On Monday afternoon at the Peoria Sports Complex, San Diego Padres reliever David Morgan got Seattle Mariners outfield prospect Korbyn Dickerson to ground into a double play to finish off a 10-3 Friars win.
It was the last pitch of the Cactus League season. Let the real games begin!
After six weeks of training the Padres will open the regular season on Thursday, March 26 with a 1:10 p.m. start at Petco Park against the Detroit Tigers (extra love to anyone old enough to remember this is a rematch of the 1984 World Series). As expected, the team that will be introduced that afternoon is very different than the one that reported to Arizona in mid-February.
While manager Craig Stammen says they’ll probably wait to make their final roster decisions until Wednesday we have a pretty good idea of what the 26-man crew will look like. For example, infielder Sung-Mun Song is going to start the year on the injured list with an oblique issue, a development that cleared a path for former Padre and Aztec infielder Ty France to earn a spot with the team that drafted him.
Here’s our best guess at the 26 men who will be wearing Padres uniforms on Opening Day:
Right-Handed Pitchers (10)
Jason Adam
Walker Buehler
Jeremiah Estrada
Michael King
German Marquez
Mason Miller
David Morgan
Nick Pivetta
Bradgley Rodriguez
Randy Vasquez
Left-Handed Pitchers (3)
Kyle Hart
Adrian Morejon
Wandy Peralta
Catchers (2)
Luis Campusano
Freddy Fermin
Infielders (7)
Miguel Andujar
Xander Bogaerts
Nick Castellanos
Jake Cronenworth
Ty France
Manny Machado
Gavin Sheets
Outfielders (4)
Bryce Johnson
Ramon Laureano
Jackson Merrill
Fernando Tatis Jr.
Obviously, there will be changes throughout the year. Joe Musgrove and Griffin Canning are starting pitchers who will be on the injured list until at least April but figure to be staples of the rotation at some point. Several of the infielders will get starts as the designated hitter and can even spend time in the outfield, including Andujar, Castellanos, and Sheets.
This is a (very educated) guess but if it is how the roster shakes out, new manager Craig Stammen will have plenty of options and the “positional flexibility” that many teams crave.