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The San Diego Padres swung a trade for Oakland Athletics pitcher Sean Manaea despite having tons of pitching depth. They have worked for years to bring strong starting pitchers in and entered this season with a seemingly set rotation. One reason they looked to add more could be the injury to Mike Clevinger.
According to Dennis Lin of The Athletic Padres, Clevinger could begin the season on the IL due to knee soreness. Manager Bob Melvin says that the team was rushing the 31-year-old's injury and will now have some more time to work on it.
Sounds like Mike Clevinger, who was building his way back from TJ and had knee soreness after his first start, will open on the IL.
“It felt like we were kind of in a rush job with him to begin with,” Bob Melvin said. “So it allows us to kind of smooth things out, slow it down.”
— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) April 3, 2022
San Deigo acquired the right-handed Clevinger during last season from the Cleveland Guardians. In the 19.0 innings he pitched with the Padres, he recorded a terrific 2.84 ERA and 19 total strikeouts. He has kept his ERA below 3.2 for every season of his career besides his rookie season. Having more time to work his injury out should allow him to keep excelling in San Diego.
Manaea recorded a 3.91 ERA and tallied two complete-game shutouts across 179.1 innings last season with Oakland. The 30-year-old should be a strong addition to the Padres.
With Manaea joining Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell, the Padres could have a solid rotation of starting pitchers. San Diego is looking to compete for a playoff spot and will need more out of their pitchers to get there, especially with Fernando Tatis Jr. slated to miss a few months with a wrist fracture.
