During the daily press conference between manager Bob Melvin and media covering the San Diego Padres, Melvin announced that right-hander Nick Martinez would start the Padres’ spring opener on Friday, Feb. 24 against the Seattle Mariners at the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Ariz., as previously leaked by Martinez on the Ben and Woods show on 97.3 The Fan on Tuesday morning.
Martinez recently announced he would be joining Team USA in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) after previously dropping out to work up to starting because he was going to only pitch as a reliever. With Los Angeles Dodgers’ starter Clayton Kershaw dropping out, Martinez was given the opportunity to join the Team USA rotation.
Melvin also announced that left-handed pitchers Jay Groome and Ryan Weathers will make an appearance in Friday’s opener. Martinez is expected to pitch two innings.
The plan on the right side
Ha-Seong Kim has gotten many reps at second base and Jake Cronenworth at first base early on in Spring Training.
“With no more shifting, you have two shortstops on that side of the infield which isn’t a bad thing,” manager Bob Melvin said.
Kim will play shortstop with Team Korea at the WBC and in order to give guys days off, Kim could see some playing time at shortstop for the Padres to give Bogaerts a day off or a DH day from time to time.
Matt Carpenter is expected to play some first base throughout the season and Nelson Cruz has seen some grounders at first base early on in spring.
Rotation depth
Groome and Weathers will throw in the first game of spring training and, although they are not expected to be part of the Opening Day rotation, they will more than likely see some major-league innings this season.
“Depth pieces, if you have seen especially over the last few years, are huge. We felt like we took care of it some with Wacha being here, but we were pretty … healthy last year. A couple guys go down and now you’re looking for significant contributions from the groups you’re talking about so it’ll be good to see them and give them some extra reps, especially early,” Melvin said.
The Padres hope that Blake Snell gets off to a better and quicker start than last year, getting him up to speed right away.