If signing Jake Arrieta to slide into your rotation immediately (after he was deemed too rough to continue in the CUBS rotation) was enough of a sign, the Padres are definitely telling the world today that they are in extreme desperation mode.
Today, August 23, the San Diego Padres fired their pitching coach:
The #Padres have dismissed pitching coach Larry Rothschild: pic.twitter.com/hnjTqCiPpq
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 23, 2021
Rothschild, a long-time veteran pitching coach with many successful teams (and a former Cubs pitching coach many moons ago), appears to be the scapegoat for a Padres rotation that disintegrated from injuries, and that was not properly supplemented at the Trade Deadline. Maybe he stinks now – I have no idea – but the timing sure seems absurd. You’re firing the pitching coach with five weeks left in the season, as though that will make the change? Unless he did something wrong, it’s kinda hard to understand.
Then again, who knows what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe this triggers some kind of weird rebound for reasons that no one can quite articulate.
The Padres have gone 8-13 since the Trade Deadline to fall out of Wild Card position, and are actually a sub-.500 team going all the way back to mid-May. It’s kind of shocking when you consider all the talent they had and accumulated over the last two years, but it’s also a reminder that even maxing out your “perfect” roster window doesn’t always work out.
As for Rothschild, I wonder what is up next. He not only was the Cubs’ pitching coach from 2002 to 2010 (some good pitchers in that window!), but he also originally hails from Chicago. I wouldn’t hate someone like him coming in as a front office consultant of some kind, given his extensive experience with the Braves, Marlins, Rays, Yankees, and Padres. Pick his brain, if nothing else.