Why Mason Miller, Padres’ bullpen must ‘shorten’ games for Craig Stammen originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The San Diego Padres could be one of the many teams searching for starting pitching help at the trade deadline.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though, because Opening Day was yesterday and there are still months to go before the deadline.
Still, Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter is not high on the starting rotation this season for the Padres. He believes it will be up to the bullpen to do most of the dirty work due to a lack of innings thrown by starters.
Simply, Reuter is not very impressed with the arms San Diego is starting the season with. But on paper, the Padres’ bullpen is one of the best in baseball.
Bullpen will ‘shorten a lot of games’ for Padres
“How high does the best bullpen in baseball push the Padres up these rankings? With Mason Miller, Adrian Morejón, Jeremiah Estrada, and eventually Jason Adam, they are going to shorten a lot of games,” Reuter wrote Friday.
“That will likely be necessary with Randy Vasquez, Germán Márquez, and Walker Buehler all penciled into rotation spots. Joe Musgrove is likely to be put on an innings limit once he finally returns from Tommy John surgery.”
The biggest question mark could be what the Padres can get out of Marquez and Buehler, both veterans who have had their fair share of struggles over the past few seasons.
Marquez spent the first 10 years of his career making home starts at Coors Field, notorious as the most hitter-friendly stadium there is. Buehler’s average fastball velocity is down 4.3 mph since 2017, and his strikeout rate is way down.
More MLB news:
- Reds’ Hunter Greene to be out until July amid brutal injury news
- Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki will return to rotation, not bullpen according Dave Roberts
- Alex Cora announces Caleb Durbin is Red Sox starting third baseman
- Joey Wentz is out for the season with a torn ACL for the Braves
- Braves predicted to trade Bryce Elder for Lars Nootbaar
- This 19-year MLB record is finally over for the Giants
- Luis Gil sent down to minor leagues in strange Yankees roster move
- Jacob DeGrom is only 149 strikeouts from 2,000 for his career
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