Padres select contract of Kyle Lloyd, will debut tonight.

Tonight’s turn in the rotation would have belonged to Trevor Cahill if he was still wearing an SD on his cap, but alas he has moved on to other pastures. In his absence, the Padres have decided to give a minor leaguer a reward for a nice season.

If the name Kyle Lloyd sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because he threw a no-hitter for the San Antonio Missions back in May, the organization’s first solo no-no since 2009. The 6’4” righty comes over the top and while he doesn’t have overpowering velocity, he has three developed pitches: a fastball, a splitter, and a slider, all of which he can locate well when his command is working. He’s an aggressive pitcher who likes to pound the zone early and is more of a strikeout than a “pitch to contact” kind of guy, although he does have a strong groundball tendency. At age 26, he’s made some fringe Padres prospect lists in the past, and it’s a good time for him to show us what he’s got. Here’s an interview that Scout.com’s John Conniff did a couple of months ago ($$).

With the departure of some veteran arms, the pitching staff is going to start to look much different. Last night we saw the debut of Jose Ruiz, as he came straight up from single-A on short notice. Starter Jhoulys Chacin and reliever Brad Hand may be on different teams soon with the non-waiver deadline less than a week away, and their absences would leave more vacancies that would likely be filled from within by older prospects like Lloyd.