PITTSBURGH \u2014 Nothing will change how diligently Joe Musgrove is working or how desperately he wants to get back.<\/p>\n
But it is nice to see a start like Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez had Monday, throwing five scoreless innings in a victory over the Pirates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf our starting staff was getting crushed, everyone is going to start asking more questions, which I guess in turn puts more pressure on me,\u201d Musgrove said Tuesday. \u201c\u2026 But it\u2019s not like if we were struggling, I\u2019d be forcing myself back any more than I am now. I just can\u2019t seem to get the results I need.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one could soberly question Musgrove\u2019s determination to push through pain or return from injury. He worked almost too maniacally to get back to pitching through a series of injuries in 2023, and he made 20 starts in 2024 with his elbow bothering him in every one of them before succumbing to Tommy John surgery in October.<\/p>\n
It is the comeback from that surgery that has hit a snag and kept him from beginning his 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Musgrove has been playing catch every other day (and at least once on successive days) for nearly two weeks.<\/p>\n
There is no timetable for when he will get on a mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to get some consistent feedback from the throwing,\u201d he said over the weekend. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s throwing until we get to a point where I feel confident being able to go out and physically feel good enough to put something on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will be at least May before he returns to the major leagues since he will need multiple bullpen sessions and multiple rehab starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a slow and arduous process,\u201d manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cBut Joe is willing to put the work in and sooner or later, we\u2019ll get him back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musgrove doesn\u2019t anticipate he will have to \u201cbuild up all the way to six (innings) and 100 (pitches) before I\u2019m back, but they want to see me be good and like physically feeling like I\u2019m recovering.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the issue that prompted Musgrove and the Padres to decide to shut him down in mid-March after he pitched in one exhibition and an ensuing turn in the bullpen.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust getting it to feel good enough to go out and pitch right now is not really what I\u2019m looking for in March, April,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to be able to pitch all year long and do more than just one or two starts and end up back in the same spot. So a lot of it is gauged on, \u2018How do I feel right now and does this feel like something I can continue to build and progress with?\u2019 So until I get to the point where I feel like I\u2019m getting consistent enough days of good catch and recovery to where I feel like I can throw a \u2018pen and I feel like after the \u2018pen, I\u2019ll be able to play long toss and throw another bullpen and get in the (next) game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way that it\u2019s been feeling, I just haven\u2019t been confident about being able to get there. And it\u2019s not like I\u2019m not trying to. I\u2019ve tried it and it hasn\u2019t been there. We\u2019ve invested so much time on rest and recovery stuff. I don\u2019t want to waste the time that we\u2019ve taken by pushing it back and then having to start this process all over again. I\u2019m trying to get better as efficiently and quickly as I can. But it\u2019s just not cooperating as well as I want to.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially at this level. It\u2019s one thing to come back in high school or college and keep pitching your season, but to get major league hitters out, your (expletive) has got to be good and you\u2019ve got to be confident. And I just don\u2019t have that right now. I\u2019m not far off. I showed signs of it in spring. My stuff was there. Just the ability to execute breaking balls and get in the zone consistently and recover well enough to do it again in five days, just \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Musgrove experiences pain when throwing some breaking balls, though it is not acute like it was in 2024. An MRI last month confirmed the graft from his surgery is intact.<\/p>\n
Musgrove has dealt with the usual uncertainty due to discomfort at various stages in his rehab. It was not until he pushed it in spring training that it became clear he needed to take a step back.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of it is the confidence in the pitch because the pain is related to that specific pitch,\u201d he said. \u201c\u201dLike, when it\u2019s called, I\u2019m less likely to want to throw it because it hurts and I know it\u2019s not a very sharp pitch. Whereas, before, if I get behind in the count, I could throw four different pitches to both sides of the plate and get back in the count and control it, and I just felt in control.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need it to be like, perfect, where like, \u2018Oh, my slider is not great. I\u2019m not gonna pitch.\u2019 It\u2019s just like, physically, it doesn\u2019t feel good to throw the slider. And if I want to rip it and get big-league hitters out, like, I\u2019ll have it for an outing and then be in bad shape. \u2026 I tried it in spring. Then I was, like, to the point where I said, \u2018(Expletive) it.\u2019 And I was just ripping them. And it was just getting worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Nothing will change how diligently Joe Musgrove is working or how desperately he wants to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185,3546],"class_list":{"0":"post-669133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sandiegopadres","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116365635395420508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669133","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=669133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}