The battle for the San Diego Padres starting rotation officially began on Thursday when Jhony Brito and Matt Waldron took the mound at Camelback Ranch against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was Waldron who had a more efficient outing.
Brito danced around disaster and only gave up two runs in two innings, but Waldron escaped two innings of work on seven pitches.
Waldron brings an outlier pitch to his repertoire — a knuckleball.
"I don’t think we want to label him a knuckleball pitcher. This guy has other pitches. The knuckleball compliments those. We want him to have the knuckleball as a weapon, which it clearly is. It’s nasty. He has a multiple arsenal that includes the knuckleball, which makes sense based on the moment in competition.”
Waldron, who was an 18th-round pick of the Cleveland Guardian out of Nebraska in 2019, made his major league debut with the Padres last year.
When it comes to knuckleballers, Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey were two of the best in recent history. Waldron isn't like them. He has a low-90s fastball, mid-80s cutter, and upper-70s slider and throws them all in addition to his knuckler.
He appeared in eight games and started six of them finishing with a record of 1-3 with a 4.35 ERA. He struck out 31 batters and walked 12 in just over 41 innings of work.
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