Padres send Paddack down in a logical, not so surprising move

Chris Paddack is unquestionably the current and future Ace of the Padres. After a tough month, he owns a 3.15 ERA. He’s 4-4 and has generally kept the team in every game.

So, why send him down?

1st, he’s thrown 65 innings. The most innings he’s thrown since 2015 is 90 innings... which was last year. This isn’t treating him with kid gloves, it’s just logical. They’re limiting his workload as responsibly as they can.

2nd, he’s off mechanically since neck stiffness pushed him back a start. I have zero video evidence, but I highly recommend watching a clip of him a month ago versus last night. His arm slot is slightly different and has elevated pitches he typically controls. If he takes a few weeks to rest and sort those things out so be it.

Lastly, the team is expecting to make a wild card run. Laugh or poke fun of you want, but they’re just 5 games out of the wild card. This is happening while playing very mediocre baseball. They will almost certainly be buyers at the deadline. Why? They have the talent necessary to win now. They will not win the division, but there’s no chance they’ll be sellers in the traditional sense either.

What do you think Padre fans? Fire away.