{"id":604853,"date":"2026-03-04T02:36:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/604853\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T02:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:36:38","slug":"how-will-the-padres-round-out-their-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/604853\/","title":{"rendered":"How Will The Padres Round Out Their Rotation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barring injury, the Padres will open the season with an established top three in their rotation. Nick Pivetta<\/a>,\u00a0Michael King<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Joe Musgrove<\/a> have the upside to be one of the best top halves in the National League.<\/p>\n

Musgrove is coming back from Tommy John surgery, while King was limited to 74 1\/3 innings last year (playoffs included) by a nerve issue in his shoulder and left knee inflammation. They\u2019re free of any restrictions this spring. Musgrove will make his exhibition debut tomorrow against Great Britain in a World Baseball Classic tune-up. King has already started two games this spring.<\/p>\n

The picture is a lot less clear from there. Yu Darvish<\/a> will miss the entire season. Free agent pickup Griffin Canning<\/a> has yet to pitch this spring as he works back from last June\u2019s Achilles tear. He\u2019s very likely starting the season on the injured list.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also true<\/a> of knuckleballer Matt Waldron<\/a>, though it could be close to a minimal IL stay for the right-hander. Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune<\/a> wrote yesterday that Waldron plans to throw off a mound this week and is hopeful of getting a start in before the end of Cactus League play. He won\u2019t be built up enough to start the season on the active roster, however. Waldron is out of options, so the Padres will need to carve out an MLB spot for him once he\u2019s ready or risk losing him via trade or waivers.<\/p>\n

That all but ensures that Randy V\u00e1squez<\/a> will get a season-opening rotation spot. Manager Craig Stammen said at the beginning of camp that the righty had a leg up on a job. V\u00e1squez is out options and needed to make the team in some capacity. He outperformed mediocre peripherals for most of last season but improved his strikeout rate to a league average level in September. He finished last season with a 3.86 ERA across 133 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

It probably leaves the Padres will one spot to fill. The front office has taken a volume approach to the back of the roster, adding a handful of veterans on cheap one-year deals or minor league contracts to see who sticks. They added enough options that it\u2019s not out of the question they open with a six-man rotation.<\/p>\n

Pitching coach Ruben Niebla left open that possibility over the weekend, although he implied they preferred a five-man group (link via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com<\/a>). Niebla said the team is preparing the starters on a usual five-day routine. If multiple depth arms pitch their way onto the roster, they could go to a six-man staff, but that requires dropping to a seven-man bullpen.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s only one spot available, Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez<\/a> enters camp as the favorite. The former Rockies righty signed a $1.75MM deal in mid-February. His spot on the MLB roster feels secure, which isn\u2019t the case for non-roster invitees Walker Buehler<\/a> or Marco Gonzales<\/a>. M\u00e1rquez could theoretically pitch in long relief if one of Buehler or Gonzales beats him for the fifth starter role. That scenario (or a six-man rotation) probably wouldn\u2019t bode well for out-of-options reliever Ron Marinaccio\u2019s<\/a> bid to stick on the roster.<\/p>\n

Lefty JP Sears<\/a> is also in the rotation mix, though San Diego\u2019s series of veteran additions means it\u2019s likelier he\u2019s headed back to Triple-A. Sears was hit hard in five MLB starts after being acquired from the A\u2019s in the Mason Miller<\/a> trade. He still has a minor league option remaining.<\/p>\n

Sears also hasn\u2019t an especially encouraging start to camp, giving up five runs on seven hits (including two homers) across 3 2\/3 innings. M\u00e1rquez allowed three runs on four hits over two innings in his exhibition debut over the weekend. Gonzales, who missed all of last season rehabbing flexor surgery, has given up five runs across 4 2\/3 frames over two spring starts. Buehler hasn\u2019t pitched in an official Spring Training game but took on the KBO\u2019s NC Dinos in an outing on the back fields over the weekend, giving up two runs over three innings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barring injury, the Padres will open the season with an established top three in their rotation. Nick Pivetta,\u00a0Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,140,66595,2282,4,7940,115],"class_list":["post-604853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-german-marquez","tag-marco-gonzales","tag-matt-waldron","tag-mlb","tag-randy-vasquez","tag-walker-buehler"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116168581693533620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}