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A closer look at the San Diego Padres’ rotation. 

Newly extended Padres President of Baseball Operations and General Manager A.J. Preller sure loves to add big league-level arms once teams have already reported to their respective spring training facilities. In 2024, he went and acquired Dylan Cease right before the Seoul Series in Korea. In 2025, he signed the 2024 Choi Dong Wong award winner in Kyle Hart and Nick Pivetta, to a four-year contract.

With the 2026 Cactus League play beginning on Friday, major league pitching depth was a huge priority as camp began.

Triston McKenzie, Miguel Mendez, Matt Waldron, and left-handers Marco Gonzales, Kyle Hart, and JP Sears were widely considered as the most likely suitors for the final rotation spot when pitchers and catchers first reported last Tuesday. The top four spots are likely to be Nick Pivetta, Michael King, Joe Musgrove, and Randy Vásquez.

Yu Darvish is going to miss the 2026 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. With the lack of depth at the major league level at the starting pitching position, many were wondering if these were going to be the guys the team would run with for the start of the year.

 

New additions

In 2026, it is no different as on Valentine’s Day, Preller signed former Angel, right-handed pitcher Griffin Canning, to a one-year contract with a mutual option for 2027. Later in the afternoon, it was reported by Alden Gonzalez of ESPN that long-time Rockie, German Marquez, was headed to San Diego, also on a deal for the 2026 season with a mutual option for 2027.

Preller added one more arm to the bunch of arms on Monday night in two-time All-Star and two-time World Series Champion, Walker Buehler, as first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee. Buehler agreed to a minor league deal with the Padres, with an invite to spring training.

With Preller adding a plethora of major league-caliber arms the past week, the battle for the final rotation spot will be something to monitor throughout spring training.

Griffin Canning, 29, a victim of a torn left Achilles tendon last June with the Mets, has been throwing bullpens but is hopeful to make his Friars debut by May. He pitched to a 3.77 ERA while logging 76 1/3 innings in 16 starts in 2025. He could certainly be a valuable asset down the stretch as a starter or long man out of the bullpen, but he is not a candidate to make the Opening Day roster.

German Marquez, 30, could be a very serviceable addition to this Padres rotation. Perhaps moving from the extremely hitter-friendly Coors Field to pitcher-friendly Petco Park could be in the best interest for Marquez’s forgettable 6.70 ERA he suffered in 2025. Marquez logged back-to-back 180-inning seasons from 2021-2022 while posting ERAs in the 4.00s throughout that span.

Walker Buehler, 31, has had an injury-riddled career following his fourth-place finish in NL Cy Young voting in 2021. In 2025, Buehler signed a one-year deal worth $21.05 million with Boston that ended with his release in late August. Two days later, Buehler agreed to a deal for the remainder of the season with the Philadelphia Phillies. In a small sample of 13 2/3 big league innings, he recorded a 0.66 ERA, allowing no long balls, an area that he has struggled with following his second Tommy John surgery in August 2022.

McKenzie, Gonzales, Sears, Hart, and Waldron are all some names who are no strangers to the majors and possess major league experience over the past couple of years. But they have not proven themselves quite yet. McKenzie, at only 28 years old, piques interest the most as he showed flashes with a great 2022 season with a 2.91 ERA in 191 1/3 innings with the Guardians. Since then, from 2023-2025, he has only seen 97 1/3 innings, getting some time in the bullpen as well. Triston McKenzie, along with Marquez and Buehler, could be in for a career bounce back in San Diego with a highly respected and trusted pitching coach, Ruben Niebla.

 

Supporting staff

The season after being promoted to pitching coach and associate manager, Ruben Niebla should have his hands full this spring with many new and intriguing arms. The pitch doctor is nothing new to maximizing his starters’ abilities, with Blake Snell, Michael King, Nick Pivetta, and Randy Vásquez just to name a few.

First-year manager and former Padres reliever from 20172-22, Craig Stammen, and GM A.J. Preller should have lots of information to look at and break down as days go by. They will have some tough decisions to make as their Opening Day matchup versus the Detroit Tigers on March 26 at Petco Park comes closer.

Angel Flores

Angel is a massive San Diego sports fan, following the Padres, SDSU athletics, San Diego FC, as well as the Chargers. He is currently a third year community college student, looking to transfer to SDSU to pursue a career in Journalism.

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