Chris Paddack vowed he would make this happen.
"I will be the opening-day starter, 100 percent," he said in January.
The cocksure 24-year-old Texan did everything in his power to make it so, and while the honor comes almost four months later than expected, Paddack on Monday was officially named the starter for the first game of the season Friday against the Diamondbacks.
"It was one of my goals for the offseason, to come into 2020 and show this organization I wanted to be the No. 1 guy," Paddack said. "But we had a little meeting earlier, and we're tied for first with 60 games to go. There's not just one guy that is going to get us where we want to go. It's going to take all of us."
Paddack ranked fifth in the majors last season with a 0.98 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) and posted the third lowest ERA (3.33) ever by a Padres rookie. He struck out 153 batters in 140 2/3 innings, a workload that was limited as he came back from Tommy John surgery.
Given the brevity of the season, no starter will approach that total in 2020. But within games, at least after a couple starts, Paddack will no longer be on a pitch limit.
"It feels good to be able to have been built up since spring training and being able to use this time to .... build innings up," he said. "My body feels great. I'm ready to go. I'm going to grab the ball every fifth day, stay healthy and give us a chance to play in October."
While the Padres for nearly two weeks had internally been approaching the season with Paddack penciled in their No.1 spot, manager Jayce Tingler would not publicly commit until Monday, when he spoke to Paddack, Dinelson Lamet and Garrett Richards.
"Those three have thrown the ball extremely well and they've all made a case for the honor of throwing on opening day," Tingler said. "... We're excited about those three starting our season off."
Lamet will take the ball Saturday and Richards Sunday. It is expected Zach Davies, who will pitch in an intrasquad game Tuesday, will be the pitcher in Monday's finale of the season-opening four-game series against Arizona. The fifth spot remains up for grabs between Joey Lucchesi and Cal Quantrill, who are both slated to pitch in Wednesday's exhibition in Anaheim against the Angels.
Tingler said the Padres thought about spacing out their top three throughout the rotation.
"We kicked some ideas _ should we split those guys up," Tingler said. "At the end of the day we just stopped thinking. They've been our three best so far. We're going to put them up front with the idea ... they're going to have an opportunity to make more starts for us if they stay healthy."
Paddack mentioned more than a half-dozen times Monday that "any one" of the team's starters could have gotten the opening-day nod and it will take "more than one guy" for the Padres to be successful. It is a theme of humility and selflessness he has long interspersed with his drive to be the staff's ace.
"One guy isn't going to get the job done," Paddack said before spring training. "I'm the ace on (opening day, then) Garrett Richards or Lamet is the ace (the next day). But I will start the year in brown and yellow. I want to know I'm the best pitcher on the staff. And I do know. It's just one of those goals as a kid you dream of. I want to be in that starting nine they call on that day."
