Padres Make Surprise Decision on Fifth Starter in Rotation

The knockdown effects of the San Diego Padres' deadline-day trades for pitchers Robbie Ray and Casey Mize are still revealing themselves.

Mize, Walker Buehler (Tuesday) and Ray (Wednesday) are starting the three games against the Milwaukee Brewers this week, in that order. Michael King has the opener of the three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians on Friday.

Randy Vásquez would be on track to start Sunday's series finale, a nationally televised game on NBC. Vásquez has started more games and pitched more innings for the Padres this year than only King and Buehler.

However, manager Craig Stammen allowed for the possibility that he'll pivot to Plan B — if not this weekend, then every time Vásquez is lined up for the rest of the regular season.

The Guardians' lineup features two left-handed hitters, Steven Kwan and Chase DeLauter, batting first and second. Switch-hitter José Ramirez typically bats third.

Lefties are slashing .311/.362/.515 against Vásquez this season. The Padres might understandably want to shield him from the Guardians' three best left-handed hitters in the first inning. A one-inning opener such as left-hander Kyle Hart would make sense this time through the rotation, and perhaps in the future.

“Has nothing to do with Randy,” Stammen said of his reluctance to name Vásquez the team's fifth starter.  “I mean, Randy’s going to pitch at some point and going to pitch meaningful innings and probably going to pitch a lot. So whether he starts the game or whether he comes in later or whether he pitches the next day, Randy’s going to be … very valuable to us on this staff.”

Vásquez is riding a short but impressive hot streak. In his last two starts, against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix and the Houston Astros at home, he's allowed only two runs.

“Randy pitched great last time,” Stammen said. “There’s not much more else he can do besides how he pitched … the last time he went out. I just feel like we have options within our pitching staff that can hopefully give us a better chance to win. … I think we saw so much success with it before the trade deadline and a little bit after, with how we mixed up the pitching staff and tried to match up as best we could. … Having one spot like that open to be able to do that is advantageous for us.”

Thus, for now, the Padres will ride four true starting pitchers and a fifth "TBD" spot. While it will likely be Vásquez more often than not, the Padres don't want to pigeonhole themselves into that.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X/Twitter for the latest news.