The San Diego Padres currently have some pitching problems to solve, and they’re scrambling to fill a variety of holes. Former ace Dylan Cease is now with the Toronto Blue Jays, and fellow starter Michael King is reluctantly back with the team after being unable to secure a big deal in free agency. Current ace Nick Pivetta may or may not be on the block, depending on what sources you choose to rely on, so there’s a lot of instability in the rotation as currently constituted.
One pitcher who’s currently getting a lot of play to step into the rotation is starter Miguel Mendez. Mendez is 23, and he was protected from the Rule 5 draft back in November, according to Brandon Glick of FriarsOnBase.com, which means Mendez is already on the 40-man roster.
But it’s important to remember Mendez’s history in this particular pitching equation. He’s thrown just 22-1/3 innings above High A, but the end of his Double A season wasn’t all that great. Mendez’s ERA ballooned to 8.06 with the San Antonio Missions during the six starts he made for the team to close out his 2025 season, and his 15.9 percent walk rate was alarming, to say the least.
Ideally, this should be a “prove it” season for Mendez at the upper levels of the team’s minor league system. A September call-up is a reasonable expectation if he can post good numbers at Double A San Antonio and possibly make the jump to the next level, but adding him to the rotation in the spring or early summer is likely a recipe for disaster.
What complicates this particular pitching equation is the combination of the Padres bloated payroll and the team being on the block. GM A.J. Preller hasn’t made any major moves yet, and the deeper we get into the offseason, the clearer it gets that none may be coming.
Given the presence of pitchers Randy Vasquez and JP Sears at the back of the rotation, along with the potential return of starter Joe Musgrove, the Padres probably have enough pitching to wait on Mendez, but that’s by no means certain right now. Musgrove is coming off Tommy John surgery, and Vasquez and Sears are both back-end options who probably won’t be able to do much more than hold down the fort.
It’s going to be a season of uncertainty in San Diego this year, with a lot of moving parts and pieces and roles that are TBD. Hopefully Mendez doesn’t get caught in the backwash of all this, given how often that happens with young prospects rushed up by teams with a pitching hole that has to be filled.