Unexpected signings and injuries create pitching depth. Padres now contemplate a six-man rotation to manage arms and maximize performance.
The San Diego Padres entered the month of February short on starting pitchers.
With Yu Darvish set to miss the entire 2026 season (and retirement rumors swirling), the Padres have Nick Pivetta, Michael King and Joe Musgrove at the top.
After that, Randy Vasquez is expected to win the No. 4 job, although plenty of things can change over the next month.
Then, out of nowhere, recently-extended Padres GM A.J. Preller went wild. The Padres signed Griffin Canning and German Marquez to one-year deals, and then they added former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler to a minor league deal.
Suddenly, there is even more competition. Along with them, the Padres added former Cleveland Guardians star Triston McKenzie, and they still have JP Sears and knuckleballer Matt Waldron battling it out for a spot.
As it turns out, the Padres are considering using a six-man rotation, at least to start the season, according to Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Manager Craig Stammen added that "everything" is on the table right now.
“Everything is on the table,” Stammen said. “We want to do what’s best for them and what’s best for the team, and how we marry those two things is yet to be determined.”
The Padres have a reason to exercise caution. King pitched just 73⅓ innings in 15 starts last season due to multiple injuries, and Musgrove missed the entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Preserving the health of those two, especially, will help the team in the long run in the span of a 162-game regular season.
Marco Gonzales is another pitcher who is expected to fight for the final spot or two, so there is a lot to work out.
Canning is recovering from an injury and he might not return until May or even later. Sears is a candidate to be moved to the bullpen in a long-relief role, and McKenzie and Buehler have experience but have both struggled in recent years, which means they have a lot to prove.
Stammen said he will see how spring training goes before making a decision, but the thing he wants the most is to make sure they are "capable of being their best when we put them on the mound."
The Dodgers are rolling out a six-man rotation, although theirs is loaded from top to bottom with big names.
Can the Padres go down that same route? If one or two of the new additions impress in camp, it will be hard for Stammen not to at least give it a shot and see what happens.