TEMPE, Ariz. — Walker Buehler pitched on Tuesday.
No, he really pitched.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to get him to do,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “He’s just a different person than he was. … He’s kind of coming into that second evolution of his career, and he’s taken pretty well to it.”
The guy who used to blow away hitters faced an Angels lineup full of major leaguers, and he spun his way through 3⅔ innings of a 10-2 Padres victory.
Buehler, in essence, pitched backward.
He threw his four-seam fastball just six times among his 68 pitches. That is the same number of times he threw his changeup. He threw 16 sweepers, more than any other pitch, something he had done once in the 85 starts since he introduced the pitch to his arsenal.
“It’s good,” Buehler said, “to have success with some of that stuff that you’ve been working on.”
That doesn’t mean he isn’t a bit wistful.
“It’s kind of like the ex-girlfriend that you fell in love with and always will want her back,” Buehler said of his fastball. “I want to throw 100, and I want it to jump. I want to kind of stand and throw. But the reality is that probably won’t happen. We’ve just got to be really good on the execution of it and keep working through. I can go play long toss until my heart’s content, I don’t think I’m gonna sit 98 to 100 anymore. But the quality of it to kind of go with the other things I can do, I think something that’s achievable and attainable.”
Buehler and Germán Márquez have been internally considered the leading contenders to earn the final spot in the starting rotation. With Joe Musgrove’s status for the start of the season uncertain after his surgically repaired elbow didn’t respond as well as he and the team would have liked following his start on March 4, there is a possibility both Buehler and Márquez are on the opening-day roster.
Regardless, Buehler on Tuesday made a significant jump toward making sure he has a big-league job at the end of the month.
“I’ve been feeling pretty good the past couple weeks, and kind of moving towards what we want to be as a finished product,” he said after allowing two runs on five hits and two walks, hitting a batter and striking out two.
Buehler said after his first Cactus League start that for the first time in more than two years, his elbow was pain-free.
That is allowing him to work on his sweeper more. He threw that pitch 7% of the time last season and said he didn’t throw any in the offseason. He has reverted to his former higher arm angle.
“It’s kind of the old sweeper, to be honest with you,” he said. “In ‘21, it was probably my best pitch to right-handed hitters. And as we’ve kind of gone along in this surgery (and) rehab process, it’s just the elbow hasn’t really loved it. But now things are feeling better, and delivery is now where I want.”
Before his second Tommy John surgery, Buehler routinely threw his four-seam fastball in the high 90s. The pitch moved. He could seemingly put it where he wanted at will.
Since returning to the mound in 2024, Buehler’s velocity has most often been closer to the low 90s, and his command has been generally missing.
Still, he threw a lot of four-seam fastballs. He no longer used his fastball almost half the time, but a quarter of the time was normal. And that is about how often he threw it in his first Cactus League start.
Buehler’s first pitch Tuesday was a four-seam fastball. He threw two more in his next 38 pitches and five more times in all. He threw more sinkers than four-seamers, because that pitch plays better to right-handed batters, of which the Angels started eight.
But he still hardly used the four-seamer against left-handed batters. And he threw his changeup five times to right-handers after doing so six times all of 2025.
“Ruben has been really good in terms of helping me figure out what I can really do with my hand,” Buehler said of Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla.
Said Stammen: “He’s turning into a pretty good pitcher.”
Laureano’s rest
Ramón Laureano told Stammen he was ready to play Tuesday, but the manager decided to give him another day.
“Good for him,” Laureano said. “He’s awesome. He knows who we are. He knows what (players) need.”
The Padres’ left fielder was scratched from his scheduled Sunday start with what the Padres called “general body soreness.” Laureano said he often experiences something like this during spring training.
(This time, he said, there was the added element of his having slept awkwardly and waking up Sunday with his left shoulder hurting. He had made accommodations during the night for his dachshund, Pablo, who he got over the winter.)
With the Padres being off Wednesday, Laureano will have not played for four days.
Stammen has joked that Laureano being fatigued was his fault for playing him too much. Truth is, it is difficult to stop Laureano, who is as on-the-move as any Padres player and is known to practice at a high tempo.
“When I’m working, I’m going full game speed,” Laureano said before heading to the batting cage to take some swings on Tuesday. “I’m ready for the season. This (rest) is actually good.”
Pivetta progress
Nick Pivetta, who missed his scheduled Cactus League start Sunday due to arm fatigue, threw a “touch and go” bullpen on Tuesday and is scheduled to throw his regular between-starts bullpen session Thursday and start Saturday.
That would leave him time for two starts before the regular season. Provided Pivetta gets to around 60 pitches on Saturday, he would be in line to make one more spring start.
The Padres have not named an opening-day starter, but Pivetta is the overwhelmingly logical choice after he posted a 2.87 ERA in 181⅔ innings in 2025.
Notable
RHP Daison Acosta cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A El Paso, leaving the Padres with an open spot on their 40-man roster.
C Ethan Salas has been reassigned to minor league camp. The Padres have 58 players in big-league camp.