PEORIA, Ariz. — Spring training is six weeks of buildup to opening day.

But there are six months of baseball to go after that first game of the season.

That is what the Padres’ presumptive opening-day starter decided to focus on when he brought up that his arm was feeling a bit tired this past week.

“I would just say just regular arm fatigue,” Pivetta said Sunday. “We have a little bit of time. I’m able to just take a step back. We won’t be talking about it once the season gets going. But I think just for me right now, I have the time to take a step back, work on a couple things, get the rest I need and then just go out and again. Take the time now to make sure that I am healthy throughout the season, I think that’s the priority.”

Before playing catch Sunday morning, Pivetta had not thrown for five days, since he pitched three innings (43 pitches) in his second start of the spring. He skipped his usual between-starts bullpen on Friday, and Logan Gillaspie took his place for Sunday’s Cactus League game against the Reds.

Manager Craig Stammen said Sunday afternoon the expectation is Pivetta will slot back in when his turn would normally come up, which is Friday.

If that is the case, the schedule might not line up to allow Pivetta to be the Padres’ starter in their March 26 opener against the Tigers.

That seemed like a foregone conclusion until this pause in his progression, as Pivetta finished 2025 ranked sixth in the National League in ERA (2.87), seventh in innings (181⅔) and 10th in strikeouts (190).

But starting Friday would line Pivetta up to pitch the final Cactus League game on March 23.

Gillaspie could be the bridge

Gillaspie is threatening to become one of the stories of the spring for the Padres.

He is throwing strikes, getting ground balls and not allowing runs.

Four more scoreless innings in Sunday’s 14-3 victory over the Reds brought Gillaspie’s spring line to: 8⅔ innings, three hits, no runs, three walks, a hit batter and seven strikeouts (plus 10 groundouts) in three games.

“He just goes out there, competes his tail off,” manager Craig Stammen said. “A lot of energy, enthusiasm, throws a ton of strikes, gets a lot of outs. Outs are good.”

Gillaspie, a 28-year-old right-hander who has a 4.63 ERA in 40 big-league relief appearances (44⅔ innings) with the Orioles and Padres, still might be considered a longshot to crack the Padres’ loaded bullpen.

But Stammen, himself something of a jack-of-all-trades as a reliever, seems to like Gillaspie as a reliever capable of working multiple innings.

“I don’t like to call them long men,” Stammen said. “They’re more bridge guys. Hold the deficit, hold the lead kind of guys. They win you a lot of baseball games.”

Whatever the role is called, Gillaspie said recently, “I’m ready for it. I don’t care what it is. When they call my name, just give ‘em all I got.”

One of the humblest and more wonderfully silly players to be around the Padres in recent years, Gillaspie has the ideal outlook for a guy who no matter what happens out of camp will likely ride the shuttle between Triple-A and the majors this season.

“I don’t even worry about it,” Gillaspie said. “I just don’t get my hopes up. I’m OK with saying I’m going to El Paso.”

That said …

“When they tell you’re going to go up,” Gillaspie said with a smile, “it’s better.”

Sheets walks into a homer

Gavin Sheets has been able to focus on getting better this year rather than trying to make a team.

Having set career highs in most offensive categories last season and with his job secure, Sheets spoke earlier this spring about his planned evolution as a hitter.

“It’s just building off of what went well and what didn’t and what we need to work on and take that next step,” he said recently. “Obviously, last year was huge for me, but now it’s becoming more of a complete hitter and continuing to add on and getting better in different counts. Just kind of fine-tuning things. … We look deeper into the numbers and say, ‘OK, what counts do I need to be better in?’ Chase rates, swinging pitches, stuff like that.”

And so it was that entering Sunday’s game, Sheets had walked a team-high seven times.

“Definitely been an enhanced focus,” he said Sunday morning.

Sheets has gone to the plate this spring looking for pitches in a certain part of the zone. He has made it an emphasis to take advantage of favorable counts, trying to get pitchers in the zone by not offering at pitches on which he isn’t likely to do damage.

“That’s been awesome for this part of camp, where you’re kind of putting results aside and thinking about the process,” he said. “… I think that’s your game to the next level and taking your at-bats to the next level.”

What Sheets had not done at the time he spoke was hit a home run. He changed that in the second inning Sunday when he blasted a 2-2 fastball 410 feet to right field.

Sheets went up 2-0 against Reds starter Chase Burns, who then evened the count. Sheets fouled off a slider that broke just below the knees before belting a 98 mph fastball Burns left in the heart of the strike zone.

“Homers are more fun than walks, for sure,” Sheets, who at one point last spring hit five home runs in a span of four games, said after departing Sunday’s game having gone 1-for-3. “But I think discipline creates swings like that and gets you in counts like that.”