Padres Recall Domingo Tapia
Roster Moves
On Monday the San Diego Padres announced the recalling of RHP Domingo Tapia from Triple-A El Paso, optioning RHP Pedro Avila to the latter.
Pedro Avila made his first appearance of the season for the Padres Sunday afternoon. In his first action since April of 2022, Avila was effective, tossing three scoreless innings against the young upstart Cincinnati Reds.
Domingo Tapia represents a fresh arm to rejoin a battered San Diego bullpen in a rough stretch. Still, he is among the better members of the revolving door of arms cycling to and from the minors and majors this season. The right-hander sports a 2.60 ERA in 17.1 IP so far in 2023.
Tapia’s most potent option on the mound is the four-seam fastball, included in his four-pitch mix. Batters only hit .148 against it this season, occasionally reaching triple digits.
For the entire first half, San Diego has struggled to sustain a core of bullpen arms, which has led to fatigue and deficiency as of late. Relievers Nabil Crismatt and Luis García have regressed badly, resulting in a Crismatt DFA. Steven Wilson and rookie Tom Cosgrove are productive, but each has hit the IL. But a large part of it has to do with the absence of the newly-extended Robert Suarez. Suarez has yet to pitch an inning this season, due to elbow inflammation diagnosed in spring training.
Domingo Tapia’s performance arch this season can be vaguely likened to that of Robert Suarez in 2022. Like Tapia, the hard-throwing righty began his Padres career with a clunker on opening day. After his ugly first game, he quickly rebounded and became a high-leverage setup man of the Padres bullpen throughout the year into their playoff run. Suarez finished the year with an ERA of 2.27. While the team success of this year likely will not mirror 2022, maintaining consistency can set Tapia up for a strong individual season in 2023.
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