Forget about whether the Padres' decision to fire pitching coach Larry Rothschild with 36 games to play, the Dodgers marching toward the Gaslamp Quarter and the team scrambling for its postseason life was the right move.
Only two questions matter.
What does it do? What doesn't it do?
Manager Jayce Tingler explained to media Monday that the reasons the ax fell included too much inconsistency and the need for a new voice on a team that has lost nine of its last 11 games and slipped behind the Reds in the NL wild-card race.
You hear that sort of explanation a lot when a dugout leader is pointed toward the exits. It's the safest way, after all, to lock the real and raw rationale behind the clubhouse door.
You might disagree with the decision, believe it missed the mark or think accountability for the fade's horrendous timing deserves to be shared by others. But would you rather the Padres did nothing to disrupt things after the last seven-plus weeks and the scheduling gantlet that awaits?
How much difference can unseating the pitching coach at this point make? Fair question. Then again, is standing pat an acceptable answer? The Padres desperately needed a jolt, even if the lightning proves to be more optics than substance.
There's no argument, though, that the starting pitching triage — a blur of injuries, short stints and maddening inconsistency — has become a quagmire under the curveballs.
Another reality that cannot be ignored: Sacking Rothschild does not address the biggest problem, which is the painful lack of healthy starters.
Go ahead and rage against the team's decision not to lock down another arm or two at the trade deadline. Remember, however, how much injury carnage followed, from Chris Paddack and Yu Darvish to bullpen depth with Drew Pomeranz and Matt Strahm.
In a season when the rotation finds itself under constant attack while administering far too many wounds of its own making, there's irony galore that newcomer Jake Arrieta has made as many trips to the mound (one) as visits to the injured list.
Wherever blame lies, the Padres still lack enough legitimate, serviceable starters for any coaching change to cure.
"We've been in a situation where we've certainly had some injuries, there's no doubt about that," said Tingler, who said the ultimate decision on Rothschild came from him. "But we've had, just some inconsistency on the mound and I just think, at the end of the day, we haven't reached our level of production consistently."
Was the message from Rothschild, 67, too dusty and dated? That's open for plenty of debate and only truly known by pitchers anchored on the 26-man roster.
But if this team has any chance to salvage the regular season and mine new life in the postseason, the dearth of starting pitching means everything — and far more than whatever button pushing interim pitching coach Ben Fritz brings to his spot on the dugout steps.
Starters have thrown the second fewest innings in the majors.
"We made the decision to see if this thing will turn and if we'll get some guys rolling," Tingler said.
The manager re-framed the somber reality that pitching reinforcements will come from the injured list, rather than the minors.
"We believe that our guys that we have right now up here gives us a better chance to win than maybe some of the guys that are in Triple-A and Double-A," Tingler said.
That means welcoming back Darvish and Paddack, along with bottling recent consistency from Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell, will be the decider in 2021, not a coaching shift.
A little more than a week ago, GM A.J. Preller delivered a bit of mixed message when asked about Rothschild's status. He touted his playoff track record, then helped shape the decision to cut that experience loose before the postseason arrived. Preller said injuries played "a big part" in rotation struggles, but the team changed coaching direction just as a pair of starters neared returns.
Then again, the week since delivered the type of damage from which this team might not be able to recover.
Is this the sign of a desperate team, doing whatever possible to shake things up and show they're doing something to stop a brakeless semi barreling down an icy mountain road? Was Rothschild struck by incredibly awful injury luck? Or was he the guiding hand that stop guiding? There's no real way to know.
It's not the why, though — it's the "what." As in, what does this move do for the Padres? No matter the mess, they remain in striking distance of fulfilling the first goal of reaching the postseason.
"We've got a 36-game sprint," Tingler said. "If you're looking big picture, if you're looking small picture, we're pretty focused on the Dodgers right now."
Now that's a strategy everyone can agree on.
