SAN DIEGO — Three hours before Nick Pivetta battled himself in his worst performance with the San Diego Padres, Joe Musgrove stood at his locker on Opening Day, discussing both the reality and the uncertainty of his situation.
Musgrove, a pillar of the Padres’ clubhouse and starting rotation, underwent Tommy John surgery almost 18 months ago. He was about to play catch for the first time in more than two weeks, having been temporarily shut down after a setback in his recovery. Team officials hope Musgrove can return to the majors in May, although there is no concrete timetable.
“The idea of getting through the whole season with how I was feeling wasn’t very realistic to me,” Musgrove said. “I didn’t want to … make my return with this feeling in the back of my mind that at any moment the arm can give out on me again and — not ‘give out’ in that super-negative way. It’s just aches and things that I’ve been dealing with from the surgery (and) trying to figure out how to manage them and how to work around them.
“I’m not overly concerned with this. They’re not overly concerned. This is kind of just the rest that I needed to get ready for the season.”
So, Thursday afternoon at Petco Park, the Padres began their season without Musgrove in an 8-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers. It was a day ripe for overreaction. With opposing ace Tarik Skubal largely cruising, it was also the kind of day that underscored the vulnerability of San Diego’s starting pitching.
Pivetta, who skipped a recent Cactus League outing because of arm fatigue, surrendered four runs before he recorded two outs. He finally escaped the top of the first after three walks and 33 pitches, perhaps only a couple away from being pulled for left-hander Kyle Hart, who had begun warming up in the bullpen.
“We were trying to cap Nick at maybe 35 pitches in that first inning,” Craig Stammen said after a managerial debut he described as “humbling.” “Kyle was probably pretty close to (being asked) to stop the bleeding.”
Pivetta steadied himself briefly — he yielded only a two-out single in the top of the second — but the early workload led to the right-hander’s exit after a two-run third inning. The Padres, playing in front of the largest Opening Day crowd in Petco Park history, trailed 6-0. Pivetta was done at 69 largely inefficient pitches, a far cry from the starter who received Cy Young Award votes in 2025.
“First game back is always a tough one for every pitcher, and when you get tasked pitching Opening Day for the first time, there’s just a lot of emotions that go with it,” Stammen, a former big-league pitcher, said. “It wasn’t his best day today, but he’ll be good for us the rest of the season.”
Pivetta was less diplomatic with himself.
“Of course, I would love that game back, but that’s not reality,” Pivetta said. “That’s not how the world works. Just look to capitalize on the next couple days off … get a good bullpen (session), get back to who I am.”
Even with the health concerns that arose in spring training, even if he will be challenged to replicate a career-best year, Pivetta remains the surest thing in a rotation rife with question marks. Michael King went from starring in 2024 to being waylaid by injuries in 2025. The Padres are encouraged by Randy Vásquez’s development, but on most contending teams, he would not be a mid-rotation starter, at least not yet. Walker Buehler and Germán Márquez are veterans diminished by elbow injuries, hoping to revive their careers in pitcher-friendly San Diego.
Meanwhile, Musgrove, Matt Waldron and Griffin Canning remain postponed as they rehab from various surgeries. And though the Padres have demonstrated interest, it remains to be seen if they will make a serious run at Lucas Giolito, the top starter lingering in free agency. Most people around the team believe president of baseball operations A.J. Preller preemptively spent at least some of the money saved by veteran starter Yu Darvish’s placement on the restricted list.
“Again, this is something that we’ve been planning for and working towards throughout the whole offseason,” Preller said before Thursday’s game. “Figuring out exactly what (Darvish) wanted to do, what list was the right list to put him on … that was really what the last six to eight weeks was about. But in terms of the planning part of it, it doesn’t really change anything on our end.”
Still, few teams appear to need Giolito as much as San Diego does. And Preller is not one to broadcast whatever he is attempting to do; what surfaces tends to surprise. Over the offseason, The Athletic reported, he pursued veteran starter Merrill Kelly and explored the market for top left-hander Framber Valdez.
Had Kelly accepted a three-year offer worth more than $50 million, Preller still might have tried to re-sign King. (He also might have then looked to trade Pivetta and his $19 million salary.) The Padres discussed concepts involving a longer deal with Valdez, though those talks never became particularly advanced.
The biggest obstacle: Under previous ownership, the Padres had already lavished nine-figure contracts on Musgrove, Darvish and several other players, limiting the club’s flexibility. Now, with a franchise sale looming, Preller might have to continue waiting for additional funds that may or may not come.
Thursday, amid a lopsided contest, the Padres still showed why the general manager would like to continue investing. A vaunted bullpen mostly stopped the bleeding. A lineup with plenty of capable hitters constructed quality at-bats and supplied an unearned run against Skubal, arguably the sport’s best pitcher.
And San Diego still employs one of the game’s most respected instructors. During pregame introductions, newcomer Miguel Andujar expressed his surprise when the crowd roared for Ruben Niebla, the associate manager and pitching coach.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, the pitching here since I’ve been here has been pretty good,’” said shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI double in his fourth Opening Day with the Padres. “Obviously, credit to the pitching coaches and to the pitchers that we have. I feel like, in the end, they will do their thing.
“Having Buehler, Márquez — they’re battling, and they’re going to give you all that they have. They obviously have a lot of success in the past. Hopefully, that can transition over with us. Knowing Ruben and the pitching staff, all the pitching guys that we have, the coaches, they do a good job ever since I’ve been here. I don’t know how it was before, but that’s pretty good.”
If Niebla and his assistants help the Padres to a third consecutive postseason, it might be their most impressive work yet. Thursday was only one day, but the concerns about the Padres’ rotation will not lift anytime soon. Friday, King will duel Valdez, the Tigers’ new $115 million pitcher.