Padres’ Walker Lockett Will Make Debut in Opener Against the Reds

It’s been a long journey for Andrew Lockett.

The Padres prospect was drafted in the fourth round of the 2012 draft and has slowly made his way through the Minor Leagues, persevering through injury plagued seasons in 2013-2014 to make his way to the major leagues.

Lockett will toe the rubber against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday in the series opener.

The big right-hander from Florida will look to make an impression for an organization that has seen a glut of pitching talent in their minor leagues.

This may be a make-it or break-it situation for the former top prospect and it will be interesting to see just how much of a chance he will get.

With Joey Lucchesi still not being ready to return from a leg injury, Lockett will be given at least one major league start to make his presence known.

Lockett has not had the best start to the season in the hitter friendly Pacific Coast League, where he has a 5.31 ERA in 10 starts for the El Paso Chihuahuas.

Hopefully a friendlier environment in Petco Park will help the pitcher regain his 2016 form, where he had an ERA of 2.96 in 25 starts between four San Diego affiliates: Fort Wayne TinCaps, Lake Elsinore Storm, San Antonio Missions and El Paso Chihuahuas.

Walker Lockett: ?’ed in pic.twitter.com/ZrHlNbfqqc

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 18, 2017

Lockett was added to the 40-man roster in December of 2016 so that the Padres could protect him from the Rule 5 draft that year. A corresponding move to the 25-man roster will be made tomorrow by the Padres to put Lockett on the active roster.

Patrick Cusick

Since he was a little kid he wanted to be one of those guys at the game who had the headset on, listening to the Colonel and Uncle Teddy, he has grown out of that, but the love is still there. Padres’ coverage will be biased at times, but mostly an honest dissection of the team he loves.