Padres' Margevicius set to cap rapid rise with start vs. Giants
A year ago this week, left-hander Nick Margevicius was in the Padres' minor league camp waiting to open the low Class-A Midwest League season with Fort Wayne.
On Saturday night, he will be at Petco Park as the first of back-to-back rookie pitchers making their major league debuts with the Padres.
After Margevicius, 22, faces the Giants on Saturday night, 23-year-old right-hander Chris Paddack gets the start Sunday afternoon in the series finale.
The 6-foot-4, 224-pound Margevicius was the Padres' seventh-round pick in the 2017 draft out of Rider University. The native of Cleveland split the 2018 regular season between Fort Wayne and the Padres' high Class-A Lake Elsinore team in the California League before finishing his first full professional season with an effective start in the Double-A Texas League playoffs.
He was a combined 10-8 in 23 games (22 starts) at the two levels of Class-A with a combined 3.60 ERA. Margevicius had 146 strikeouts in 135 innings against only 17 walks for a 8.6-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His strikeout total was also the second highest in the Padres' system last season.
"Margevicius will be in the rotation going forward," Padres manager Andy Green said. "He turned heads from the beginning of camp. Every single year, someone shocks you. We didn't expect it coming into camp that it would be Nick. He handled everything we threw at him very, very well. We're very excited."
Margevicius, who had a 4.50 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 12 innings this spring, will make his major league debut against Giants right-hander Dereck Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, the 26-year-old son of Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez, made his major league debut with the Giants in 2018, posting a 6-4 record with a 2.81 ERA and a 1.132 WHIP in 21 appearances (19 starts). He allowed 98 hits and 36 walks with 89 strikeouts in 118 1/3 innings.
Two of those 19 starts were against the Padres, and both times, Rodriguez allowed one run over seven innings. He struck out a total of 13.
"We needed someone to step up last year, and Dereck did," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said while reviewing the 2018 season. "He actually pitched better than his record."
Rodriguez was on the Opening Day roster for the first time this season after a rough spring. In five preseason starts, Rodriguez went 0-4 with a 4.76 ERA. In his last spring outing on March 24 against cross-bay rival Oakland, Rodriguez gave up three runs on a pair of homers over four innings.
San Francisco is 0-2 after the first two games of the season and the series at San Diego, although its pitchers have allowed only six runs in 16 innings. However, the Giants have scored only one run in 18 innings, and the Padres opened the season by throwing a franchise-record 17 straight scoreless innings.
Sophomore starters Eric Lauer and Joey Lucchesi picked up the Padres' wins in the first two games. Now it's up to rookies Margevicius and Paddack -- both of whom started the season in Single-A last season without making an appearance above Double-A.
--Field Level Media
