The San Diego Padres need offense, and losing catcher Luis Campusano to a broken left toe is a big blow.
The San Diego Padres don’t have much depth at catcher, so of course they’ve been challenged in that regard. Freddy Fermin has already been out once after taking a shot from a foul ball, at which point Luis Campusano stepped in and seized the regular job.
But that didn’t last long, unfortunately. Campusano’s going on the IL with a broken left toe, and as a result the Padres called up Rodolfo Duran to make his major league debut last night.
"Just got a little fracture in his big toe," Padres manager Craig Stammen said in an ESPN report. "It's one of those things that he could potentially play through, depending on pain tolerance and all that. ... I think it'll be good to be able to get past it in the IL stint instead of trying to play through something."
As for Duran, he’s a career minor leaguer who’s finally getting his shot at the big league level in San Diego. He started out with the Philadelphia Phillies organization, then moved to the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres before signing with the Padres in 2025.
The Padres don’t expect Duran to hit much. His average was .239 wit a .785 OPS in 23 games with Triple-A El Paso so far, but last night he got to catch starter Michael King against the St. Louis Cardinals and went 0-for-3 for the night.
"This is a pretty cool call-up for him and all of us," Stammen said of Durán. "We really loved what we saw from him in spring training this year and what he did last year in Triple-A. I expected him to be a great catcher. He's got a great arm, but his bat has come alive the last two years. We definitely see him as a big league catcher."
Fermin isn’t hitting, either, so it will be interesting to see how the Padres will handle this situation going forward. They need offense, and if Campusano’s okay, they should be fine. Last night, though, moving Fernando Tatis Jr. to right field helped cost them a game due to Nick Castellanos botching a fly ball after he took Tatis’ spot in the outfield.
The Padres also made another roster move as part of the shuffle, as they shifted starter Joe Musgrove to the 60-day IL when Musgrove couldn’t recover from offseason surgery. Musgrove made just one appearance in spring training, and he still hasn’t started throwing yet.
"He's just focused on getting healthy, doing whatever he needs to do on a daily basis," Stammen said added.