How does Lamet change Padres' rotation?

SAN DIEGO -- The Padres, at long last, have the four aces they envisioned leading their starting rotation this season.

As of Wednesday, Dinelson Lamet is back in the mix. The right-hander was activated off the injured list and started against the Brewers. He joins the trio of starters acquired via trade -- Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove -- to form what should be one of the most formidable rotations in baseball. (Heck, it already is. Padres starters have a 2.53 ERA this season, the fifth-best mark in the Majors.)

But what exactly does Lamet's return mean for the back end of the Padres' rotation? For this turn, they expanded to a six-man staff, keeping both Chris Paddack and Ryan Weathers on board. But that approach isn't tenable moving forward. After they finish a stretch of 17 games in 17 days on Sunday, the Padres are slated for three off-days in an 11-day span.

"With those off-days in there, it's going to allow for all the starters, if necessary, an extra day's rest if we need," said Padres manager Jayce Tingler. "That's a good thing."

Extra rest is certainly a positive -- especially considering the build-up to a 162-game workload this year. But there's little benefit in the Padres giving their starting pitchers seven days between starts -- which would be the case if both Weathers and Paddack were to remain in the rotation. For the time being, it would seem, there's room for one of those two – at most.

Weathers, of course, is the obvious candidate to transition back to the bullpen. He opened the season there before making his first start against the Dodgers on Friday night. On more than one occasion, the Padres' lack of a reliable long-man has been glaring.

That said, Weathers faces the Dodgers on Thursday. He pitched 3 2/3 innings of scoreless ball against them last week. If Weathers were to turn in a similarly dominant effort on Friday, he'd suddenly seem like an awfully indispensable piece in this rotation.

That's especially true considering Paddack's up-and-down start to the year. The right-hander owns a 3.50 ERA through four outings and has limited damage much better than he did last season. But Paddack still hasn't rekindled the 2019 edition of his fastball -- both location- and spin-wise. Without that pitch, his arsenal is eminently hittable. He allowed five runs (only one earned) over five innings on Tuesday night.

Whatever they decide, the Padres will need to make a choice ahead of next week's two-game series in Arizona. Lamet would presumably make one of those starts. Either Paddack or Weathers gets the other.

Notably absent from this mix is left-hander Adrian Morejon, who underwent Tommy John surgery on Tuesday. But even without Morejon, the Padres have a wealth of arms performing at a high level right now.

"These pitching performances, they're not a fluke," Tingler said. "We believe it's real. We believe in our pitchers. ... I think this is sustainable with this staff. This is one of the best pitching staffs I've ever been around."

Worth noting
• Right fielder Wil Myers was out of the starting lineup Wednesday for the fourth time in eight days as he continues to deal with the effects of patellar tendinitis in his right knee. Myers has been one of the Padres most reliable hitters on a struggling offense, posting a .293/.388/.517 slash line. He missed two games in Pittsburgh when the knee was bothering him most. Myers’ two most recent days off, however, have been preventative and precautionary.

• To clear room for Lamet on the roster, the Padres optioned left-hander Nick Ramirez to their alternate training site. Ramirez was effective in his brief stint with the big league club, making two appearances and tossing three scoreless innings.