Sean Manaea and Joe Musgrove named second and third starters of the Padres season

San Diego Padres manager Bob Melvin announced earlier this morning that starters Sean Manaea and Joe Musgrove will pitch the second and third games of the season, respectively, in Arizona behind Yu Darvish. These moves were expected because Manaea pitched yesterday and if he were to continue on the every fifth day schedule, his next start day is this Friday. Musgrove also is a nice story to pitch the home opener on April 14 since he obviously is a San Diego native and Musgrove starting the third game of the season would line him up to do just that.

Manaea certainly was acquired from the Oakland Athletics at the right time because Mike Clevinger, who would have started on Friday, is likely going to be on the Injured List (knee soreness) to start the 2022 regular season. Manaea now just replaces Clevinger in the rotation.

As of now, it hasn’t been determined how the Padres will start games on the mound for the fourth and fifth games of the season but expect Nick Martinez to get one of those starts since he is built up and has allowed just one earned run this spring. He is scheduled to start today against the Texas Rangers.

Blake Snell is likely the other starter and Chris Paddack could piggyback him if he isn’t traded before Opening Day.