What should the Padres do about Snell and Clevinger?

The Padres are about to have a surplus of starting pitching in their rotation. What should they do about it?

The conversation around the San Diego Padres starting pitching is much different this year than it was a year ago. Back then, we were wondering how they were going to make it through the season without the rotation breaking down and imploding (Author’s note: We were right!). Now the question is how they’re going to find enough innings for all of the starting pitchers that they have.

Let’s start with the rotation as it currently stands:

Yu Darvish - 4.43 ERA / 4.01 FIP
Sean Manaea - 3.47 ERA / 3.72 FIP
Jos Musgrove - 3.68 ERA / 3.74 FIP
MacKenzie Gore - 1.76 ERA / 2.49 FIP
Nick Martinez - 4.30 ERA / 7.99 FIP

Some thoughts, right out of the gate:

1. That’s an awesome rotation.

2. My eyes have not been lying to me. Nick Martinez has been lucky to give up as few runs as he has. His numbers are weird in that he’s been incredible with guys on base and pretty terrible with the bases empty. Might be time to try something new, like pitching the entire game out of the stretch.

3. MacKenzie Gore remained incredible yesterday. He struck out 10 batters for the first time in his career, made crucial adjustments, and generally dominated in a way that rookies aren’t supposed to. Good luck sending him down to the minors without pissing off your fans or the MLBPA.

But you didn’t come here for me to heap praise on the Padres rotation while sipping your coffee. Let’s talk about the roster crunch that’s coming.