PEORIA, Ariz. — One of the more overlooked storylines for the Padres in 2025 was that their bullpen was by many measures the best in Major League Baseball, even without a pitcher who was expected to be a crucial contributor.
Bryan Hoeing, coming off a 2024 season in which he posted a 2.18 ERA in 53 games for the Marlins and Padres, showed up at camp last year with a shoulder issue. He didn’t pitch until May 10, and that was in the Arizona Complex League. He made seven appearances for the Padres from late June to mid-July, allowing three runs in eight innings, and otherwise spent the rest of the season in Triple-A (plus two games in Double-A).
“It was not a fun year,” the 29-year-old Hoeing said. “That was the most challenging year in my career, I’d say, just obviously from a physical standpoint. There was nothing really ever major. It was just nagging things here and there. And then mentally, too, just going through that and not being a part of the team and bouncing around from different places.”
The shoulder issue in spring was likely a residual effect from his having taken time off to give some elbow inflammation a chance to subside in the offseason and then trying to ramp up too quickly.
This offseason, he took more time off at the start and then built up more gradually than usual.
“I think it’s coming together really well,” he said Wednesday. “So, much better spot this year than last year.”
Hoeing allowed four earned runs in 23⅔ innings (1.52 ERA) while getting more than three outs in 10 of his 18 appearances for the Padres after being acquired at the trade deadline two years ago.
What might a healthy Hoeing mean in 2026?
“We got a picture of that when we traded for him in 2024,” manager Craig Stammen said. “He was a huge piece of that bullpen. So we get a guy back like that — that has that experience and that expertise and the ability to be a Swiss Army knife in the bullpen, man, it makes our bullpen even scarier.”
At the knees
There was no doubt, but the first official day of workouts for pitchers and catchers provided confirmation.
Stammen will wear his baseball pants with the bottoms hiked up near his knees and his socks showing, just as he did when he was a player.
“I don’t know any other way,” Stammen said.
When Stammen was first drafted, the rule in the Nationals’ minor-league system was that players had to wear their pants with the high legs. When Stammen got to the majors, he changed to the far more common fashion (for both players and managers) of wearing pants bottoms all the way down at the ankles.
“I wasn’t very good my first couple years,” he said. “I went back (to the high socks) and got better.”
He wore them that way the rest of his career and will do so as a manager.
Padres manager Craig Stammen walks between drills during spring training on Wednesday at the Peoria Sports Complex. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
So far, so good
Every pitcher and catcher expected in camp has reported, as have a number of position players.
And everyone appears healthy.
“It was a good day on the medical staff side,” Stammen said. “(Head athletic trainer Mark Rogow) said today that there is the least amount of follow-ups he’s had in a few years. So all systems go, rock and roll.”