As the Padres breathe a sigh of relief over the ailing right elbow of Dinelson Lamet, they are weighing the options for replacing him in his scheduled start Friday and beyond.

Further, the decision on how to proceed in their starting rotation is forcing the team to confront the possible reconstruction of its entire roster.

It appears Robbie Erlin or Tyson Ross are the leading candidates to take Lamet’s spot in his first turn, possibly contingent on how Ross feels Tuesday or Wednesday. The right-hander took a line drive off his throwing forearm in his last outing. He threw well afterward and came out of a Sunday bullpen feeling good, but the Padres want to make sure.

It was just Sunday morning that manager Andy Green officially named the pitching order for the opening series against the Brewers — Clayton Richard on opening day Thursday, followed by Lamet and Luis Perdomo.


“Four hours later,” Green noted, “Lamet is hurt.”

Too, it should be noted the Padres have in recent years had a number of pitchers initially thought to be injured far less severely than what ended up being reality. That includes the initial announcement in 2016 of an elbow strain for Erlin, who later required Tommy John surgery, and Ross going on the DL for what was termed “precautionary” reasons early in 2016 before he missed the entire season and had surgery.

Green acknowledged certainty can only be had with the passage of time.

“Some things tend to take longer than you expect,” he said. “… It’s really hard sometimes to know how the body is going to respond. Something that’s small takes longer than you expect, and something that seemed huge yesterday might end up being smaller than we expect.”


The Padres believe Lamet can return by May, though they have not put a hard timeline on his recovery. In fact, based on how he felt Monday, there is reserved optimism he can be back even sooner.

“He wanted to throw today,” Green said Monday afternoon before the Padres played a game here against their Triple-A affiliate.

Green said Lamet had not undergone imaging on the elbow but did have an additional examination and “is feeling exponentially better than he was (Sunday).”

Green confirmed the Union-Tribune report Sunday night that Lamet suffered a strain but no structural damage.


“It looks like the flexor mass is where the issue is, but it’s minimal,” Green said.

What the Padres do for the duration of the right-hander’s time on the disabled list is yet to be determined.

“We have options,” Green said. “... We could look to the big-league guys that have been with us all the way. We can look to guys in the minor leagues that could show up at some point in time.”

The possibilities are almost limitless, including having Erlin or Jordan Lyles make two starts and then calling up Joey Lucchesi for his major league debut.


The reasoning behind such a move would be to put off the start of Lucchesi’s service time clock so he doesn’t get credit for a full season in 2018. That would be accomplished by waiting until the 17th day of the season.

The Padres could accomplish this due to an off-day on Easter Sunday. Richard, Perdomo, Ross and Bryan Mitchell could each pitch twice in the first eight games on normal rest, with a fifth starter not needed until April 7 in Houston.

No longer under consideration is veteran Chris Young, who was told Monday by General Manager A.J. Preller that he was not going to be on the major league roster. Young does not want to pitch in the minors.

“Hopefully he finds another job,’ said Green, who spoke with Young by phone. “There is still pitching left in him.”


The 38-year-old Young, an All-Star in 2007 with the Padres, pitched well enough in camp to be seriously considered as a long relief option. In the end, the Padres had other options already on their 40-man roster. Young had been in camp on a minor-league invite.

“There’s a cost of having to add someone like Chris Young,” Green said. “He has to go on your 40-man roster, and somebody else has to come off. You don’t want to lose your young talent. We have lots of it.”

Erlin, who did not pitch last year following his surgery, is more likely to end up in the long relief role and make spot starts as needed this season. There will be something of an innings limit on him, as he works back to full strength.

Lyles is also a long relief candidate.


This won’t be the last of the roster gymnastics the Padres have to do, as Lamet’s injury could alter choices the team’s decision makers thought were set. They may choose to go with eight in the bullpen instead of seven. If so, that will affect the calls on how many position players to keep.

“Everything is interconnected,” Green said. “When you put together a 25-man roster, when you pull one string it unravels in some regards. Every single spot has an impact on another spot. Who we interject into the rotation will either give somebody another opportunity in the bullpen or change up our roster construction. It’s going to impact a lot.”

kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com

UPDATES:


4:50 p.m.: This article was updated with further quotes from Andy Green and more information on the roster and rotation possibilities.