How I feel about Nick Pivetta.

A 4.76 career ERA isn’t something to bet the house on, however, this is why I think the Nick Pivetta signing is a big deal for the Padres.

The Padres have had what feels like a 10-year-old issue of having a lack luster rotation, even when they obtained big arms like Yu Darvish, Dylan Cease, Michael King, and Joe Musgrove. It seemed that we couldn’t get everyone firing at the same time, whether it was injury or people getting eaten up on the mound we missed the umph that we needed to get us over that hump.

Nick Pivetta averaged 5.37 innings per outing last year with the Red Sox with 145.2 innings pitched and a 4.14 ERA, but that was at the 2nd most hitter friendly ballpark in the MLB, San Diego on the other hand is the 28th most hitter friendly ballpark in the MLB.

Pivetta threw his fastball 49% of the time last season and had a tendency to let it leak up in the zone which led to him getting punished at Fenway and having him end up in the 10th percentile of barrel percentage. With the ball leaving the yard less, it’ll allow him to attack hitters more aggressively and will likely improve on his already impressive 88th percentile strikeout percentage.

I believe that with the Padres bullpen behind him, the change of scenery, and the other arms around him, there’s a good chance that this can be the year that his ERA starts with a 3.