Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove is expected to make his final rehab start today for the organization’s Single-A affiliate, as noted by Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune. That would put Musgrove on track to return to the Padres sometime later this week, a welcome development for a club that has seen its current six-man rotation set-up lead to an overly taxed bullpen.
With only seven relievers on the roster, the club needs its starters to be able to go deeper into games and cover more innings, but that hasn’t been the case early in the season. San Diego starters have failed to complete six innings in nine of the club’s 16 games this season, with just three starts lasting into the seventh inning. The return of Musgrove, who pitched at least six innings in 22 of his 30 regular season starts last season, should help relieve some of the load off the bullpen, but the question remains as to who Musgrove will replace in the rotation.
Ken Rosenthal suggested on FOX Sports yesterday that right-hander Nick Martinez could head to the bullpen as the odd man out, while Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union Tribune suggested that it could be young left-hander Ryan Weathers who is either optioned to Triple-A or pushed to the bullpen in order to make room for Musgrove, though Sanders notes that the club’s schedule, which includes two off-days in the final week of April and five throughout the month of May, could make the current six-man rotation setup untenable in the longer term and force the club to look at moving Martinez or righty Seth Lugo to the bullpen.
Weathers, 23, struggled to a 5.49 ERA with a 5.42 FIP the past two seasons, with all of that work except for a single 3 2/3 inning spot start coming during the 2021 campaign. He’s done well so far in 2023, posting an strong 2.70 ERA in two starts (10 innings) so far this season, though he’s struck out just five batters so far and failed to record an out in the sixth inning. By contrast, Martinez has struggled in terms of run prevention, with a 5.60 ERA across three starts, but has been able to go deeper into games, failing to make it out of the fifth inning just once while recording six and seven innings in his other two appearances.
More from San Diego…
- As noted by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, Padres right-hander Michael Wacha entered the offseason hoping to return to the Red Sox, for whom he posted a 3.32 ERA in 127 1/3 innings in 2022. Cotillo notes that the Red Sox never appeared close to re-signing the 31 year-old righty, who eventually signed in San Diego on a complex four-year, $26MM deal with multiple team and player options involved. Wacha noted that Boston expressed interest in retaining him for the 2023 season, but ultimately did not get into specifics of his negotations with the club, saying that “you might have to ask [Red Sox GM Chaim Bloom] about that one.” That being said, Wacha did note the importance of San Diego’s willingness to offer a multi-year deal held in his ultimate decision to sign with the club.
- As noted by Sanders, outfielder Adam Engel, who’s been sidelined to this point in the season with a hamstring injury. began a rehab assignment in Triple-A yesterday. With David Dahl having recently joined Engel on the injured list, the club’s outfield depth has been tested, with the likes of Rougned Odor and Brandon Dixon making recent starts in the outfield alongside Juan Soto and Trent Grisham. Engel’s impending return should provide some much-needed support to the Padres outfield, as should Fernando Tatis Jr., who is set to return from his suspension later this week.
Nice piece. More like this please
Tatis and musgrove back same week. Life must be good for padre fans
SD short of starting-pitching. Not impressed with Wacha, Lugo or Martinez as rotation arms. They better hope they get good health and performance from Darvish, Musgrove and Snell or they will need to rid the farm of the rest of their high-end, top prospects to add a frontline starter plus.
Merrill & Lesco & a couple of their best rookie league prospects for Corbin Burnes might get Arnold & co to pull the trigger.
Those climate crazies out there will vehemently protest this idea as they don’t want the Pads to leave a large Corbin footprint.
Useful. *Golf clap*
Agreed. All the lucid people tend to too.
Crumbling? At least dems passed infrastructure bill. But hey this is sports. Please keep politics out of it.
Oh, look, we have a couple of climate change deniers. About a dozen years ago my knuckle-draggin’, mouth-breating sister was huffing and puffing about “global warming” (hadn’t caught up with the science). When she stopped to catch her breath I said, “yeah, tell that to the DoD and the insurance industry. They have no illusions. The DoD had already called climate change the No. 1 National Security threat of the 21st century. Not terrorism. Not Antifa, not black-on-white crime, not all those other molehill mountains Fox News fixates on as if they’re bigger threats than Russia or China. No, Climate Change. No. 1. Because a billion people or more will be displaced, creating conflict everywhere, including on our borders.”
Wingnuts never talk about the DoD threat assessment or property insurance. Over a decade ago the insurance industry was already quaking in its boots. Property insurance is a huge markey, and they were skeptical it would be tenable much at all by the 2030s. It’s already in retreat. The cost of FEMA and government-backed flood insurance will sky-rocket. But the knuckledraggers will keep whistlin’ past the graveyard. Their kids and grandkids are going to revile thier memories.
Wacha and lugo were both really good in their first 2 starts. Wacha was pretty his last start, lugo wasn’t great in his last start but wasn’t terrible. Martinez has struggled.
I can see Martinez and weathers going to the pen. I don’t see the padres keeping a 6 man rotation all year. Weathers may get sent to aaa to so he can continue to start.
I can definitely see the padres adding a starter at the deadline. Which would send lugo to the pen the second half.
If lugo and Martinez head back to the pen at some point that should really give them a great pen specially once Suarez is back.
If they pitch their way out of the rotation, I’m sure they will be so much better in the bullpen. Not!
How about a WAKE UP for Snell, put HIM in the BULL PEN. That might Get his act together.
I doubt it. He seems to arrive at reality at a Snell’s pace.
Cole the Messiah Hamels to the rescue!!!
As much as Martinez wants to be a starter he just isn’t. Put him back in the pen and let Lugo & Weathers try to hold down rotation spots
Wacha has made 3 starts so far this season, pitched 16.1 innings and has a 6.06 ERA and 4.83 FIP.
Which is why you don’t pay attention to small sample sizes.
Victim of small sample size mixed with one bad game. 12 innings pitched in the first 2 games with 4 ERs, then 4.1 innings with 7 ERs in the last start. He’s fitting the mold of a 4, 5 starter… and that’s fine. He offers great value and I am optimistic that he’ll have many more good starts.
I’d like to see Lugo get a longer look as a starter and let’s see if Weathers can string together some good starts. Wilson, Hill, and Honeywell have all started off strong. Imagine them, with Pomeranz, Suarez, Martinez, Crismat (had two good seasons prior to this one) and Hader.
Pomeranz…lol, that’s good! Bruh, it’s April he’s already done for the season! He’s like Bigfoot, people have said they’ve seen him pitch, but no one I know has.
It’s just a Padres folklore…
I’ve seen him pitch
Keep Weathers in the rotation. Unless they give him a chance to stick instead of these spot starts & shuttling he won’t reach his potential. So what if his strikeout rate is low? The point is to get outs with the lowest damage. He’s done a good job of doing that, so far.
Lugo looks serviceable as #4-#5 starting P
How pathetic is is that a team who already went out and traded for/signed more than a rotation full of starters and top position players is once again struggling and looking to trade even more to continue to add to their rotation. They must really have no faith in their ablity to develop pitchers.
#holecamel – valid point
The Padres. LOL!
You seems desperate for attention. Hope ya have a good day
Thanks for that. Have a good day as well.