PEORIA, Ariz. -- Padres right-hander Jason Adam has long targeted Opening Day for his return from surgery to repair his left quad last September. Yuki Matsui had the same target, after he suffered a strained left groin early in camp.
As such, San Diego spent most of the spring with anywhere from one to three vacancies in their Opening Day bullpen.
Suddenly, there’s some clarity on those two question marks. Adam returned to the Cactus League mound on Friday in the Padres' 9-3 loss to the Rockies at the Peoria Sports Complex. Matsui, meanwhile, will not pitch in the Cactus League and is expected to open the season on the injured list, per manager Craig Stammen.
Here’s what it means for the San Diego bullpen:
Opening Day still up in the air for Adam
Adam was efficient and effective, working a 1-2-3 sixth inning with a pair of popups and a strikeout. His fastball sat 94-95 mph.
“This is the fun part of baseball, competing against another guy, trying to get him out,” said Adam. “Getting to do that again was just a blast.”
Adam is expected to pitch another inning in Monday’s Cactus League finale. From there, the Padres will have a decision to make. Adam won’t be fully built up in the early stages of the season. He’d be limited and unable to pitch on back-to-back days at the outset.
Still, this is an All-Star setup man, one of the best relief pitchers in baseball. If Adam’s next appearance goes smoothly, it’s a tossup as to whether he’d be on the Opening Day roster. (It certainly helps his cause that the Padres have off-days on two of the first seven days of the season. If they’re a reliever short on some nights, they’d probably be fine.)
“In my mind, I’m ready,” Adam said. “But [the Padres] have done right by me this whole process. So I’m going to trust whatever they decide.”
Matsui to the IL
If, instead, the Padres play things cautiously, a stint on the 15-day IL could be backdated by three days. So Adam would be eligible to return on April 11. Same goes for Matsui, who missed the World Baseball Classic because of the injury and will now miss Opening Day as well.
Matsui sustained the injury while facing hitters in late February, and he resumed throwing bullpens in early March. Stammen noted that Matsui could face hitters in the coming days, but it’s unlikely he’d appear in a Cactus League game.
The Padres’ bullpen already features Adrian Morejon and Wandy Peralta as the two highest leverage lefties. It’s unclear if Stammen’s preference would be to carry a third left-hander in Matsui’s absence. But Kyle Hart is an option.
The bullpen race
The Padres have five spots in their bullpen locked up: Mason Miller, Morejon, Peralta, Jeremiah Estrada and David Morgan. Adam could still occupy another spot, which would leave two places available.
Among those competing for the final spots: Hart, Logan Gillaspie, Bradgley Rodriguez, Alek Jacob and Ron Marinaccio.
There is, however, a scenario where three spots might be open. The Padres begin the season with a number of early off-days and could choose to start the season with a four-man rotation and nine relievers.
Maybe they’d use four starters. Maybe they’d use a bullpen day with, say, Gillaspie or Hart getting the ball. But this scenario becomes especially intriguing if either Joe Musgrove or Griffin Canning -- both of whom will start the year on the IL -- could return by mid-April.