Griffin Canning has completed his minor league rehab assignment. The Padres aren’t yet saying when he’ll make his 2026 debut, only that his next appearance will be in the majors.
It could come as soon as Sunday.
Right-hander Randy Vásquez had been the listed probable starter, but he threw his between-start bullpen on Saturday and appears to be lined up to pitch Monday in San Francisco.
Canning made his last rehab start on Tuesday with Triple-A El Paso, threw his between-start bullpen on Friday at Petco Park and believes he’s checked off all the requisite boxes ahead of making his Padres debut.
“I feel really good,” Canning said after pitchers, fielding practice on Saturday afternoon. “I think my last rehab outing was a good one to build off . I got through through five, kind of got back into the rhythm of the game a little bit. I like where I’m at.”
Canning made 16 starts last year for the Mets before requiring a season-ending surgery on his Achilles. He signed with the Padres in February with the idea that he’d be slowly building up even after the Padres broke camp.
Tuesday was Canning’s fifth rehab start with Triple-A El Paso. All told, he struck out 18 against 12 walks over 15 innings (3.60 ERA), but did his best work on Tuesday, when he threw 62 pitches over five innings and allowed just an unearned run on three hits and a walk.
Canning struck out four in that game and as many as six in 2⅔ innings in his third start with the Chihuahuas. He wasn’t tested a ton in the field, but he is confident that his surgically repaired left Achilles tendon is ready for major league action.
He, too, is ready to move past this extended stretch of spring training and finally start his season.
“It’s a little tough,” Canning said of building up in a pseudo spring training. “I feel like you’re kind of trying to toe that line between working on stuff like how you would during spring training, but once you get in the game, you’re competitive. You just want to get outs. So it’s a fine line kind of going back and forth between that.”
That the Padres are continuing to list Sunday’s starter as TBD is a reflection of a number of variables in the mix. They not only have to add Canning to the active roster at the expense of an arm in the rotation or in the bullpen, they are about two weeks away from needing to do the same with right-hander Lucas Giolito.
The team is also in the midst of playing 10 straight games and 19 games in 20 days. That might make it enticing to employ a six-man rotation at times.
Pitching coach Ruben Niebla also said earlier this week that the team is remaining open-minded about the possibility of using openers in front of anyone not named Michael King, and the White Sox lineup — three of the first four on Saturday were left-handed hitters, including MLB home run leader Munetaka Murakami — could be an opportunity to roll out a lefty ahead of Canning’s debut.
That, too, could hinge on which relievers are needed Saturday behind King.
Regardless of when Canning starts, the Padres — who have lost Nick Pivetta to a flexor strain and have yet to have Joe Musgrove return to a mound following his spring setback — are eager for the shot in the arm they expect him to provide to the pitching staff.
“He’s gonna be great,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “I think he’s excited to get past that Achilles injury. He has put in a ton of work, a lot of hard work. You guys saw it all through spring training, and now he’s had a bunch of rehab starts. So whenever his next outing is, it’s going to be exciting.
“It’s going to be here in the big leagues, and we’re looking forward to it.”