Padres making October decisions in April

SAN DIEGO -- If you're an astute baseball fan who has watched games for a long time, some of the Padres’ decisions during the season-opening series probably have felt off to you.

That’s understandable. Padres manager Jayce Tingler's decision-making has been anything but traditional. But as the Padres embark on a full slate of games in 2021 after a 60-game schedule last year, it's time to get used to the untraditional.

For instance:

• Tingler has removed his two best starters after just 4 2/3 innings with both on the brink of securing a win.

• Tingler used Craig Stammen and Taylor Williams in crucial spots Friday night in order to give a couple of his primary back-end relievers the night off.

• On Saturday, the red-hot Eric Hosmer was out of the starting lineup, despite a two-game stretch that might qualify as the best two games to start a season in franchise history.

"It’s everything we’ve talked about all along," Tingler said. "We've got 160 more games. We're going to use our 26 guys. ... Our goal is to be the best team at the end, and we want to improve every month. That means using our depth.”

That big-picture view has been the impetus behind every one of Tingler's major decisions over the past few days.

Let's start with the choice to sit Hosmer on Saturday. Here's a point worth making: The Padres didn't sit Hosmer because they feel the best way to win on Saturday is with Hosmer on the bench. They sat Hosmer because they always planned to give him a day off during the first homestand. Based on the matchup -- with D-backs left-hander Caleb Smith pitching, potentially followed by four straight right-handers -- Saturday was the best time to do so.

That also means with the Padres slated to face four right-handers in four days, it's fair to expect Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and/or Wil Myers to perhaps begin a game on the bench.

"I feel confident we're not going to have a position player play 162," Tingler said. "We're going to get some guys off their feet. They're going to have down days."

As for the pitching decisions, there's not a whole lot to it. The Padres said all spring that they'd build their starters slowly toward a full workload. They knew that when they opened the season, they wouldn't be asking Blake Snell and Yu Darvish to work deep into ballgames.

Snell was rather famously removed early from his final start with Tampa Bay -- in Game 6 of the World Series with the Dodgers. But those two quick hooks aren’t even remotely comparable.

"I’m not here to throw nine innings in the first game that I pitch," Snell said. "It doesn’t matter to me. No one remembers your first couple months of a season. They remember how you finish and what you do in the postseason."

When the Padres acquired Snell in December, there was plenty of talk about how they'd use him. In Tampa Bay, Snell was rarely afforded the chance to work into the sixth and seventh innings. The Padres plan to give him that opportunity -- just not on April 2.

So when Snell eclipsed his 85-pitch limit Friday, his night was over -- and he was just fine with that.

"When you get deeper into the season, that's when you start to let the horses go," Snell said. "For now, just take it easy, relax. We're going to build this the right way, and we’ll start to get some innings and some depth. Then we can have some fun."

Come September and October, the Padres plan to “have some fun.” If that means their in-game strategy isn’t quite so fun in early April, so be it.

Worth noting
• Center fielder Trent Grisham received five at-bats in a back-field game at the team’s complex in Peoria, Ariz., on Friday, as he works his way back from the left hamstring strain that landed him on the injured list. Grisham is eligible to come off the IL on Thursday. Barring any further setbacks, the team expects him to be active next weekend against Texas.

• Catcher Austin Nola remains slightly behind Grisham in his progress. Nola fractured his left middle finger during camp and also opened the season on the IL. He has been going through workouts at Petco Park. The next step would be for Nola to head to Peoria and see game action there, but there’s no timetable yet.