© Orlando Ramirez | 2021 Jun 21
Things are going south for the Padres, and the scapegoating has begun.
Mired in a stretch where they’ve lost nine of their past 11 games and fallen out of the second NL wild-card spot, San Diego fired pitching coach, Larry Rothschild, on Monday. Rothschild, 67, was in his second year with the Padres, and spent the previous 18 years as a pitching coach with the Yankees and Cubs.
“Larry has been a tremendous asset for our organization over the last two seasons, and we appreciate the experience, hard work and dedication that he brought to the position,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “We wish him nothing but the best in the future.”
The Padres (68-58) were projected to have one of the best rotations in baseball after trading for Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove during the offseason. Musgrove and Darvish have pitched well, but almost everybody else in the rotation has struggled. Even so, pitching hasn’t been a huge issue for the team overall. The Padres’ 3.76 ERA and 1.24 WHIP rank ninth and 10th in the majors, respectively. One could argue their hitting has been a bigger issue. The star studded lineup’s .735 OPS ranks 12th in the majors.
San Diego currently sits a game behind the Cincinnati Reds for the final wild-card spot with 36 games remaining.