Padres Starter To Land On IL To Start Season

With the trade for Sean Manaea from the Oakland A's today, the San Diego Padres rotation is starting to take shape. And with Manaea's presence, the Pads won't have to rush Mike Clevinger, who's coming back from Tommy John surgery. He'll likely start on the injured list now. 

Mike Clevinger has some right knee soreness. He’s a candidate to open the season on the IL. Meanwhile, new Padres pitcher Sean Manaea will immediately pitch against his old team today against the A’s.

— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) April 3, 2022

Clevinger is experiencing some right knee soreness. He had a rough start in his only spring appearance, allowing 8 runs on 7 hits and two home runs in just 1.2 innings. The now-31-year-old came over to the Padres midway through the shortened 2020 season, then sat out all of 2021 recovering from the TJ surgery. 

As noted by Jon Becker of FanGraphs, the team definitely doesn't want to have to make another desperation move like they did last season bringing in the totally washed Jake Arrieta, so San Diego's starting staff is fully loaded with potential arms for 2022.

The Padres remembered giving starts to Velasquez and Arrieta last year and now have ten legitimate starting options:

Darvish
Musgrove
Snell
Clevinger
Manaea
Martínez
Paddack
Weathers
Gore
Knehr

— Jon Becker (@jonbecker_) April 3, 2022

Ten potential starters for the major league staff, from the top 4 of Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Blake Snell and Sean Manaea, to the once-hot prospect MacKenzie Gore, to a once-hot rookie Chris Paddack. The latter, however, has been mentioned in trade talks. 

As for Clevinger, the former Cleveland ace delivered four sparkling years for that franchise, with an aggregate ERA of 3.20 and 10K/9 over that stretch. It appears he's not quite ready to make a meaningful contribution to the Padres' staff, though hopefully it won't be too much longer. 

Photo Credit:  Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports