Jhony Brito dressed at the locker between Freddy Fermin\u2019s and Michael King\u2019s on Monday afternoon, disappeared into his manager\u2019s office and returned without a concrete answer as to exactly how he\u2019ll be deployed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Chances are, it\u2019ll be a lot more familiar than the middle-relief role he was getting used to the last time he was in the majors.<\/p>\n
Not that he\u2019s all that picky after losing all of last year to elbow surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, happy \u2014 happy after all that time and trying to come back from injury,\u201d the 28-year-old Brito said through interpreter Jorge Merlos. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be back. Once they told me I was going to come back, I was really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brito made 13 of his 25 rookie appearances in 2023 in the New York Yankees\u2019 rotation. He joined pitchers Michael King and Randy V\u00e1squez, catcher Kyle Higashioka and pitching prospect Drew Thorpe in the package that fetched Juan Soto and Trent Grisham in December 2023 and then spent most of his time working the seventh, eighth and ninth innings in his first year as a Padre.<\/p>\n
Brito was beginning to stretch out as a starter in the minors late in the summer when his elbow started barking. It was still an issue the following spring, forcing him to undergo an internal brace procedure on his UCL over a repeat of the 2017 Tommy John surgery that cost him the 2018 season. Brito also had his flexor repaired while the surgeons were working on his UCL as he missed all of 2025.<\/p>\n
Brito got back into game action in May in the Arizona Complex League, made four rehab starts at Double-A San Antonio (1.96 ERA, 18\u2153 IP) and four more starts for Triple-A El Paso (0.96 ERA, 18\u2154 IP), although three occurred after he was activated at the end of his 30-day rehab window and officially optioned to El Paso. He has thrown between 71 and 77 pitches in each of his four appearances with El Paso. The Padres have not said how he\u2019ll be deployed \u2014 he could start, he could pitch behind an opener or perhaps even piggyback with right-hander Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez \u2014 nor is it all that important to Brito.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I can contribute however the team needs me,\u201d Brito said. \u201cI know (the rotation is) kind of a little bit of trouble right now, but however I\u2019m available I\u2019ll be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estrada\u2019s progress<\/p>\n
Two days after throwing his first bullpen, Jeremiah Estrada was in the Padres clubhouse on Monday. He was expecting to throw a couple more bullpens before facing live hitters, perhaps after the All-Star break. A progression from there would take him into a rehab assignment as he eyes a second-half return.<\/p>\n
Estrada was placed on the 15-day injured list on June 5 with inflammation in his right knee. It is his second time on the shelf this season, but he missed less than a month with elbow tendinitis earlier this season.<\/p>\n
The knee has been an entirely different animal to tackle, Estrada said Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s getting there,\u201d he said, noting he\u2019d been much more accustomed to how to whip his arm into shape after an injury as opposed to his lower half. \u201cIt\u2019s much better. For sure much better but still a little achy. \u2026 I\u2019ve never felt this before, so I was just surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estrada credited the training staff and the organization for getting him pointed in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a quick turnaround, too, to how quick it kind of healed,\u201d Estrada said. \u201cThe stuff they got me on, it helped me work out and continue to get stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres are down three relievers in the bullpen at the moment: Estrada, Jason Adam (shoulder) and David Morgan (knee).<\/p>\n
Up to speed<\/p>\n
In the midst of 17 straight games until next week\u2019s All-Star break, the Padres gave Xander Bogaerts a day off to start a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a good time to get Sung-Mun Song in the lineup as he was hitting .364\/.462\/.591 over his last 12 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely do feel he\u2019s much more comfortable at this stage in the season than what he was at the beginning,\u201d Padres manager Craig Stammen said. \u201c(Sunday\u2019s) game was a good example of him playing with some freedom, laying a bunt down, stealing two bases. He\u2019s been making a lot of great plays on defense, which he\u2019s done all year, but I think he\u2019s coming into his own, and he wants to prove that the type of player that he was in Korea is the type of player that he is here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Song went 1-for-3 with a walk and two steals in Sunday\u2019s win in Los Angeles. He hit his first homer during a two-hit game on Wednesday at Wrigley Field and had his first two-walk game on the previous homestand.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old Korean import had a .475 OPS as of June 15. His recent hot pocket has lifted it to .666 on the season as he\u2019s hitting .239\/.338\/.328 with nine RBIs and nine steals while seeing time at shortstop, second and third base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jhony Brito dressed at the locker between Freddy Fermin\u2019s and Michael King\u2019s on Monday afternoon, disappeared into his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":["post-389068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389068","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=389068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}