Padres Casting Wide Net In Search For Starting Pitching

There is more than the biggest name of all that the San Diego Padres are pursuing this offseason.

With only one truly reliable name in the rotation at the moment in right-hander Randy Vasquez, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is taking his shopping cart down every lane of the pitching grocery store.

That includes several of the top names other than left-hander Tarik Skubal, the back-to-back AL Cy Young Award winner (2024-25) who is the prize of this year's free agents. Two new reports are linking the Padres to right-handers Freddy Peralta, Nick Martinez, Dustin May and Kaima Taira as well as left-handers Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga. Of course, right-handers Michael King and Nick Pivetta returning are also options. Those names were included in reports by Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.

Acee's article was a well-done in-depth look at all the facets that have gone into the predicament facing the Friars and their Padres' starting rotation this offseason. That includes a lack of MLB-ready prospects, with their top three candidates, as cited by Acee, Coleman Borthwick, Kruz Schoolcraft and Lan-Hong Su, not have pitched above Low-A Lake Elsinore, with Borthwick and Su making their full-season debuts in the second half of the season. Borthwick was the Padres' first-round draft pick this year who pitched twice in the Storm's run to the California League title.

It has led to a point that the Padres are going to have to spend on at least four starting pitchers before Opening Day, not to mention having to ensure left field and first base are shored up and potentially replacing their second-best reliever.