Lauer gets Padres' nod for Opening Day start

PEORIA, Ariz. -- The Padres will enter the 2019 season with the sport's youngest and most inexperienced starting five. They have a few decisions to finalize, but that much has already been made abundantly clear.

The youth movement in the rotation will be on full display from the outset: 23-year-old left-hander Eric Lauer is slated to take the ball on Opening Day against the Giants.

In something of a surprise decision, Padres manager Andy Green announced that Lauer will start Thursday, with fellow second-year southpaw Joey Lucchesi slated to pitch game two. Lauer will become the second-youngest pitcher in Padres history to start the opener, behind only Clay Kirby, who bested him by only three days in 1972.

In the past decade, only five pitchers younger than Lauer have started their team’s first game -- Jose Fernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Cahill, Julio Teheran and Stephen Strasburg.

"I always thought of it as a baseball holiday," said Lauer, who wasn’t promoted until late last April and has never experienced a big league Opening Day. "It's always been one of the biggest days of the year for me. To be able to get to actually get to play baseball on that day will be something really cool."

Lauer has put forth an excellent spring, with 10 shutout frames across three appearances. (He started two other back-field games.) Lucchesi has been mostly solid, as well. Once rookie Chris Paddack had his start day pushed back, it became fairly clear that Lauer and Lucchesi were competing for that Opening Day spot.

Green was quick to note that his decision to go with Lauer wasn't made with any consideration toward the fanfare of Opening Day.

"Honestly, we don't feel like anybody's run away or earned that start in the traditional sense of what Opening Day means," Green said. "We just set ourselves up for what we thought was the best rest for the guys that need rest. And we set our rotation the way we wanted to and took the Opening Day hoopla out of the equation."

Last season, Lauer posted a 4.34 ERA in 23 starts. He struck out 100 hitters in 112 innings. Lucchesi was called up first, and his numbers were slightly better. But the Padres went with Lauer, citing the way their rotation would line up down the road.

Lauer and Lucchesi were the first two pitchers promoted to the big leagues from the entire 2016 Draft class. Lauer was taken with the 25th overall selection -- the pick the Padres acquired as compensation for the Tigers' signing Justin Upton. He and Lucchesi progressed through the Minors on very similar trajectories, and they've become close friends.

"I would've been perfectly happy if Joey was Opening Day," said Lauer. "We wanted to be 1 and 2. From the season he had last year, he definitely deserved it. ... But they made the decision, and we made it as hard as possible on them."

After Lauer and Lucchesi, Green wouldn't solidify the rest of the Padres rotation. But he noted that Paddack and Matt Strahm will start Monday and Tuesday in exhibitions against the Mariners. That seemingly lines them up to start this weekend against the Giants, with Paddack going Saturday and Strahm going Sunday.

Barring an acquisition, the final place available in the starting five is expected to go to Logan Allen or Cal Quantrill. That would leave the Padres with a starting rotation without a single pitcher with a full year of big league experience as a starter.

“We're young,” Green said. “It's going to be fun. … They're talented and they're hungry.”

Still, the Padres’ rotation posted the highest ERA in the National League last season, and general manager A.J. Preller didn’t make any additions of note this offseason. That decision was predicated on the club giving opportunity to its highly touted young arms.

“They're not perfect; no pitcher is. But they're ours, and we like them a lot,” Green said. “We think they have a chance to be really, really good in the long run, as long as they remain hungry, driven, motivated to learn. They've all had that temperament through spring.”

It’s an inexperienced bunch. But the San Diego farm system is loaded, and a handful of very good young starters are expected to arrive over the next season or two.

Among that group of young Padres starters, Lauer’s stuff doesn’t exactly stand out. His fastball velocity sits in the low-to-mid 90s with average spin. His curveball can be very good, and his cutter and slider generally induce weak contact. But aside from his pickoff move -- probably the sport’s best -- it’s hard to find anything elite in Lauer’s repertoire.

But Lauer’s still 23. He may be an Opening Day starter, but he has development left ahead of him.

“Guys come up here and just try to survive,” Lauer said. “You can try to survive for so long. But at some point you just have to be a doer. You have to push the envelope. Once you get comfortable, you start pushing the envelope a little bit.

“I'm at the point where I'm comfortable in the clubhouse, comfortable with these guys, comfortable at this level. Now it's time to start doing it and pushing it a little bit.”

That begins Opening Day.