A reliever last year, Brandon Maurer is looking forward to starting again.

Earlier this winter, the Padres decided to give their 25-year-old right-hander another opportunity to pitch in a major league rotation. Next week, Maurer will report to Peoria, Ariz., as the presumptive favorite to start behind some combination of Tyson Ross, James Shields and Andrew Cashner.

Maurer made 21 starts for the Seattle Mariners over his first two big-league seasons, and the hope is more experience and a more refined arsenal will yield improved results. (He has a career 6.62 ERA as a starter versus a 3.40 mark as a reliever.)

Thursday, during a stop on the Padres’ community caravan, Maurer at least looked the part of a pitcher preparing to start. He has had an eventful offseason, having joined Padres front-office members and fellow pitcher Colin Rea on a goodwill tour to Japan in November, having gotten married in December, having added more than 15 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot-5 frame.


“I brought it up to (the Padres front office) probably a little bit before the All-Star break, just brought it to their attention that I’d like to give it a shot,” Maurer said before serving lunch to graduating Marines at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. “They listened, and here we are. … It’s been fun stretching out, throwing a little further. I get to throw all four pitches, so that’ll be exciting.”

Maurer, who throws a fastball, slider and change-up, has begun to reintegrate a fourth pitch. According to PITCHf/x data at brooksbaseball.net, his curveball usage went from 11 percent in 2013 to 5 percent in 2014 to exactly zero last season.

Commanding the pitch will be key. A 2014 FanGraphs study found that Maurer’s curveball had baseball’s highest spin rate — the more rotations, the more movement — but he’d struggled to land it where he wanted.

“I did like throwing my curveball,” Maurer said. “I threw it maybe a couple times (last year) out of the bullpen, but then I hit (Derek) Norris in the head. They kind of said, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to throw that one anymore. Let’s work on three pitches, try to get those sound, and then we can work on the fourth.’


“It is a feel pitch, so I just have to keep throwing it,” Maurer added. “I’ve only thrown it in one bullpen so far, so it’s kind of hard to tell, but it does feel like a pitch I’ll be able to have in my back pocket.”

Maurer was one of the Padres’ most effective bullpen arms in 2015, going 7-4 with a 3.00 ERA in 53 games. His season was interrupted by right shoulder inflammation in early August, and despite an attempt to pitch again, the Padres eventually shut him down. There’s a belief that, in his first year as a full-time reliever, Maurer may have been used too frequently.

“For a month after the season, I didn’t touch a ball, and then I played catch, long-tossed, felt fine,” Maurer said.

It is too early to say how deep into the year Maurer, now pitching every five days, will be able to work, though an innings limit seems likely.


For both Maurer and the Padres, the hope is this spring will lay the groundwork for years to come. Cashner is eligible for free agency after 2016, Ross after 2017. Shields, signed through 2018, has the option to opt out of his contract after the upcoming season.