10:25 am: According to MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, the club will indeed be in a four-person rotation for a while. Bergert is expected to be recalled as a corresponding move. In one game, he will make his debut immediately. Since he has been a Triple-A starter, he may be in a long-term relief role for major league clubs.
10:10 am: Padres chose left-handed Kyle Hart Triple-A El Paso is paid tribute to Triple-A El Paso, according to MLB.com’s transaction tracker. No corresponding moves are listed, but another pitcher will probably be raised before tonight’s game.
The club flew the Flyer on Hart this winter, signing a one-year contract and providing a 1.5mm guarantee. This is his bet in South Korea last year. He used to have a poor record in affiliate balls, but he had a good result in the 2024 KBO NC dinosaurs. He recorded 157 innings in 26 starts and scored a running average of 2.69, strikeout rate of 28.8%, 6.7% walking rate and 46% ground ball rate. This is by no means guaranteed that the pitcher can transfer these results to North American ball, but the friar has rotational demands and a tight budget, so the comprehensible bet is understandable.
At the beginning of the camp, Padres had four spin points. Dylan stops,,,,, Michael King,,,,, Yu Darvish and Nick Pivetta. Hart is part of the fifth place game Randy Vásquez,,,,, Matt Waldron and Stephen Kolek. In the spring, Darvish landed on the IL due to inflammation in the elbow and started the season, second place. The game was also weakened when Waldron was under tilt pressure.
This led to Vásquez and Hart both ensuring rotation points to open the season. Hart has made five starts so far, throwing 21 innings with a 14 run, leading to the 6.00 era. His 6.7% walk rate is pretty good, but his 17.8% strikeout rate and 33.3% ground ball rate are not low.
Vásquez performs better at preventing running, but the stuff under the hood is less impressive. He had 3.97 ERA in five games, but had a strikeout rate of 8.9% and a walking rate of 16.8%. Despite his 39.2% lower ground ball ratio, he has not allowed a home run, which may indicate that he is walking the tightrope. His 6.94 Siera certainly doesn’t want him to keep his current prevention.
Hart, on the other hand, has allowed six home runs. Siera expects this kind of thing to normalize over time, and this year is 4.57 for Hart so far. Anyway, these are small samples, and Hart didn’t overwhelm everything. Padres decided to send him to El Paso, at least to the beginning. The pitcher’s optional mission is at a minimum of 15 days, so Hart won’t be back until the series against the Rockies from May 9-11.
The decision may be motivated by the timeline. Paders closed yesterday and then had further leave on Monday and Thursday next week. Maybe they will do a four-person rotation for a while. They will be broadcast six times in a row from May 2 to 7, before Hart returns. They can use live start or bullpen game to get through this stretch and then restore Hart if they choose.
The club may also explore Hart as a reliefist. Although his grades have been unbalanced so far, the lefty slammed him .100/.100/.100 in the early days. On the other hand, the right has a monster.333/.386/.698 line. His changes are usually used to neutralize batsmen’s courts with platoon dominance, making the bats average score of .533. Perhaps transitioning to the left-handed expert role would be a good move, although these are tiny samples, which is totally speculative.
Paders might also want to check out Kolk. He has 6.38 ERA in five games in El Paso, but has the potential to surpass it and see encouraging signs elsewhere. The Chihuahuas play in the batsman-friendly Pacific Coast League, which always requires salt. Kolek’s average ball score in the game was 0.358 and a 62.9% chain rate, both of which were on the unfortunate side. His 18% strikeout rate isn’t high, but his pace has been down to the 3.6% level while getting ground balls in 56.6% of the balls. Ryan Bergert It is another option in the 40-man lineup. He has an ERA of 5.16 in El Paso, but has a strikeout rate of 23.5% and a 9.8% walk rate.
More information about the club’s plans may come soon. Time will tell if this is in a small part of the club schedule or a more meaningful pivot, whether that’s just a brief reset of Hart. They may operate on the longer bullpen and two vacations next week at least for the next few days.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagen Images
