Matt Waldron held down the fort for three months when injuries ravaged the Padres’ starting rotation in 2024.
The club does not yet know how long it will be without ace Nick Pivetta, but Waldron’s extended run of success in the majors offers some comfort while they await a diagnosis. Pivetta underwent an MRI, but the Padres said Tuesday they were still awaiting results.
“He’s a viable major-league starter,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said Tuesday of Waldron. “He proved that. He carried our team in ‘24 when we really needed him, when the rotation was kind of struggling, and then from what we’ve seen in spring training, too, we’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”
Pivetta left Sunday’s start in the top of the fourth inning with elbow stiffness.
The club placed Pivetta on the 15-day injured list retroactive to Monday with elbow inflammation and recalled right-hander Alek Jacob from Triple-A El Paso for short-term bullpen coverage, with the plan for Waldron to take Pivetta’s spot in the rotation later this week. The Padres haven’t officially announced which day Waldron will pitch, but throwing a side session on Wednesday, he said, points him toward Friday in Anaheim.
Pivetta led the Padres’ rotation in wins (13), ERA (2.87) and innings pitched (181⅔) last season and started the club’s playoff opener in the NL Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field. The Padres tabbed Pivetta to start on opening day last month; however, that decision was not made until the club was sure Pivetta was past the arm fatigue that set him back in spring training.
After Sunday’s exit, Stammen likened Pivetta’s elbow stiffness to what he felt in spring training. Pivetta did not speak with reporters on Tuesday after he was officially placed on the injured list.
“I think we’re trying to be cautious with Nick,” Stammen said. “I think the smartest move was to not push him and give him some time on the IL … and still trying to figure out exactly what’s going on. Medical team’s going through the process, and then we’ll probably have some more information coming up (in the) next couple days.”
Waldron was competing for a spot in the rotation until an unexpected hemorrhoid surgery in spring training set him back. He opened the season on the 15-day injured list and had a 12-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio while throwing 12 shutout innings across three rehab starts, the last requiring just 58 pitches over five innings on April 9.
Waldron is out of options and was nearing the end of his 30-day rehab window.
He was a vital component of the rotation in 2024 while the team was without both Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove for stretches of the season. Waldron had a 4.91 ERA over 146⅔ innings that year, but really came into his own over a 16-start stretch from May to early August in which he posted a 3.05 ERA.
“Just trying to get back to that,” Waldron said Tuesday afternoon. “But at the end of the day, just each outing one at a time and one inning at a time and one day at a time.”
He added: “It’s a great opportunity. … I really feel for Nick there. Nobody wants it more than him, but it’s a great opportunity. I want to be as effective as I can.”
Mixing it up
Waldron became something of a cult hero on social media in 2024 as clips of his dancing knuckleball — the only one in the majors at the time — went viral. He returns to the majors as a pitcher who throws a knuckleball and a harder one that he wants to mix with a harder fastball as part of a five-pitch mix.
“I think I have really good command, so I’m going to make them respect the fastball command and attack the zone and all angles,” Waldron said. “So I feel like in and out to lefties and right, just making it as hard as possible. But going to the knuckleball, yeah, it’s knowing that’s hard a hard pitch to hit, especially when you don’t know when it’s coming.
“It’s not a guarantee every time. So I think hitters can’t just only look for that.”
Stammen said Waldron is “showing a lot of confidence that he believes in his stuff.”
“The little bit of increase in velocity on his fastball, increase in velocity on his knuckleball, I think it’s proven to be very good, very beneficial for him,” the manager said.
Notable
Starting pitcher Griffin Canning (Achilles) threw a bullpen session on Tuesday at Petco Park. He is expected to need at least a couple more rehab starts before being activated to the big leagues. Canning threw 62 pitches over 3⅓ innings of one-run ball in his last start for Triple-A El Paso on Friday.
Reliever Jeremiah Estrada (elbow tendinitis) is back to playing light catch. Starter Joe Musgrove (Tommy John), meanwhile, is not yet throwing off the mound following his spring training setback.
Outfielder Alex Verdugo, who signed a minor league deal with the Padres late in spring training, is tending to a sore throwing shoulder at the Padres spring training complex in Peoria, Ariz. He is expected to join El Paso when healthy, perhaps in a couple of weeks.