Nick Pivetta pitched for Team Canada in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. He was set for another round in the tournament in 2023 until a bout of COVID-19 set him back in his ramp-up for the season.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old expects to represent his country again at some point. But it won\u2019t be this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a hard decision for me to make,\u201d Pivetta said Saturday afternoon at Padres FanFest at Petco Park. \u201cBut at the end of the day, I have a finite time in the big leagues right now. With the way that I pitched last year, I think the rest is probably good to allow myself to achieve the goal that I want, and that\u2019s to win a World Series with this club here and taking that time just to focus on that. I know that I will have more opportunities to play in the WBC with Canada again, and that\u2019s also a priority of mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut right now, where this team is at and the culture that it is \u2014 I know that we have guys going to represent their countries and that\u2019s great and I love that \u2014 but just to have the core group of guys also at camp and me being there I think is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sut-l-POY-2025-McLaughlin-00035.jpg\")
Nick Pivetta #27 of the San Diego Padres reacts after striking out Lourdes Gurriel Jr. #12 of the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fourth inning at Petco Park on Tuesday, July 8, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Five Padres will participate in the World Baseball Classic: Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. (Dominican Republic), Xander Bogaerts (the Netherlands), Yuki Matsui (Japan) and Mason Miller (Team USA).<\/p>\n
The hitters in that contingent will continue to collect at-bats. As opposed to relievers, starting pitchers like Pivetta need a longer ramp-up to get ready for the season.<\/p>\n
Yu Darvish pitched just six innings during Japan\u2019s run to the 2023 WBC championship. He needed additional time when he rejoined the Padres in Peoria, Ariz., and didn\u2019t make his season debut until the second turn through the rotation.<\/p>\n
Pivetta skipping the WBC takes that wild card out of the deck. The right-hander threw a career-high 181\u2154 innings in 2025, which was\u00a0 easily the best season of his career. Pivetta won a career-high 13 games, posted a career-low 2.87 ERA and is now expected to front a rotation that\u2019s lost Darvish to Tommy John surgery and Dylan Cease to free agency.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also this: Pivetta\u2019s contract allows him to opt out after this season, and he\u2019s a good bet to do so if he replicates his 2025 season.<\/p>\n
![\"Gavin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-padres-0823-021.jpg\")
Gavin Sheets #30 of the San Diego Padres makes a catch in the outfield during the sixth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nRoster talk<\/p>\n
As of now, the Padres plan to enter camp with Gavin Sheets atop their first base depth chart.<\/p>\n
Sheets was drafted as a first baseman, but the White Sox had Jose Abreu at that position. So Sheets picked up the outfield to find a way into their lineup. He played 479 innings in the outfield for the Padres last season \u2014 and just 99 1\/3 at first base.<\/p>\n
Still, \u201cfirst base is home for me,\u201d Sheets said. \u201cTo get that opportunity to get back there and get comfortable there is exciting. It\u2019s been a great offseason working there.\u201d<\/p>\n
First-year manager Craig Stammen said Sung-Mun Song and Will Wagner will also get looks at first base this spring. Jake Cronenworth is again expected to be the Padres\u2019 primary second baseman, although he\u2019ll be available to fill in at first.<\/p>\n
The DH spot will be an open competition as well as a half-day off for the likes of Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatis Jr. and others.<\/p>\n
Luis Campusano could also factor into that rotation; he\u2019s a leading candidate to be one of two catchers when the team breaks camp.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old Campusano \u2014 who is out of minor league options \u2014 was 0-for-21 in sporadic action in the majors last year. But he paired 25 homers with a 1.036 OPS in his fifth tour through Triple-A El Paso.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done nothing but prove himself at Triple-A,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what else he could do in El Paso that could get him ready to be playing in the major leagues. I think what he\u2019s needing now is just an opportunity, and one thing that he and I have is he caught me when he came up and we\u2019ve had those talks of what it\u2019s like with a rookie catcher and a veteran pitcher and that time I\u2019m not thinking this is going to happen later on in life. But I was able to put my arm around him and say, \u2018Hey, I got you, man; we\u2019ll get through this together.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so we\u2019re doing the same thing now, and I\u2019m kind of excited about him having the opportunity to have a really good chance of making the team and being a part of our ballclub and be someone who\u2019s going to give us a super big advantage at the catching position and at the plate, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Fernando](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sut-l-padres-011.jpg\")
Fernando Tatis Jr. talks to the media at Padres FanFest. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nFinally, Fernando<\/p>\n
Tatis\u2019 steroid suspension barred him from participating in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, so he is eager to get his chance to represent his country this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many emotions are going to go through when I\u2019m actually there,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cI\u2019ve looked forward to that since I was a kid, since I saw my dad playing Puerto Rico in the (2009) World Baseball Classic out there. It was definitely something I wanted to do as a kid, as a pro player, and right now is definitely one of my goals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Pivetta pitched for Team Canada in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. He was set for another round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-158875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}