Walker Buehler smiled widely and quickly removed himself from the end of his postgame availability late Saturday night. The hero in a walk-off win, Jake Cronenworth had done the same moments earlier.<\/p>\n
The Padres and most of Major League Baseball had expected the biggest impact arm (Tarik Skubal) to land with the game\u2019s biggest spenders.<\/p>\n
A day later, Joe Musgrove gave oxygen to what others preferred to leave unsaid in the immediate aftermath of the Dodgers\u2019 big move.<\/p>\n
Of course, the Dodgers were going to land the most coveted arm.<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 concern is adding at least two arms \u2014 Musgrove and Nick Pivetta \u2014 to whatever A.J. Preller puts together ahead of Monday\u2019s 3 p.m. trade deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t made our moves yet,\u201d Musgrove said Sunday morning. \u201cOur team\u2019s starting to come together at the right time. We\u2019re getting healthier. Hopefully we get myself and Nick back, Jason (Adam) at some point. David Morgan\u2019s right on the horizon of coming back. I think we\u2019re going to fill out as a team, and I think some of these roles will start to get clearer as we go and get some of these arms back, get back to somewhat of a normal rotation, try to take some pressure off the bullpen and keep those guys fresh. Our team could look very different in the next 48 hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s up against it with the Dodgers\u2019 roster to begin with, so it\u2019s nothing new to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres know this as well as anyone.<\/p>\n
They haven\u2019t finished better than second in the NL West since first qualifying for the postseason under Preller in 2020. They were swept out of the NLDS by the Dodgers that year. They went 24 innings without scoring a run in losing their grip on their 2024 NLDS matchup with Los Angeles. They blitzed right through them in 2022 en route to advancing to the NLCS.<\/p>\n
None of those series were decided by one player, however extraneous that player seems to a 69-win team still waiting on significant contributions from Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, the playoffs are a one-series thing,\u201d Musgrove said. \u201cYou can have the best roster, but you\u2019ve got to be really sharp and you\u2019ve got to be clicking at the right time. Anything can happen in those short three-, five- or seven-game series. Have one good week of baseball. \u2026 and that\u2019s all it takes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s not really a surprise to anybody here. I don\u2019t think anybody feels defeated by it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musgrove\u2019s real concern is his next step.<\/p>\n
A day after throwing bullpens at Petco Park, both he and Pivetta will make their first rehab appearances \u2014 one after the other \u2014 on Tuesday at low Single-A Lake Elsinore.<\/p>\n
The expectation is that both will be back in the Padres rotation by Aug. 22, the date tied to an injury stipulation (130 consecutive days on the injured list) that would allow the Padres to turn Pivetta\u2019s $14 million player option into a team option for 2027.<\/p>\n
Pivetta\u2019s flexor strain has sidelined him since April 12. Musgrove hasn\u2019t pitched in a game since requiring Tommy John surgery after making his start in the 2024 NL Wild Card Series against the Braves.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery excited for it,\u201d Musgrove said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of ups and downs, times where I thought I was getting really close and we had to pull back a little bit. But this is the best I\u2019ve felt in a long time. Consistent recovery. Feel like I\u2019m finally able to start working on pitches and getting in more of competition mode on the mound, as opposed to just trying to get through it without pain. So I feel like I\u2019m progressing with my pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy stuff is getting better every time out. Feel really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another rotation curve<\/p>\n
The Padres were already assured of at least a series split with the Giants when they opted to start left-hander Kyle Hart on Sunday against a Giants lineup that on Sunday had six left-handed hitters in the lineup.<\/p>\n
That pushed Michael King back a day to face the Diamondbacks on Monday for the start of a key four-game series in Arizona. King was given a heads up of the possibility of the switch on Saturday, but it was also something he\u2019d clearly thought about.<\/p>\n
The Diamondbacks began Sunday two games ahead of the Padres in the NL wild-card race, and head-to-head matchups represent two-game swings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously know the Diamondbacks are ahead of us in the standings,\u201d King said. \u201cI was almost looking at this like a week ago, that I knew I wasn\u2019t lined up to pitch against them. So when I was given the opportunity to pitch against them and potentially help us in the playoff hunt, I\u2019d like to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
The Padres have signed RHP J.P. France, 31, to a minor league deal. France won 11 games (3.83 ERA, 136 \u2153 IP) for the Astros in 2023, but has thrown 36 innings (7.00 ERA) since then in the majors, including allowing six runs in 6\u2154 innings this year. France had a 3.72 ERA in 36 \u2153 innings mostly as a reliever at Triple-A Sugar Land this year ahead of this week\u2019s release.
\nMorgan (knee) threw 12 of 15 pitches for strikes while starting a rehab assignment on Sunday with Triple-A El Paso. He topped out at 97.9 mph, allowed a single and didn\u2019t walk or strike out anyone.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Annie Heilbrunn contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walker Buehler smiled widely and quickly removed himself from the end of his postgame availability late Saturday night.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":["post-422045","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\/422045","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=422045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}