Before the start of the game Friday night between the Arizona diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres, manager Kirk Gibson addressed the media and revealed that his starting rotation is going to have six guys for the present. Rookie left-hander Tyler Skaggs, who won his major league debut on Wednesday, will remain on the major league roster and in the starting rotation.
However, Gibson was not willing to explain the move. "I'm not going to go into details," he said to reporters. "We sat and talked and the decision as an organization was that's the way we're going to proceed for the next week. There's a lot of things that go on, things that could happen and that was the decision that was made. "
It has been reported that veteran starter Joe Saunders was placed on waivers and that he has cleared, so it sounds like the team would like to move him but have not found a team willing to trade.
Gibson would not commit to more than the present. "Our plan is to go through this turn of the rotation with six guys," he said, yet emphasizing that "things could change."
While he did toe the company line, he did reveal that it was not necessarily a move he himself wanted. "KT (general manager Kevin Towers) felt very strongly about it," said Gibson. "He didn't want to send him back." That doesn't mean that Gibby was against it, but it was made clear whose idea it was.
When asked if there were any trades in the works (clearly to find out if Saunders is on the way out of town), Gibby bristled a bit. "I'm not the general manager. I don't have those conversations on a daily basis," he said. "KT does that and I don't know what's going on as far as that goes, to be honest. I read it in the papers, just like you guys."
That may be true, except for the last part. There was some irony in saying that reporters find out team information by reading the papers.
One would not think that the team would choose to go with a six-man rotation for long, so a deal seems likely or either Skaggs or Patrick Corbin will be sent back down to Triple-A. But if both Corbin and Skaggs continue pitch well, you would hate to send those guys down.
In the meantime, the team will go with only four bench players.
If anything else, the one thing that is becoming clear, it is that the organization believes that the future of their young pitching staff is now, and that they would like to get their pitching prospects some time in the majors to get their feet wet and contribute.
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