Is Wacha final piece to deep and loaded Padres rotation?

This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Greetings from Peoria, Ariz., where -- despite the chill and the wind and the rain -- I am happy to inform you that it’s officially baseball season!

Padres pitchers and catchers began reporting to Spring Training on Monday. The full squad won’t work out for the first time until Feb. 21. But players will arrive intermittently, with varied report dates for those participating in the World Baseball Classic.

With camp underway, San Diego's rotation suddenly looks a whole lot more complete. That’s true both short and long term.

Let’s start with the short term. The Padres have agreed to a deal with veteran right-hander Michael Wacha (a deal which is pending a physical and has not yet been confirmed by the club).

The way I see it, that just might solidify the Padres’ 2023 rotation -- and perhaps their roster planning as a whole. They wanted to open the year with a six-man rotation, considering the success they had with that strategy last season. (That doesn’t mean they’ll use six starters all year, but it’s how they’d prefer to open the season, at least.)

The addition of Wacha gives them six starters: Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Blake Snell, Wacha, Nick Martinez and Seth Lugo.

That’s a formidable rotation, with another half-dozen Minor League options capable of stepping up in the event of injury. The Padres had already built a deep bullpen and bench, so it’s possible the Wacha move was the finishing touch on the 2023 Opening Day roster. (Then again, with A.J. Preller as general manager, a roster shakeup always seems possible, doesn’t it?)

As for the long term, Darvish’s contract extension should come as no surprise. The Padres love Darvish, and Darvish loves pitching in San Diego. It makes sense they’d want to re-up beyond the 2023 season, for which Darvish was already under contract.

The surprising part? The length of the extension. Darvish’s deal will keep him in San Diego through the 2028 season, when he will turn 42 years old.

“We're taking a chance obviously on the length of it,” Preller said. “But we feel like he's going to be able to pitch deep into his contract, into his career at a high level.”

“He’s got 12 pitches, right?” quipped catcher Austin Nola. “If two of them go away, he’s still got 10. If you’re 40, and you lose the feel of four of those pitches, you’ve still got eight.”

With Darvish locked up, the Padres have two cornerstones of their future rotation. They inked Musgrove to a five-year extension last summer.

“It’s a great feeling to have a guy that you’ve already pitched a couple years with, and now you get a chance to go the next five,” Musgrove said. “A guy of his caliber is the best to learn from. He’s a guy that, as he gets older, seems to fall more and more in love with the game.

“The mindset behind pitching and all the little games that are played, the little tweaks and adjustments -- he’s one of the best I’ve been around at that. So I’m honored to have him next to me for the next five years.”