Joe Musgrove got his work in on Friday evening.
The pitch count at this stage and in the environment at Triple-A El Paso is the thing to track as he returns from his October 2024 Tommy John surgery.
The 33-year-old’s velocity was also noteworthy in his third rehab start.
Musgrove touched 97 mph in his first inning of work, hit 96 mph in his fourth inning and touched 95 mph after getting up a fifth time against visiting Salt Lake. The outing ended with his fifth strikeout as he threw 47 of his 70 pitches for strikes while allowing five runs on nine hits, a walk and a hit batter in 4⅔ innings.
That workload could make him an option to return to the majors in five to six days, although the Padres could have him make one more rehab start to get him closer to returning to the rotation as a five- to six-inning starter.
The velocity is encouraging. Musgrove hasn’t touched 97 mph in a big-league game since doing so four times in 2017. Musgrove began his rehab work earlier this month by sitting 93 to 94 mph.
Musgrove threw 39 pitches over 2⅔ innings (1 ER) on Aug. 4 at low Single-A Lake Elsinore and threw 53 pitches over ⅓ innings (1 ER) at Reno on Sunday for El Paso.