Padres Place Yu Darvish On Restricted List
The Padres finally announced their Opening Day roster on Wednesday evening. It more or less finalized a number of already known moves, though the biggest development is that starter Yu Darvish has been placed on the restricted list. Alden González of ESPN first reported that was the plan.
Darvish underwent elbow surgery last November. He won’t pitch at all in 2026. The expectation had been that he’d spend the season on the 60-day injured list. The Padres instead place him on the restricted list, which is for players who are under contract but are unavailable to play for various reasons. The restricted list is best known for its use when a player is suspended, though it’s more commonly briefly used when a player is away from the team for personal matters.
Players on the restricted list do not count against their clubs’ 40-man rosters, though that’s also true for those on the 60-day injured list. The more notable distinction is that teams are not required to pay players while they’re on the restricted list. It isn’t publicly known whether the team will continue paying Darvish any or all of his $15MM salary.
Of course, a team cannot place a player on the restricted list and avoid paying his contract merely because he suffered an injury. There’s surely more to this situation going on behind the scenes. There have been reports dating back to the end of last season about the sides negotiating some way to void the remaining three years on his deal. Darvish provided a statement in January, saying that he has not decided on retirement but confirming that the team, his camp, and the MLB Players Association have had conversations about terminating his contract. There hadn’t been any further updates on his situation until today.
His deal runs through 2028 and contains $43MM in remaining guarantees for his age 39-41 campaigns. The Padres would no doubt love to negotiate some kind of buyout or deferral plan that frees up short-term payroll space and lowers their luxury tax number. González points out that the still unsigned Lucas Giolito would be a sensible target for a team with questions in the back half of the rotation.
In 2024, Darvish agreed to a restricted list placement to attend to a family matter. He had previously been on the injured list at the time. The Padres offered to allow him to remain on the IL but Darvish opted to spend more than a month on the restricted list instead, voluntarily bypassing nearly $4MM in salary (link via Dennis Lin of The Athletic). The pitcher’s agent, Joel Wolfe, praised the team’s handling of the situation while noting that Darvish “just didn’t feel it was right to collect the money if he wasn’t fully committed to the rehab and coming back.”
There’ll presumably be an update from the team and/or Darvish’s representatives before long. The most immediate effect is that he’s off the 40-man roster. That’s a formality but was needed to officially select the contracts of Walker Buehler and Ty France, both of whom made the team last week.
San Diego placed seven more players on the injured list. Infielders Sung-Mun Song and Will Wagner went on the 10-day injured list, as both players are dealing with right oblique strains. Pitchers Jason Adam (recovery from left quad surgery), Griffin Canning (recovery from left Achilles surgery), Bryan Hoeing (flexor surgery), Joe Musgrove (elbow inflammation), Matt Waldron (which the team announced only as “surgery” after being a little more specific in February), and Yuki Matsui (left groin strain) all land on the 15-day injured list.
Adam was the only one of those players who held out hope of making the Opening Day roster. Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Monday that he’d open on the injured list. It’s mostly to buy time for Adam to continue building up, as he made just two appearances at the end of Spring Training. He should be back sometime in April. In the meantime, this allows the Padres to carry both hard-throwing rookie Bradgley Rodríguez and the out-of-options Ron Marinaccio on the Opening Day roster.
Latest On Padres’ Bullpen Outlook
Padres right-hander Jason Adam has been targeting the Opening Day roster as he finished off his rehab from last year’s torn tendon in his quadriceps. The right-hander said three weeks back that team doctors hadn’t told him “no” on the possibility yet, and Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Adam could get back into games soon. He’s been ahead of schedule in camp and is slated for one final simulated game this week before a likely Cactus League debut on the weekend.
The 34-year-old Adam is a major piece of a deep San Diego bullpen. Over the past four seasons, he’s worked to a 2.07 ERA with 92 holds, 24 saves, a 29.2% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate across 256 2/3 innings between the Rays and Padres. If healthy, he’d join Adrian Morejon and Jeremiah Estrada as one of closer Mason Miller‘s top setup options.
A healthy Adam also leads to a relatively crowded bullpen that could force the Friars into some tough decisions. Miller, Estrada, Morejon and Adam would be locks for bullpen spots. That’s presumably true of righty David Morgan (2.64 ERA, 47 1/3 innings in 2025) as well. Lefties Wandy Peralta and Yuki Matsui are pitching on multi-year contracts and can’t be optioned.
That group accounts for seven of the Padres’ eight bullpen spots. Right-hander Ron Marinaccio is out of minor league options. Right-hander Bradgley Rodriguez has multiple option years left but has excelled in camp after impressing in a brief look last year. Righty Matt Waldron might start the season on the injured list, but he’s out of minor league options as well and would need to be added to the big league roster or designated for assignment. Bryan Hoeing is shut down with an elbow issue right now.
Having more talented relievers than bullpen spots available is obviously a nice problem to have, all things considered, and depending on the injury timetables of Adam and a couple teammates, the Friars might be able to kick any 40-man decisions down the road a bit for the early portion of the season. At some point, something will have to give on one of the players who can’t be sent down (whether due to contract or lack of minor league options.
That’s especially true if the Padres want to consider breaking camp with any non-roster invitees on the big league club. Veterans Walker Buehler, Marco Gonzales and Triston McKenzie are among that group, but manager Craig Stammen has been talking up the chances of a different former big leaguer for a potential bullpen job: right-hander Logan Gillaspie.
“He just goes out there, competes his tail off, lot of energy and enthusiasm, throws a ton of strikes and gets a lot of outs,” manager Craig Stammen told MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell when asked about Gillaspie. He noted that Gillaspie could be used in a multi-inning role, providing some length early in games if necessary.
The 28-year-old Gillaspie has pitched in each of the past four major league seasons, including 18 innings for San Diego across the 2024-25 campaigns. He’s had pedestrian results overall, but Gillaspie is a familiar hand for many Padres coaches and is in the midst of a strong spring training (7 2/3 shutout frames, 8-to-2 K/BB ratio). Cassavell suggests that Gillaspie is viewed as having a real chance to make the club, particularly if the Padres open the season with multiple veterans on the injured list.
How Will The Padres Round Out Their Rotation?
Barring injury, the Padres will open the season with an established top three in their rotation. Nick Pivetta, Michael King and Joe Musgrove have the upside to be one of the best top halves in the National League.
Musgrove is coming back from Tommy John surgery, while King was limited to 74 1/3 innings last year (playoffs included) by a nerve issue in his shoulder and left knee inflammation. They’re free of any restrictions this spring. Musgrove will make his exhibition debut tomorrow against Great Britain in a World Baseball Classic tune-up. King has already started two games this spring.
The picture is a lot less clear from there. Yu Darvish will miss the entire season. Free agent pickup Griffin Canning has yet to pitch this spring as he works back from last June’s Achilles tear. He’s very likely starting the season on the injured list.
That’s also true of knuckleballer Matt Waldron, though it could be close to a minimal IL stay for the right-hander. Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote yesterday that Waldron plans to throw off a mound this week and is hopeful of getting a start in before the end of Cactus League play. He won’t be built up enough to start the season on the active roster, however. Waldron is out of options, so the Padres will need to carve out an MLB spot for him once he’s ready or risk losing him via trade or waivers.
That all but ensures that Randy Vásquez will get a season-opening rotation spot. Manager Craig Stammen said at the beginning of camp that the righty had a leg up on a job. Vásquez is out options and needed to make the team in some capacity. He outperformed mediocre peripherals for most of last season but improved his strikeout rate to a league average level in September. He finished last season with a 3.86 ERA across 133 2/3 innings.
It probably leaves the Padres will one spot to fill. The front office has taken a volume approach to the back of the roster, adding a handful of veterans on cheap one-year deals or minor league contracts to see who sticks. They added enough options that it’s not out of the question they open with a six-man rotation.
Pitching coach Ruben Niebla left open that possibility over the weekend, although he implied they preferred a five-man group (link via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). Niebla said the team is preparing the starters on a usual five-day routine. If multiple depth arms pitch their way onto the roster, they could go to a six-man staff, but that requires dropping to a seven-man bullpen.
If there’s only one spot available, Germán Márquez enters camp as the favorite. The former Rockies righty signed a $1.75MM deal in mid-February. His spot on the MLB roster feels secure, which isn’t the case for non-roster invitees Walker Buehler or Marco Gonzales. Márquez could theoretically pitch in long relief if one of Buehler or Gonzales beats him for the fifth starter role. That scenario (or a six-man rotation) probably wouldn’t bode well for out-of-options reliever Ron Marinaccio’s bid to stick on the roster.
Lefty JP Sears is also in the rotation mix, though San Diego’s series of veteran additions means it’s likelier he’s headed back to Triple-A. Sears was hit hard in five MLB starts after being acquired from the A’s in the Mason Miller trade. He still has a minor league option remaining.
Sears also hasn’t an especially encouraging start to camp, giving up five runs on seven hits (including two homers) across 3 2/3 innings. Márquez allowed three runs on four hits over two innings in his exhibition debut over the weekend. Gonzales, who missed all of last season rehabbing flexor surgery, has given up five runs across 4 2/3 frames over two spring starts. Buehler hasn’t pitched in an official Spring Training game but took on the KBO’s NC Dinos in an outing on the back fields over the weekend, giving up two runs over three innings.
Padres Shut Matt Waldron Down
Padres right-hander Matt Waldron has been shut down for the time being and is considered week to week, manager Craig Stammen told the team’s beat (via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune). The right-hander recently underwent a procedure for a hemorrhoid.
Waldron, 29, made only one big league appearance last season, pitching 4 2/3 innings and being tagged for four runs. He tallied 26 starts for the Friars the year prior, turning in a 4.91 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate against a 6.4% walk rate. He posted a solid 3.79 ERA through his first 23 starts of the season in 2024 before being clobbered for 26 runs in only 18 1/3 frames over his final few appearances, ballooning his ERA by more than a full run in the process.
One of the only active knuckleballers in the majors or minors, Waldron struggled through 21 Triple-A starts last year, serving up a 6.48 earned run average. He maintained respectable strikeout and walk rates, however (20.7% and 7.1%, respectively). A .368 average on balls in play and well below-average 59% strand rate both dogged him.
Waldron is out of minor league options and thus cannot be sent to Triple-A without first clearing waivers. He can, however, open the season on the 15-day injured list and embark on a 30-day minor league rehab assignment once cleared to pitch, if the recovery from his recent procedure necessitates such an absence.
Following a late flurry of low-cost additions, the Padres’ 2026 rotation includes a returning Joe Musgrove (from 2024 Tommy John surgery), the re-signed Michael King, veteran Nick Pivetta, out-of-options righty Randy Vásquez and free agent newcomer Germán Márquez. San Diego also added Griffin Canning on a one-year deal, though he’s still on the mend from last year’s torn Achilles tendon. Lefties JP Sears and Kyle Hart are on the 40-man roster but could be depth options in Triple-A El Paso to begin the year, given Vásquez’s lack of options. Veterans Walker Buehler, Marco Gonzales and Triston McKenzie all inked a minor league deals with invitations to spring and could factor into the mix as well.
NL West Notes: King, Waldron, Ohtani, Giants
The Padres provided an update on the status of right-hander Michael King earlier today, as relayed by Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The good news is that King’s shoulder issue, which sent him to the injured list just last weekend, is not structural in nature. Rather, Sanders writes that the right-hander is dealing with a pinched nerve. Less fortunate, however, is that the Padres remain in the dark about what King’s timetable for a return to action will ultimately look like.
“Now that we’ve been able to locate what the issue is … just trying to get a handle on how to release that nerve a little bit that’s preventing that (scapula) from being able to fire appropriately,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said, as relayed by Sanders. “We’ve got some really smart people, including Michael himself, involved with that process that will get that going as soon as possible, and how soon that is is to the discretion of that nerve.”
The cause of the pinched nerve isn’t known, though King was initially scratched from his start last week due to discomfort in his shoulder after sleeping on it uncomfortably the night prior. Sanders adds that King sought a second opinion on the issue earlier this week and that, because he’s already started to improve, the Padres are not yet ruling out him resuming playing catch by the end of next week. That would potentially allow him to return to the rotation shortly after his minimum stint on the injured list expires without a rehab start, although ultimately King won’t be able to return until the nerve issue has completely resolved itself. Sanders suggests that right-hander Matt Waldron, who pitched 146 2/3 innings for San Diego last year but has been sidelined all season so far due to an oblique strain, could be ready to return from the injured list in the near future and take up King’s rotation spot while he’s on the shelf.
More from around the NL West…
- The Dodgers watched as Shohei Ohtani continued his slow-going return to pitching earlier today, as Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times was among those to report that the superstar threw two innings of live BP against the Dodgers’ minor league hitters this afternoon. Harris notes that’s a slight uptick from last week’s 22 pitches, and that Ohtani recorded one strikeout and one walk along during the session. After the session, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including USA Today’s Bob Nightengale) that the outing was a “positive” one for Ohtani, though his command wasn’t quite as sharp as his last time out. That Ohtani is continuing to make progress in his rehab is encouraging, although he remains expected to not pitch until some point in the second half of the season. Fortunately, rehabbing hasn’t seemed to slow him down one bit at the plate, as he entered play today slashing .294/.394/.670 with a 187 wRC+, 22 homers and 11 steals.
- The Giants could be looking to make a change at first base in the near future, even with top prospect Bryce Eldridge not yet at Triple-A. As Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on yesterday, the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento tabbed former top prospect Marco Luciano to serve as their first baseman in a game earlier this week. It’s a new position for the 23-year-old, who has already appeared at second base, shortstop, and in left field over the years, but Rubin notes that the River Cats are expected to continue using Luciano at first going forward as concern mounts about the club’s production at the position in the majors. LaMonte Wade Jr. is the club’s starter at the position, but after entering the year with a 115 wRC+ in a Giants uniform he’s slashed just .171/.278/.279 with a wRC+ of 60 across 48 games. Luciano has yet to hit in the majors himself, with a career 68 wRC+ in the majors, but even his meager production in 126 career plate appearances would be an improvement over Wade’s numbers this season. Plus, Luciano is a former consensus top-20 prospect in the sport who may be able to tap into that potential if offered regular reps at the big league level. While Luciano begins to learn the new position, the Giants will hope that Jerar Encarnación‘s eventual return from the injured list is enough to help improve the club’s first base production going forward.
Padres Select Tyler Wade, Place Jake Cronenworth On IL
5:00pm: Cronenworth tells Cassavell that the fracture was discovered from an MRI yesterday, which surprised him. He’s hoping for a quick return but the timeline is “open-ended”.
4:15pm: The Padres announced that infielder Jake Cronenworth has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 9, with a non-displaced right rib fracture. Infielder/outfielder Tyler Wade was selected to take his place on the roster. To make room for Wade on the 40-man, right-hander Matt Waldron was transferred to the 60-day IL.
Cronenworth was hit by a pitch in Sunday’s game, as seen in this video from MLB.com. He stayed in that game and also played on Monday and Tuesday, but was removed from the latter contest and didn’t play on Wednesday. Manager Mike Shildt downplayed the issue as cramping while Cronenworth himself believed he would be ready to play by Friday, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.
It appears that the club has decided to send him to the IL instead. It’s unclear if he experienced some sort of setback or they just wanted to get him more rest. Since the IL stint has been backdated, he could be back in about a week if he’s healthy.
Fernando Tatis Jr. has also been battling some shoulder soreness this week and Jackson Merrill is on the IL with a hamstring strain, which left the Padres a bit short-handed this week. On Wednesday, they had Jose Iglesias at second base with an outfield rotation of Brandon Lockridge, Jason Heyward and Oscar González. That left Yuli Gurriel as the only non-catcher available off the bench for that game.
Wade, 30, will provide a bit more of a safety net. He’s never been much of a hitter, with a .217/.291/.289 line in his career, but he is a strong defender. He has experience playing all three outfield spots and the three infield spots to the left of first base. He didn’t break camp with the club this year but accepted an outright assignment after clearing waivers. Now the injury situation has quickly created a need for his return to the majors.
To open a spot for Wade, the club has made Waldron unavailable until late May. He started the season on the 15-day injured list with an oblique strain. He can return 60 days from that initial IL placement. His current status is unclear but it seems the Friars don’t expect him back in the next six weeks or so.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Matt Waldron Suffers Oblique Strain, May Begin Season On IL
Right-hander Matt Waldron sustained a mild oblique strain yesterday, Padres manager Mike Shildt told MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell and other reporters. Waldron suffered the injury while warming up in the bullpen for a scheduled relief appearance in the Padres’ Cactus League game.
While Waldron is officially considered day-to-day, Shildt said the knuckleballer is “going to need some rest for some period of time, which will be determined.” Simply given the nature of oblique injuries and the timing, Shildt admitted that Waldron’s chances of making the Opening Day roster “would seem like it would be in jeopardy.”
The news would seem to erase any chance Waldron had of winning the fifth spot in San Diego’s rotation. An 8.68 ERA over 9 1/3 spring innings wasn’t helping his cause, and Waldron’s planned usage out of the pen on Friday might’ve hinted that the Padres were considering a long relief role for the right-hander. Naturally the first order of business will simply be for Waldron to get healthy, giving the team time to decide whether Waldron could be used as a reliever, or as a Triple-A depth starter.
Waldron has worked almost exclusively as a starter in the minors since the Padres acquired him in the 2020-21 offseason, and he has started 32 of his 35 career MLB games, posting a 4.79 ERA over his 188 innings in the Show. Injuries within the Padres’ rotation opened the door for Waldron to get a good amount of playing time, including 146 2/3 frames last season, though a 12.76 ERA over his last four starts suggested that Waldron ran into some fatigue.
Assuming a late trade doesn’t change the equation, Dylan Cease, Michael King, Yu Darvish, and Nick Pivetta are slated to be the Padres’ top four starters. Stephen Kolek, Randy Vasquez, and Kyle Hart are the remaining candidates for the fifth starter’s job now that Waldron has seemingly been removed from the competition.
Padres Option Matt Waldron
The Padres optioned starter Matt Waldron to Triple-A El Paso. San Diego recalled reliever Logan Gillaspie to step into the bullpen before tonight’s series opener with the Mets.
Waldron, MLB’s lone knuckleballer, has held a rotation spot all year. He has made 26 starts and is second on the team behind Dylan Cease with 142 2/3 innings. His 4.79 ERA belies decent peripherals. Waldron has a roughly average 21.6% strikeout percentage and has kept his walk rate to a tidy 6.6% clip. Hitters have generally had a tough time making hard contact against him. An abnormally low 67.1% left on base rate is the biggest factor in Waldron allowing nearly five earned runs per nine. ERA estimators like FIP and SIERA suggest his peripherals should point to an ERA in the low-4.00s.
Things have gone downhill over Waldron’s last few starts. He carried a 3.71 ERA into the All-Star Break. He has given up exactly eight earned runs per nine innings in 36 frames during the second half. Waldron has surrendered five-plus runs in four of his last five starts. The Twins blitzed him for 12 hits and 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings last night.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that the assignment is about giving Waldron some rest before the stretch run. While it’s possible that fatigue has played a role in the righty’s recent struggles, Waldron isn’t too far beyond last year’s innings total. He combined for 133 2/3 frames between the majors and Triple-A a season ago. There seems to be something amiss with his recent skid, so the Padres will give him at least a couple weeks away from big league hitters. A pitcher cannot be recalled from an optional assignment for at least 15 days unless he’s replacing another pitcher who is going on the injured list.
San Diego doesn’t have an off day until September 3. They’ve got a handful of rest days built into their September schedule but will need a full rotation for the next two weeks. The Friars have Cease, Michael King, Joe Musgrove and Martín Pérez in their rotation for now. There’s still not much clarity on whether Yu Darvish will be able to return from the family matter to which he’s attending. Randy Vásquez is the top depth arm on the 40-man roster. He has a 4.63 ERA over 17 major league starts this year and has been hit extremely hard (8.78 ERA) in the Pacific Coast League.
The demotion shouldn’t have much impact on Waldron from a service time perspective. He entered the year with 54 days of MLB service and has already topped the necessary 118 days on the active roster to surpass the one-year service mark in 2024.
Padres Place Yu Darvish On Injured List
Aug. 29: Via Acee, Darvish said after last night’s game that he was awaiting results from an MRI but is optimistic that he’ll be able to return to the Padres in 2023.
Aug. 28: The Padres announced that right-hander Yu Darvish has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to August 26, due to right elbow inflammation. Righty Matt Waldron was recalled in a corresponding move.
At this point, it’s unclear what kind of absence the club is expecting from Darvish. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the righty had spoken of fatigue after his start on Friday, though there hasn’t been any kind of firm update from the team. Even if the issue is minor, the calendar figures to be a factor, with just over a month remaining on the schedule.
It’s been a frustrating season for both Darvish and the Padres, with the overall results misaligned with the underlying numbers in both cases. For Darvish as an individual, he has a 4.56 earned run average on the year, a big jump from last year’s 3.10 figure. But his 24.6% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate are both above league average. However, his .319 batting average on balls in play and 71.3% strand rate are both significantly less fortunate than last year’s marks of .250 and and 78.2%. His rate of fly balls leaving the yard also jumped from 9.6% to 13.5%.
His 4.04 FIP suggests he’s been better than his ERA might indicate, but that’s likely little comfort to him or the Padres, as the whole club has been undercut by a similar discrepancy this year. Their +53 run differential is the fifth-best in the National League, and yet they have a record of 61-70 that places them eight games out of a playoff spot, well behind several clubs with far worse run differentials.
It’s not the season that was hoped for in San Diego, as they spent aggressively this offseason to try to build off a strong 2022 campaign that saw them reach the NLCS. Part of that aggressive spending was giving Darvish a six-year, $108MM extension that runs through 2028, which will be his age-41 season. Though the Friars were likely aware that could hurt them in the long run, they wanted to lock him up while he was still throwing well and the club’s competitive window seemed to be wide open.
There’s still some time for the club to salvage the season but the odds are against them, with FanGraphs giving them just a 2.5% chance of cracking the playoffs at this point. Despite a somewhat down season from Darvish, losing him to the IL for the next couple of weeks isn’t ideal, as Joe Musgrove is already on the IL and could be shut down if the club doesn’t get back in the race. Since Darvish won’t be eligible to return until mid-September, perhaps the same is true of him, though that’s not clear at this point.
For now, the Padres will proceed with a rotation of Blake Snell, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Pedro Avila, with one opening available. Rich Hill‘s last appearance was out of the bullpen but perhaps he will be slotted back into the rotation. Waldron has been starting in the minors and could be another option and the same goes for Jay Groome, who is on the 40-man.
Looking to the long-term, a bounceback from Darvish next year will be key for the Padres, as there’s plenty of uncertainty in their rotation. Snell and Hill are set to become free agents while Lugo and Wacha both have contract options that could lead to them hitting the open market as well. That leaves Musgrove and Darvish the two building blocks with three potential openings.
Padres Designate Jose Castillo For Assignment
The Padres have designated left-hander Jose Castillo for assignment and optioned righty Matt Waldron to Triple-A El Paso, per a team announcement. That pair of moves clears roster space for righty Robert Suarez, who has been formally reinstated from the 60-day injured list.
Castillo, 27, posted a strong 3.23 ERA through his first 39 big league innings back in 2018-19 but has since seen that promising debut derailed by injury. His 2019 season was cut short by a torn ligament in his hand, and he missed the 2020 season due to a lat strain. Castillo’s 2021 campaign and much of his 2022 season were then wiped out by Tommy John surgery. He’s pitched just two total MLB frames dating back to 2019.
While Castillo posted solid numbers in the upper minors last year as he returned from that deluge of injuries, he’s struggled immensely in 2023. His lone MLB appearance saw him yield four runs in one-third of an inning, and he’s been tagged for a 9.82 ERA in 18 1/3 frames of Triple-A ball.
Castillo is in his final option season and will be arbitration-eligible this winter. The Padres will have a week to trade him, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. If another team picks him up, he can be optioned for the remainder of the season but would need to be carried on the active MLB roster beginning next season. That said, if he can get back on track with a new club, he’d have an additional two seasons of club control remaining.
Suarez, 32, fanned 32% of his opponents and notched a 2.27 ERA as a 31-year-old rookie in San Diego last season after a years-long run of excellence in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. The Friars re-signed to a five-year, $46MM deal with an opt-out clause early last offseason, but he’s yet to pitch this season due to an elbow issue. He’ll give San Diego a high-quality arm to slot into the late innings as the Padres try to salvage an immensely disappointing start to their 2023 season.