Luis Perdomo

Groundballs are nice, and Perdomo gets those in bunches (60.4 percent career groundball rate), but the strikeout is king, and Perdomo lacks swing-and-miss stuff. He is averaging just 6.5 K/9 in 310.1 career innings at the big-league level. The right-hander works mostly sinker-curveball -- he showed even less confidence in his changeup in 2017, cutting its usage from 9.7 percent to just 5.8 percent. He failed to post an ERA under 4.50 in any month of the campaign, as he was bitten by an uptick in walks (3.6 BB/9), and although the indicators point to some bad luck (4.40 FIP, 4.24 xFIP, 4.45 SIERA), it's tough to see room for substantial improvement barring development of that third pitch. His home park in San Diego accentuates his main strength -- keeping the ball on the ground -- and youth is on his side, but Perdomo seems destined to keep the "low-upside streamer" label for the foreseeable future.

The Padres acquired Perdomo from the Rockies in December after Colorado selected the right-hander in the Rule 5 draft. Although he had never appeared in a game above High-A prior to last season, Perdomo emerged as a viable rotation option for San Diego over the course of the year, taking the ball for 20 starts after making 15 relief appearances and avoiding free passes at a somewhat manageable clip (2.8 BB/9). He boasts a solid three-pitch arsenal, which includes a fastball (average velocity: 93.6 mph), slider, and changeup. Considering he skipped Double-A and Triple-A entirely, Perdomo's numbers are actually quite impressive. Most of his success came in the second half of the season (4.30 ERA, 2.09 BB/9), although his strikeout rate tumbled during that window (5.4 K/9). Still, that overall improvement has him in line to open the year back in the big league rotation. After keeping him on the active roster for all of 2016, the Padres are now free to send him to the minors if he deals with significant struggles, so there is a very low floor here.

Perdomo is a Rule 5 pick who the Padres may keep in the bullpen all season as they look toward the future. The 22-year-old logged 126.1 innings between Low-A and High-A last year as a starter in the Cardinals system.