their offense sputtering and struggling to consistently product runs.
Walker Buehler will take the ball tomorrow night for the Padres in Seattle, and the results could be more of the same. Buehler seems to alternate good starts with bad ones, and he’s a five-and-dive pitcher these days who frequently can’t get to the five.
Giolito could be better, but one thing we know is that adding him will force a roster move. Someone’s going to be demoted and out of the rotation, and all of the current back-end starters are out of options, so the shuffle will continue and produce at least one unhappy hurler.