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.
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