PEORIA, Ariz. _ As a big-league team headed nowhere prepared to depart Peoria Sports Complex for the final time in March 2018, the rest of the Padres organization was watching the future face off.
In the batter's box was 19-year-old Fernando Tatis Jr. On the pitcher's mound was 19-year-old MacKenzie Gore. In the stands were the team's two principal owners, members of the front office and various other personnel from the player development department.
Gore threw his first pitch, a fastball, to the tall shortstop who would soon be considered the most prized prospect in all of baseball. Tatis crumpled to the ground.
"It was closer than planned," Gore recalled the other day. "But we were going up and in on purpose. I've thrown that pitch some. You kind of have to with a guy like that. We were competing."
While the annual spring game between teams of Padres prospects is off-limits to the media and public and the team holds its details close, those who were there smile wide and chuckle when they talk about the moment.
The moment they saw what the future could be.
"We saw that and said, 'All right,' " one member of the front office recalled.
Tatis got up barking at Gore. Gore stared back at him and finished the at-bat with two more strikes against a wildly swinging batter.
"It was immature of me," Tatis said. "I got mad. I got too big. I got too anxious. ... When he did that I was trying to get damage. From that moment, I learned so many different things. I remember last year something similar happened. I had a better reaction, and something better happened."
He referred to the Giants' Shaun Anderson knocking him down with a fastball July 28, after which Tatis calmly got up, replaced his helmet on his head and hit the next pitch 414 feet to the party deck beyond center field.
Tatis was in the majors at the start of last season and ended up being by far the Padres' most productive player in the 84 games he played. And what he learned that day two years ago about Gore seems as if it portends a similar impact by the left-hander who is expected to join Tatis on the major league roster at some point in 2020.
"He's really nasty," Tatis said. "He's coming to you. He's not afraid."
Gore is scheduled to make his first appearance in a major league spring training game Thursday against the Mariners. The left-hander, roundly considered the top pitching prospect in all of baseball, will pitch in relief in a game started by Dinelson Lamet.
It is his considerable talent that has Gore's arrival in the majors anticipated like few others have been.
The first wave of pitching prospects pushed through the system was seen in the landing of Joey Lucchesi and Eric Lauer in 2018. Chris Paddack in '19 was a different breed of excellence and aura of awesome. The approaching ascension of Gore (and Luis Patino) has been the glimmering light in the distance all along, what the organization hopes is the crossing over into the Promised Land.
Gore's is the rare arm that slings four "plus" pitches. His mid-90s fastball moves late. His curve was close to big-league ready when the Padres drafted him third overall in 2017. His slider and change-up are the third and fourth offerings that get outs.
With all that, his arsenal of pitches is somehow still as sneakily devastating as Gore himself.
What you at first see is not what you get.
He is 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds and looks like he's headed to fourth-period algebra class. There is no mullet, no tattoos. He's friendly, not talkative.
Perhaps the thing that best explains why the Padres believe this is one of the young pitchers who will join Paddack in the rotation for years to come is that for all Gore has shown, they are quite sure he hasn't quite shown them everything.
The 2019 Minor League Pitcher of the Year has never really had that kind of day where it's all working.
"We're all seeing these great pitches," said Pete Zamora, the pitching coach at Single-A Lake Elsinore the past two seasons and now in that role for Triple-A El Paso. "The moment everyone is looking for (is) that moment if this guy ever puts it together with all four pitches. Now, how often do you see a pitcher with all four pitches working? But because he's so good at what he does, you're hoping for this 'Oh my God, he's going to put it all together and strike out the world.' He has all the characteristics of a dominant pitcher without anything being super.
"You watch him throw a bullpen, and go, 'That's nasty, that's good.' Then he gets in a game and dominates and you're not saying, 'This pitch was extra good today.' He just dominated the game."
Ponder this about the pitcher who has yet to visit the peak of his potential:
Gore did not allow an unearned run in 2019. Pitching 79 1/3 innings in Single-A and another 21 2/3 in Double-A, not one runner who reached base or advanced due to an error made it home to score.
In the minor leagues, where fielding can be erratic and holes in the infield are made to seem far bigger than in the majors.
"You just bear down," Gore said. "... Guys pick me up, I pick them up if they have an error."
Those who spend time scouting and working with minor leaguers say that at those levels, where team wins and losses can often seem like secondary pursuits, there can be a mentality by pitchers that an unearned run doesn't really count.
"It's a run," Gore said flatly. "How many runs did you allow? Not how many earned runs?"
There could be a temptation to diminish the accomplishment with the explanation that Gore's velocity could allow him to simply blow pitches by most minor league hitters when he needed to. Certainly, getting out of jams against the Dodgers will be a different kind of challenge.
Yes, having 97 mph in the tank or being able to bend a ridiculous curveball helps. But those who watched him regularly said it wasn't just velocity or superior stuff that Gore used to escape jams.
"MacKenzie has a sixth gear," Zamora said. "He's blessed with a sixth gear that you can't measure. Its not a metric. It's a gear where he says, 'Enough is enough.' ... I've never seen anything like it. It's a level of concentration where in those moments the command becomes diligent. It's, 'I'm coming after you and you're not going to be able to stop me.' "
