The San Diego Padres are just on the outside looking in for the final NL wild card spot and Joe Musgrove could swing the race.
The San Diego Padres are one game out of the final National League wild card spot entering play on Monday and have been playing great baseball over the past few weeks.
The Padres seemed like a shoo-in for October baseball through the first month of the season, but a tough two-month stretch put San Diego three games under .500 with 10 days to go before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
General manager A.J. Preller needed the team to convince him to become buyers at the deadline, and he did just that by acquiring left-hander Robbie Ray from the San Francisco Giants and right-hander Casey Mize from the Detroit Tigers for three top 10 prospects.
While the two starters didn’t fare too well in their team debuts, the starting rotation needed reinforcements badly and they should bounce back as they get more comfortable with the team.
Another reinforcement is on the way, too, barring setbacks during his rehab assignment. Former All-Star and World Series champion Joe Musgrove is working his way back from Tommy John surgery that he underwent in October 2024 and has made two starts in the minor leagues.
ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez touched on Musgrove being a player returning from injury that could swing playoff races down the stretch. If Musgrove stays healthy, he could eat up some valuable innings in the final month(s) of the season.
“On Aug. 4, nearly 22 months after repairing his UCL, Musgrove pitched in a professional game,” Gonzalez wrote Monday. “It was for one of the Padres' Class A affiliates in a rehab assignment, but it reportedly went well.”
On Aug. 9, Musgrove pitched 3.1 innings for Triple-A El Paso and threw 53 pitches. It was a step up from his first outing, in which he tossed 2.2 innings and threw 39 pitches. The assumption is that Musgrove will continue to ramp up his pitch count in the coming weeks.
When the 33-year-old has pitched for San Diego, he has been one of the better starters in Major League Baseball. He was a workhorse for the team in 2021 and 2022, pitching 181 or more innings and nearly striking out 200 batters in each season.
He carries a 3.20 ERA and 1.11 WHIP with the Padres over 98 appearances (97 starts, 559.1 innings) and would be a huge asset during the playoff push. Even with Ray and Mize in the rotation, adding Musgrove back to the fold gives San Diego their best chance at sneaking in to the postseason.
