San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen released huge news regarding one of his starting pitchers for the 2026 season.
The San Diego Padres have a problem with their pitching staff, and they are running out of time to fix it.
San Diego’s bullpen is as strong as it gets, posting a Major League Baseball-best bullpen ERA by a wide margin. This feared unit has so many different elite options to throw at opposing lineups and it has become a strong part of the Padres’ identity as a club.
However, the starting rotation is very thin and lacks depth that a real contender would have. Take teams like the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox, both teams that have eight to 10 different options that could step into the rotation every fifth day. The Padres don’t have that right now, and after losing right-hander Dylan Cease to the Toronto Blue Jays on a massive deal and Yu Darvish to Tommy John surgery, this team can’t afford any back-breaking injuries with how the staff is currently built.
San Diego is in a weird spot with the potential sale of the franchise because it is limiting how general manager A.J. Preller handles business. Preller loves to make splash moves and isn’t afraid to spend money or make huge trades to fortify his roster.
However, the team is actively cutting payroll, and the only big move we’ve seen from San Diego is re-signing right-hander Michael King, which was a must given the state of the rotation.
King has injury concerns, but when he is healthy, he serves as a dominant top of the rotation guy. Another pitcher that fits that description is right-hander Joe Musgrove, a former All-Star who has been one of the better pitchers in MLB over the last five years when he’s on the field.
Since joining the Padres in 2021, the 33-year-old is 37-24 with a 3.20 ERA and 1.11 WHIP across 559.1 innings (98 appearances, 97 starts). He was an All-Star in 2022 after going 10-7 with a 2.93 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over 181 innings (30 starts).
Musgrove missed the entirety of the 2025 season after dealing with nagging elbow injuries that led to tightness during his start in the 2024 National League Wild Card Series. He was removed from the game, and that tightness was later confirmed to be an ulnar collateral ligament tear.
The hope was that he would be ready to go for this year’s spring training. He is expected to be ready, and even better, the Padres will not have him on an innings restriction.
Musgrove will pitch as many innings as he can as long as he feels good, according to manager Craig Stammen. If he can stay healthy throughout the season, that will take lots of pressure off the rest of the pitching staff.