{"id":312142,"date":"2025-09-13T07:28:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T07:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/312142\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T07:28:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T07:28:23","slug":"mlb-insider-answers-padres-biggest-playoff-questions-starting-with-the-rotation-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/312142\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB insider answers Padres\u2019 biggest playoff questions\u2014starting with the rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

MLB insider answers Padres\u2019 biggest playoff questions\u2014starting with the rotation<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a><\/p>\n

The San Diego Padres are in firm possession of a National League Wild Card spot, sitting five games ahead of the first team on the outside looking in\u2014the Cincinnati Reds.<\/p>\n

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As the end of the regular season nears, San Diego seems likely to secure a playoff berth for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n

MLB.com\u2019s AJ Cassavell<\/a> recently fielded questions on Reddit covering all things Padres. Here\u2019s what he had to say about San Diego\u2019s approach to the postseason, including its potential starting rotation.<\/p>\n

Breaking down Padres\u2019 playoff questions<\/p>\n

The top two starters in San Diego\u2019s playoff rotation seem clear. Nick Pivetta has been the most consistent starter all season for the Padres, boasting a 2.73 ERA over 29 starts. Michael King has been equally as good, but he\u2019s made only 12 starts due to injury.<\/p>\n

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Still the question remains\u2014will Yu Darvish or Dylan Cease take the third spot in the playoff rotation?<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely Pivetta-King (or King-Pivetta, if we see Ace Michael King down the stretch). Then, I like Cease in Game 3,\u201d Cassavell wrote. \u201cCease has been far too inconsistent this season\u2014even within his own starts. But one benefit of playoff baseball is that the moment Cease begins to teeter, you can go to your bullpen immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Padres\u2019 bullpen owns the best ERA in the Major Leagues (3.13), thanks to players like Mason Miller, Ranger Suarez and Jason Adam, among others.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the question of San Diego\u2019s starting lineup, and one Reddit user asks why manager Mike Shildt has kept Luis Arraez as the No. 2 hitter.<\/p>\n

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Cassavell admits that Arraez, who\u2019s slashing .282\/.317\/.385, hasn\u2019t been as effective this season. But he believes Shildt is banking on the 28-year-old lefty to regain his old form.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Shildt has been adamant about Arraez being the version of himself from the 2022-24 seasons, when he was a .371 OBP guy (and nearly .400 against righties),\u201d he writes. \u201c \u2026But we\u2019re getting to crunch time, and Arraez hasn\u2019t looked like that guy at all this season. We\u2019ll see how the lineup looks come October.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassavell suggests in a separate answer that deadline acquisition Ramon Laureano should bat second, with his .916 OPS against lefties.<\/p>\n

But whatever the Padres (79-67) are thinking, all will be revealed soon enough with only 16 games left in the regular season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLB insider answers Padres\u2019 biggest playoff questions\u2014starting with the rotation originally appeared on The Sporting News The San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[38887,5,50,76,3919,85,2328,2304,1101,87,4,2305,2303,45,8544,1495,90,137,18,1536],"class_list":{"0":"post-312142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-aj-cassavell","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cincinnati-reds","11":"tag-dylan-cease","12":"tag-jason-adam","13":"tag-luis-arraez","14":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","15":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","16":"tag-mason-miller","17":"tag-michael-king","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-mlb-playoffs","20":"tag-mlb-postseason","21":"tag-nick-pivetta","22":"tag-playoff-berth","23":"tag-ramon-laureano","24":"tag-ranger-suarez","25":"tag-san-diego","26":"tag-san-diego-padres","27":"tag-yu-darvish"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115195812503210517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}