It is the beginning. Just a splash.

But what has been happening to some extent all season and especially this week is most definitely a start.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” catcher Austin Hedges said.

General Manager A.J. Preller and his staff have infused the Padres’ minor league system with a deep sea of gifted young baseball players supposedly never before seen in the organization – in its richness and its depth – and he has infused the vocabulary of the organization with a certain phrase.


Waves of talent.

These waves make up the most crucial component of the Padres’ building process. And to this point – and in many respects for a little while longer – it has been merely a concept.

But it is now that the initial ripple of the first wave before the expected swell is crashing on San Diego’s shore.

When he starts Friday at Petco Park against the Phillies, 22-year-old right-hander Jacob Nix will become the fifth starting pitcher to make his major league debut for the Padres this season, the most of any team in the majors this season.


The next night, rookie Walker Lockett will make his third start. Joey Lucchesi, the first of this group to debut back in the season’s second game, will start Sunday.

Eric Lauer, whose debut also came in April, is expected to return from the disabled list next week and be placed back in the rotation.

Brett Kennedy made his debut on Wednesday in Milwaukee and is expected to pitch Tuesday against the Angels.

It is conceivable the five rookies will all be in the rotation going forward.


Even with the Padres expected to stick to a six-man rotation at least through a homestand that ends Aug. 19 and perhaps beyond, someone is getting moved to the bullpen (or farther). Who it is (and where they go) could depend on the result of Lockett’s start and the next start by veteran Clayton Richard.

Regardless, the promotion of Nix is a clear sign of the Padres’ intent.

An actual sign. To behold.

“You get to see it now,” Hedges said. “You hear about it. You want it to be here. You hear 2019, you hear ‘20, you hear all these years. You’re like, ‘Dang, dude. You mean we have to play multiple seasons just to even see these guys?’ Now to actually start to see them. That they’re here, we get to build something now. … So it’s exciting.”


It’s at least a hint at something that could become thrilling. Nix is the 14th-ranked prospect in a Padres’ farm system that has been upgraded the point where this summer it has roundly been graded as the best in baseball.

Lucchesi was ranked ninth and Lauer 12th when they were promoted. (Neither Lockett nor Kennedy are ranked among the organization’s top 30 prospects.)

These are not the pitchers expected to be difference-makers. None is seen as the ace of a World Series-winning staff, though any of them could be.

Kennedy, who allowed three home runs and five runs in the first inning of his first game, may go on to have a 10-year career, be part of two world champions, win a Cy Young Award.


But there are 14 pitchers in the Padres system considered to be better prospects than Kennedy or Lockett. There are nine pitchers in the system believed to have a higher ceiling than Nix and at least five projected to be better major leaguers than Lauer or Lucchesi.

“This (group) is the guys who are probably the in-between that deserve an opportunity and they’re in front of the bigger-name guys,” manager Andy Green acknowledged. “But every single organization has guys that come from this group of guys that turn out to be the guy, the anchor or the pitcher or the bat. So yeah, it’s exciting.”

Further, this is the group that is ready now.

It is almost certain none of those other prospects are getting here this year. If any do, it would be 10th-ranked prospect Cal Quantrill or No. 8 Logan Allen, though both are far more likely to make the majors in 2019.


Chris Paddack (No. 5) being in Double-A makes him a virtual certainty to get an invite to big-league camp in the spring with a shot at cracking the rotation to start the season, same as Lucchesi did this year.

After that, it might be a while.

Toward the middle or end of next season would be the earliest the organization’s top pitching prospect arrives, and that would take a rocket-like ascension. The safer bet to see MacKenzie Gore (No.2 overall) in Padres brown is 2020.

At various stages from “might be here in 2019” to “better be winning a lot by 2022” are No. 6 Adrian Morejon, No. 7 Michel Baez, No. 11 Anderson Espinoza, No. 12 Luis Patino and No. 9 Ryan Weathers, the team’s first-round draft pick in June.


Not all will end up being good enough to make it in the majors. Only a few, at best, will become frontline starters. At least a couple are likely to be traded for a proven veteran or to keep the “waves of talent” rolling in the form of prospects.

So what is here and what is about to be is just the first, probably, least impactful, wave.

But it is important. The Padres have to find out whether they will sink or swim.

“It’s what everybody has been talking about,” Lauer said. “You’re starting to see it come to fruition. You’re like, ‘This is happening. This is what we envisoned.’ There are going to be bumps along the way. That should be expected. But it’s an exciting time.”


kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com