Paddack has reason for 'a little more adrenaline'

SAN DIEGO -- Chris Paddack fell asleep at 4 a.m. that fateful morning in June 2016. He was jolted awake by a phone call to his hotel room three hours later.

Paddack recalled being in something of a dazed, dreamlike state when a member of the Marlins’ front office informed him he'd been traded to the Padres for veteran reliever Fernando Rodney.

"It happened so quick," said Paddack, who will face Miami for the first time on Wednesday night at Marlins Park. "But it was the longest day of my life, too."

Paddack spent the previous day with the Marlins' Class A affiliate Greensboro in Salisbury, Md., where the Grasshoppers lost both games of a doubleheader against Delmarva. Following the nightcap, the club embarked on a four-hour bus ride to Lakewood, N.J. The team arrived just before the sun came up.

A few hours later, Paddack learned he'd been traded. He packed his bag and flew to Greensboro, N.C., then packed his apartment and flew to Cleveland, where he began a three-hour drive to Fort Wayne.

"That," Paddack said, "was a long day."

Three years later, Paddack is a budding ace with a 2.84 ERA through 15 big league starts. He's quick to say he harbors no ill will toward the Marlins. If anything, he's grateful they gave him his first professional opportunity.

But he's also Chris Paddack, the self-assured 23-year-old who finds motivation in every perceived slight. He might be appreciative of the way the Marlins helped him break through. But he won't forget the fact that they let him go.

"I'm excited," Paddack said. "It's the same game at the end of the day. Nothing changes. It's a big league lineup and a big league team over there. But there will definitely be a little more adrenaline just with the mindset that this is the team that drafted me and then got rid of me."

Of course, the Marlins didn't view it that way at the time. They were lingering on the fringes of contention and needed a closer. Rodney was a lockdown weapon who hadn't allowed an earned run through mid-June. The two teams had already begun trade discussions when professional scouting director Pete DeYoung first saw Paddack in Lexington, Ky., on the final day of May.

Paddack pitched five scoreless innings that day, with seven strikeouts, no walks and three hits allowed. DeYoung's call to general manager A.J. Preller was a short one. Paddack should be the target. The Padres sent a handful of scouts to follow up, all of whom said essentially the same thing.

The deal came to fruition four weeks later. From there, Paddack's journey to the big leagues wasn't a direct one. He underwent Tommy John surgery later that season and missed the entire 2017 campaign. During that time, countless people from the Marlins organization reached out to Paddack, offering advice, wisdom and consolation. A couple of them sent Tim Grover’s book “Relentless” to Paddack. He devoured it during his rehab, and that word is now stitched into his glove.

"I have nothing bad to say," Paddack said. "They're the first team to give me a chance, the first team to have hopes for me. I have a lot of good friends over there."

But that won't be his mindset when he takes the ball this week. His Wednesday start also lines him up to face the Mets in New York next week, where his feud with Pete Alonso has drawn plenty of headlines.

"It'll be a fun one, that's for sure," Paddack said of the Padres’ forthcoming nine-game road trip.

The rookie right-hander wouldn't address the Mets start any further than that. His focus, for now, is squarely on the Marlins.

Paddack did, however, take a minute to envision life if he hadn't been dealt. And maybe if the Marlins had kept Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, J.T. Realmuto and a handful of other talented players, too.

"If you really break down what the Marlins had and where everyone's at now, it'd be a super-team, man," Paddack said. "It's crazy to think. But that's this game, man. Baseball changes."

On June 30, 2016, it changed in a big way -- for Paddack and for the Padres.