Gavin Sheets rejoined the Padres on Thursday, hours before a raucous celebration in a cramped visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. Two long days later, the 30-year-old slugger was finally activated and in a starting big-league lineup.

It was about time for Sheets.

“Once you get back in this clubhouse, you start champing at the bit to get back in the lineup and get back on the field,” Sheets said before Saturday’s 5:40 p.m. start against the Arizona Diamondbacks. “Watching from afar and just seeing the way this crowd’s been and everything, I’ve been dying to get back.”

Welcome back, Gavin 🫶 pic.twitter.com/eDRMgBBTtZ

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) September 26, 2026

Sheets’ return was one of several roster moves ahead of the Padres making a second attempt to secure home-field advantage for next week’s NL Wild Card Series.

The simplest way to view it is this: Win Saturday and the Padres will host someone on Tuesday (you can read about the scenarios in Kevin Acee’s newsletter).

Right-hander Casey Mize (right ankle) foreshadowed his move to the 15-day injured list after another poor start Friday night. The Padres also optioned left-hander Kyle Hart to the minors and recalled right-hander Griffin Canning.

Hart has a 4.92 ERA over 64 innings this year in the majors and had a 14.85 ERA in seven appearances in September after a superb August (1.08 ERA).

“I think from where he was last year to this year is exponentially different,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “He carried our bullpen there for a little while when we were mixing and matching and doing the bullpen games. He was a huge part of that. If we didn’t have him, we wouldn’t have got through that. But I think the toll of the season maybe has worn him down a little bit.”

Hart, like Mize, cannot return for 15 days, which would be Game 1 of the NLCS. Mize said Friday night it was time to “have some honest conversations” about his right ankle — sprained in his fourth start with the Padres in August — limiting him as he pushed down the mound and robbing him of his effectiveness.

After beginning the year with a 2.70 ERA in 16 starts with the Tigers, Mize posted a 7.46 ERA in 10 starts after the trade deadline and a 7.76 EA in six starts after the team decided to keep him in the rotation.

An alternative could have been putting Mize on the injured list right away and giving Randy Vásquez (10-6, 4.01 ERA) a spot in the rotation again.

“Definitely wasn’t in consideration at that point,” Stammen said. “We felt like it was a minor ankle sprain, and he bounced back rather quickly and was able to throw one or two days after that. Was able to throw his bullpen in between that start. We felt really good about him. He had an extra day that week, if I remember right, but it’s just kind of one of those things that’s lingered a little longer than expected.”

Canning is returning to a pitching staff days after he was optioned to the minors to make room for Jason Adam’s return to the bullpen. Canning will return to the bullpen and very well could be part of a bullpen game on Sunday as the Padres have not named a starter for the regular-season finale.

Sheets will serve as the DH on Saturday and will likely be limited to hitting at least early on in his return to the roster. He clarified his injury as a plantar plate tear instead of plantar fasciitis and said he turned a corner after two to three weeks of wearing a boot and shutting down baseball activity.

“Getting to Arizona, it wasn’t a slow ramp-up,” Sheets said. “It was like, ‘Hey, let’s go right for it. And, you know, if it doesn’t work out, then we’ll shut it down for good. But if it does work out, let’s move as fast as we can.’ And so once we got to Arizona, I mean, it was literally hitting the ground running. I mean, it was running, throwing, running the bases, getting at-bats, taking a lot of swings, and seeing how it bounced back. And it bounced back really well — I think better than we all kind of expected.”

Here is how Arizona, still hoping to catch the Phillies for the sixth seed, will line up for Game 2:

Dig deep. pic.twitter.com/vpeag9xlyA

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) September 26, 2026

 

Saturday’s pitching matchup

D-backs RHP Taylor Clarke (2-4, 2.86 ERA)

Manager Torey Lovullo had to name a starter following news that RHP Corbin Burnes (0-0, 7.84 ERA) was headed to the injured list with inflammation in his right shoulder. The former NL Cy Young winner had made three starts since returning from last year’s Tommy John surgery. Clarke’s start will be the beginning of a bullpen game. Clarke last pitched on Thursday, allowing a run in an inning of work at Coors Field. He hasn’t thrown more than two innings or 36 pitches in a game.

Padres RHP Walker Buehler (9-6, 4.56 ERA)

Buehler has allowed three earned runs or less in 12 straight starts (3.39 ERA), helping the team go 9-3 in that stretch. The former Dodger is 7-1 with a 2.57 ERA in 91 career innings against Arizona in the regular season, but he has allowed eight runs in nine innings in two starts this year.

Here is how Buehler has fared against current Diamondbacks: