Barring a roster move before Opening Day, Clayton Richard will head into the 2018 season as the San Diego Padres’ number-one starter. Of course, if Friars’ GM A.J. Preller can pull another rabbit out of his hat and land a bonafide ace like Chris Archer, the landscape of this team’s pitching staff could change quickly.
But that’s another conversation for another time. We are going to assume that this current group is the group that the Padres will head into the regular-season with. As much as adding a true-ace to the Friars pitching corps would improve this team, the squad that’s currently in navy-blue in Peoria, AZ isn’t all that bad themselves.