10:14am: Padres manager Bob Melvin said Musgrove won’t be cleared to resume throwing for a “minimum” of two weeks (Twitter link via MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell), though it’s possible he’s sidelined longer than that. Even if it’s a best-case scenario and Musgrove is throwing again in two weeks’ time, he’d have just 16 days to build up before Opening Day. The team hasn’t directly said as much, but Melvin’s timeline rather clearly puts Opening Day in jeopardy for Musgrove.
9:06am: Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove sustained a broken big toe in his left foot during a weight room accident yesterday, the team announced to reporters this morning (Twitter link via Dennis Lin of The Athletic). The Padres have not yet revealed a timeline for Musgrove’s return.
The severity of the fracture and the recommended treatment aren’t yet clear, though it seems fair to presume that Musgrove will be sidelined for a meaningful period of time. Fractures of this nature can potentially require a walking boot, and even absent that, a broken big toe in a pitcher’s landing foot is problematic for obvious reasons.
It’s a dismal bit of injury luck for both pitcher and team, as the 30-year-old Musgrove is headed into the first season of a five-year, $100MM contract extension signed last July. He’s fresh off an All-Star season that saw him pitch to a sterling 2.93 ERA in 181 innings, fanning a strong 24.9% of hitters against a similarly impressive 5.7% walk rate along the way. Musgrove also ranked among the best in the league in terms of suppressing hard contact, landing in the 90th percentile of MLB pitchers with an 86.4 mph average exit velocity and in the 88th percentile with just a 32.4% hard-hit rate.
The typically durable Musgrove has made at least 30 starts and tallied at least 170 innings pitched in each of the past three 162-game seasons. Over the past four seasons, he’s only been placed on the injured twice — missing about three weeks in 2020 due to triceps inflammation in addition to about a week on the Covid-related injured list this past season.
Assuming Musgrove is indeed unavailable to begin the 2023 season, newly extended righty Yu Darvish would likely be in line for the Opening Day nod for San Diego. Darvish will be followed by lefty Blake Snell, recently signed right-hander Michael Wacha and relievers-turned-starters Nick Martinez and Seth Lugo. The recent signing of Wacha now looks all the more critical for the Friars, who’d otherwise have been left with just two established big league starters in the wake of this Musgrove injury.
San Diego has been angling for a six-man rotation to begin he season, in part to help manage the workload of Martinez and Lugo, who pitched just 106 1/3 innings and 65 innings in 2022, respectively. If the plan is still to trot out a six-man unit, that could open the door for a younger arm like Adrian Morejon, Jay Groome, Ryan Weathers, Reiss Knehr or Pedro Avila to get some starts early in the season. Alternatively, the Padres have notable veterans like Julio Teheran, Wilmer Font and Aaron Brooks in camp as non-roster invitees. Cole Hamels also inked a minor league pact as part of a comeback bid, but he’ll still be building up in extended spring training when the regular season opens.
Toe Bustgrove
*applauds*
Normally the first commentor is one of those “wow” morons, but you deserve a tip of the cap, and an upvote. Well thought out and timely.
Thankfully, the “wow” folks seem to have faded away.
Padres better call AAA.
Not for a pitcher.
For a toe truck!
I usually fully accept creativity, when I see it and can comprehend it, but this is just George Carlin-like, beyond the capabilities of most of us. Nice.
Now the rest of the pitching staff must be ready to toe the line
Cheater
Move your foot next time before you drop those weights, dude.
I heard he went to rub his ears but the weights dropped before he was able to get some tack on his hands.
Well ouch…
That’s so painful. Hope he’s ok
Hope he’s OK? He broke his toe, so he obviously isn’t.
Do you even lift, Joe?
Not the BIG toe!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
Someone call a toe truck, this man has suffered the agony of da feet.
WELL DONE FAM
I hate to see injuries.
Musgrove’s ” I want a ring that I earn” comments last year rubbed Astros fans wrong.
Did anyone hear any followup about whether it was because of the cheating scandal or about his lack of contribution ( spent most of season in minors and wasn’t significant member of staff) or because of how bad he sucked when he actually got to pitch in the playoffs?
I want to like Joe. He appears to be a good guy. But regardless I hope this is a short term injury.
Astros fans are like vegans. Constantly need you to know they’re there.
Speaking of “need you to know they’re there” what part of this story is relevant to Phillies fans?
The Phillies were a great story last year and by adding Trea they are even better this year.
I have no reason to not like them – except that their sub-human fans who make Yankee fans appear polite AND are proud of it
“sub-human fans”
Nice. Astros fans insulting other fanbases is priceless to me.
Astrosfn1979 calling Phillies fans “sub-human” pretty well directs the accusation back their own direction.
Really?
Maybe I wear rose colored glasses but I have always looked at other Astros fans as being civil and generally respectful.
Now I do agree that many have become defensive over all the cheating issues but from my perspective it’s all responses and rarely initiating things.
And for the record I agree the Astros deserved everything they got.
At the same time their fans do not deserve much of what we have got. We had no decision, input, or control over what the team did.
It is becoming more and more obvious that ALL playoff calibur teams were cheating to some extent. I concede the Astros crossed a line.
Now if I get a speeding ticket, I don’t expect to get off because everyone else is speeding too. I got caught I pay my fine.
But none of the people I tell about the speeding ticket chastise me and say “I never speed”.
They say, “Damn, bro, I speed through there all the time. It sucks you got caught”
And after 44 years as a fan I’m not changing teams when nobody from the organization when I became a fan is even still here (except a couple of low level GM assistants who were players) and in 15 years these people will be all gone too.
And change to a different cheating team? What’s the point
1979: Too long – didnt read, but thanks for playing.
I’ll make this one shorter.
Wasn’t directed at you. Could care less that you can’t read that well.
It’s been my experience that Philly fans are much more knowledgeable about the game, while a lot more tourists at Yankee games that dilute the experience kind of like when they made a replica Yankee Stadium, but cuter and charged higher prices for starry-eyed tourists lured to the Bronx.
“I agree the Astros deserved everything they got.” – They didn’t get anything! They got their hand slapped and told to behave.
All fanbases are the same. The larger the fanbase the more likely to have vocal drunken idiots in it. The idea that a herd of humans somehow changes personalities because they root for a different team has always been funny to me.
That is one view and while I don’t agree, I understand it.
What did the Dodgers get? The Red Sox? The Yankees?
Every one of them was “caught” cheating and it is documented and proven.
Maybe it was not a severe as the Astros but the penalties on the Astros were infinitely more severe.
How about the 2018 Red Sox? They won a WS cheating also but nobody talks about them. They don’t get the venom from fans that the Astros do.
Mookie Betts OPS 1.078 in 2018 and career high of .927 in all other seasons.
J.D. Martinez career high OPS+ of 173 in 2018 has not been over 139 since.
The Red Sox and MLB pin it all on a low level video employee and “fire” him when MLB suspends him. Then rehire him at a higher position with a significant raise when the suspension ends.
How the hell can an employee get suspended by the league for major violations and fired by the team, then get rehired with a big fat raise when his suspension ends?
Where are all the comments about that?
2023: Betts and Martinez are with the Dodgers. They recommend him and the Dodgers hire him.
1979: again, too long-didnt read. Your opinion is really not that interesting to most us. Be more concise.
Clepto: again thanks but you already let us know you have the attention span of plankton.
Move along. There is no need to comment if you aren’t interested.
And you are not the comment police. You don’t direct me because something doesn’t interest you.
1979: better but your valued content per typed word is still below average. Be more concise or find another board that believes your nonsense.
What it comes down to is this: There’s no question that the Astros cheated in 2017. Astros fans have to live with that. It’s a shame that happened because they proved in 2022 that they are and have been a world series championship team now just as they were in 2017. They would have won the tite without cheating. In some circles they are the favorites to go all the way again this year, and if they do, they’ll once again prove they can do it on the up and up.
The difference is that the Red Sox, etc Al, were more discreet than banging on a garbage can. Cheating has been going on as long as baseball has been around. But again, as far as I know, no one used garbage can lids or set off flares, etc. to give a teammate the heads up.
So two players had peak years in 2018. I would think that two players per team, have career years, every year. That Mookie’s slugging dropped after leaving Fenway, isn’t much of a surprise. I believe that happens to most players. That short LF wall can do wonders turning fly balls into doubles.
They MAY have won without cheating, but even they didn’t believe that, or they wouldn’t have cheated.
Phan: comment of the day. Veg-heads love to annouce their virtue and put their BS burden on others.
What burden do they put on others? Do they ask you to carry their bags full of vegetables to their cars?
Great quote
Musgrove was horrible in that World Series. He and Giles were unplayable. He probably meant he did little to help the team.
Hahaha Padres fans will go to the Earth to claim that Musgrove wasn’t involved in the cheating scandal. I’ve seen some even go as far as to assert that he didn’t know they were stealing signs just because he’s a pitcher (which… the actual whistleblower was a pitcher so that doesn’t really track).
Quit making b.s up you have never talked to a Padres fan. All teams cheat really
I got screenshots my dude
If that’s true, you have too much time on your hands.
So we’ve come full circle. Astros fans are now *bringing up* the cheating scandal?
Just so the Houston fanbase is aware, 99% of non-Astros fans want to punch Bregman in the face and rip off Altuve’s jersey. Every time they see them. The cheating scandal tainted every one of those players and Musgrove’s comment signifies that they know it. They will be booed every game. As much as the players and fans want it to go away, it’s not going to.
But at least baseball fans have short memories and don’t hold grudges.
Ask Pete Rose and Barry Bonds.
The more time that goes by, the more information comes out. The more players speak out. The more it becomes evident how wide spread and common it was.
The Astros cheated and got caught and punished. Deserved.
MLB did a masterful job of making the Astros the scapegoat so it did not become another steroid scandal that would set the league back decades once more.
They simply could not afford for general public and multiple fan bases to have this kind of ire toward all teams or at least the New York and/or Los Angeles markets.
I guess it’s odd that all this is coming out here and now, in a Padre broken toe story?.
It is a tangent.
I’m sorry I started it, but itvwas a legitimate reason and relevant comment.
1979, fair enough and I appreciate your reply. The biggest problem for the Astros is that they won. And keep winning. Whether those days are behind them, unfortunately for them and their fans, is irrelevant to non-Astros fans.
The cheaters that win or set records get the distain. Barry Bonds’ home run record. Pete Rose all time hit leader. Roger Clemens’ 354 wins. ARod’s 3,115 hits. I mean, geezus, they wrote a book and released a movie 70 years after the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
Equally important is how they respond. Fans felt Bregman was smug and Altuve gave us ridiculous stories about his wife and his jersey. Bonds and Clemens were arrogant and showed very little ownership. That’s why a remorseful David Ortiz admitted to using steroids but is now a HOFer.
I truly feel for Astros fans who appreciate the baseball being played on the field. They’re an unbelievable team. But until the poster boys, Bregman and Altuve, are no longer wearing orange and blue, it’s going to be a rough road ahead.
I have no problem with Bregman, Altuve, or any other members of that team. Many other teams were cheating and they were the one made an example of, similar to Coppalella with the Braves. As I’ve said many times before, cheating has been going on forever in this game. Gaylord Perry is hailed as a great guy and pitcher, and rightfully so, despite being an admitted cheater. And no one is starting a campaign to remove Willie Mays from the Hall for being a ’51 Giant. Enough with the hypocrisy about the Astros already.
Ever notice how, immediately after a new comment, 1979 magically has an upvote? Talk about low rent…..
Thank you for the respectful and thought out response.
Everything you said makes sense and I understand it.
As devil’s advocate I would put out there that
1) it’s tough (right or wrong) for anyone to publicly be apologetic and contrite if they feel they are being singled out and scapegoated.
2) There is substantial documentation that Altuve did not like the system and did not use it. Even records of him getting pissed at people that “banged” when he was batting. The buzzer thing is fantasy. It was a figment of some tweeters imagination and there have never been any legitimate reports of it ever existing.
3) Bregman was a 23 year old in his 1st full MLB season. Was he supposed to go to Beltran and Cora and stop them?
Any player or coach who initiated or contributed to the cheating is long gone from the team. Only Altuve, Bregman, and McCullers are still with the team.
Part of me wishes it would just blow over and part wishes everything comes out about everything all the teams were doing.
Good lord, what a lot of breaking wind. First off, how the freaking frack did the Astros pitchers cheat?????
And if you want to talk about benefiting from teammates cheating, start the conversation with Jeter and Mariano, two first ballot Hall of Famers who had more (now borderline) Hall of Fame teammates on the special sauce than anyone. Ever.
Get over 2017 for gosh sakes, bunch of whiners. And stop bickering about fans, clearly the Yankees are bottom of the barrel, no contest.
Blah blah blah.
@hammerin’ hank well said, every team in mlb at some point in there history has cheated in some way, the only reason we don’t hear about more of it is because, the act has been lost with time, or they stopped before they were caught, another team got caught and was doing something similar and stopped before they did, or the risk reward wasn’t there. in any case we’ve beat this dead horse enough time to move on, the real losers of all of this are the fans especially hou. imho hou was good enough to win the ws in 17 straight up and now there 1st chip will have nasty stain because a few people wanted to win at all costs.
The funny thing all teams cheat but the winner just cheats better.
I like how you summed up your comment in three words at the end there. Nicely done.
Hey clepto: I’m one of those who is giving Astros…1979 a bunch of upvotes. He’s making several good points. He’s even keeping it civil despite YOUR trolling efforts. Just for the record I’m not an Astros fan. My hometown team are the Pirates since I was 6 yrs old in 1978 & my “adopted” team have been the Braves since about the same time.
@dirkg, well said. I personally don’t care that anyone or team cheats because I realize that they are all human f’n beings. Some of us are good people who abide by all rules and regulations but the reality is that most of us are a-holes that will throw our neighbors, co-workers and even family members under the bus in certain situations. Should everyone do what’s right? Absolutely. But I’m not naive enough to assume that millions of dollars and a lifetime of adoration isn’t at least an incentive to cheat. The problem was they got caught when they won. That makes them all a target for vitriol and hate which they have to live with and is something they should have known going into the trash can scheme.
Apples and oranges. Yes, Pete Rose gambled on his own team and was banned. But he didn’t take PEDs to inflate his statistics. Everything Rose accomplished was because of his own ability. He’s only the second player in bb history with 4000+ hits. He may never officially get in the Hof, but everyone knows he’s a HOFer. Bonds should never be in the Hof and his statistics should only count pre-PEDs.
@avenger65 pete may have never juiced but he was know for eating “greenies” like m&ms then again the list of players not on something is probably a lot shorter than those who were in that era. i will agree that pete should be in the hof and not in bb and also the roid guys of the roid era. don’t get me wrong i do not support peds but in that era how do we prove who was and wasn’t juicing.
“I want to like Joe.”
I’m wondering how you’d talk about the guy if you didn’t want to like him.
You know it’s spring training when the freak injuries start.
Signing Wacha looks like a really good move right now. This could also clear a path for Julio Teheran to make the team as well
Teheran shouldn’t be anywhere near a big league rotation in 2023
Other than a bad run with the Angels ’20 Teheran is not that far removed from being a decent backend starter. With the Padres defense and big ballpark to work with he would probably be alright for a few starts
He might be decent in a spot start role. Anything more than that, you’re asking too much.
Tehran looked good yesterday in his first spring start. I wouldn’t doubt if he can work his way back.
Big Blow as No-No Joe’s Toe is a No Go Fo Sho
Hey Joe, look up Dizzy Dean and DON’T do THAT!
1937 All Star game Earl Averill hits line shot off Dizzy Dean’s big toe. Like most injuries in those days medical medicine did not have the knowledge to help a player to recover from their injury. Henceforth, Dizzy hurt his arm trying to throw off the injured big toe.
That’s some tough luck for the Padres already.
Let’s see who is available? Pirates have Mitch Keller and JT Brubaker, probably available for a reasonable price. We all know the Padres will have more injuries… all teams will. They should view Musgrove’s toe as a wake up call that they will need 2 or 3 more SPs if they plan to get through 162 games plus a deep playoff run.
The Padres now need a replacement #6 starter. Their options? Avila, Groome, Honeywell, Knehr, Morejon, Teheran and Weathers. They will be fine.
Nah. This is trouble for the SD Padres, no doubt in my mind. They have marginal options at SP4 and SP5 already, and already lost Musgrove. It is time to smash the panic button repeatedly.
Anyone interested in roto auction league for fantasy baseball? Looking for one or two more teams to join.
fantasy.espn.com/baseball/league/join?leagueId=106…
when i read this. my reply was,awe,thats a shame.maybe, manny can pitch for him.i mean the second highest payroll should have an answer?oooh,i stubbed my toe,feel sorry for me and the team?i dont think so.be a man and pitch through it.
Yeah that’ll work out real good.
Please, slimray — you’re scaring the kids.
Jumpin’ Joe’stoe’sofat!!
Ouch
They should take it slow with bringing him back and building him up. Make sure he’s all healed up, no need to rush him. They can go Darvish, Snell, Wacha, Martinez, Lugo for the first couple weeks of the season.
If they need to go to 6 because of the lack of off days they can have whoever is throwing best out of Groome, Honeywell, and Tehran cover a couple starts. Crismatt is also stretching out for the WBC, he might be able to cover a couple starts too.
Agreed. Tehran has dropped some weight and looked good the other day and this might be his toe in the door to a roster spot
Charlie Morton: “rub some dirt on it”
Is there a reason athletes are so fragile? A weight room accident? How do you break a bone that way? Many people who live pay check to pay check work physical labor jobs where they’re exposed to occupational hazards and get hurt all the time and still go to work because they need the money or can just ignore all the pain and just work through it. Is there something I’m missing because it seems like A) athletes make so much that they can afford to just not work; or B), it’s a phantom injury and the Padres know something else like he’s not going to be as effective a pitcher as last year so they conjured up am injury so insurance will pay some of his salary while he’s “sidelined”
Crazy whacko post.
@Yanks2 That’s dark thinking man
There’s never ending cheating and deception in sports, especially baseball. It really isn’t too farfetched
Nah, it’s far-fetched dude. Do you also distrust Lux’s ACL tear diagnosis yesterday?
.
Huh?
Yanks2 – you must be part of the same conspiracy theory cult as “This one belongs to the Reds”
He needs to use some of that tacky stuff in the weight room for a better grip!
He will be fine. Dodgers are just desperate.
The bitterness, and jealousy is radiating very apparently by the sour grapes Dodger fans all over this forum’s comments board. If I were a Dragon I’d also hate being slayed too, ya know?
@diehard isn’t it a lil premature to say you’ve slayed the dragon when game 1 hasn’t even started much less 162. as someone who has no dog in this fight, i will say that right now sd is looking strong and i’m starting to rethink on who’s going to win the west this year and it looks like it might be the year sd gets over the hump, but if history tells me anything is you can never count out a rival especially one that has capital to fill hole during the season. also surprise happen too look at sf few years back winning 100+ games when everyone including myself thought that they were a .500 team at best. anyhow gl to your pads this year and who knows our teams might meet in oct with my birds possibly pulling an upset
Good post Brodie. Let’s see what happens with the Friars and your Birds
@dhpf619 thanks we may not know how this season will play out but one thing is for sure it’s going to be a good season, i can’t remember when the last time when the al and nl were this strong tbh you can make a case for about 10 teams winning the ws this year.
Agree, but if musgrove is lost for a significant amount of time, that hurts their chances at taking the division. It’s a top heavy sp staff right now. Let’s hope he comes back and can contribute fully. I didn’t finish the article – is it his plant foot or landing foot?
Welp …. Padres spent all that money on these ridiculous long-term deals for hitters. Musgrove is down, and we all know it is just a matter of time before Blake Schnell goes down.
Simple solution: no more weight lifting. This is why we can’t have nice things, Padres.
Those are nagging injuries
I’ll pass on him
He dropped a kettlebell on his foot.
Thought exercise to which I have no medical expertise to answer…but as a pitcher would it be easier to manage/deal with a broken toe on the foot you push off the mound with or the foot you plant on? I’m inclined to believe landing foot would be better because I assume it would effect your follow through and finish with a pitch ad opposed to generating the power and drive to deliver the pitch in the first place.
@jimmy no medical expert either but i can confirms landing foot would be worse, for 2 reasons the physics involved the pant foot is just your body weight. your landing foot is your weight plus force. second is personal experience because about 10 years back fractured the top of my foot in a car wreck and then 4 years ago while wearing my tool pouches jumped down about 4 feet that same foot started hurting and was very tender for the next few weeks