RHP Randy Vásquez seems to be working toward becoming the San Diego Padres’ Swiss Army knife in their pitching staff. Acquired from the New York Yankees, along with Michael King, as part of the Juan Soto trade, Vasquez came to the team as a starting pitcher.
That role was the only one he had with the Yankees. Debuting at the age of 24, Vásquez started five games for New York, pitching 37.2 innings with a 2.87 ERA. After being traded to the Padres before the 2024 season, the righty started 20 games for the Friars
and pitched 98 innings. He had a 4.87 ERA as a back-of-the-rotation arm, with 62 strikeouts to 29 walks. The command of his stuff was not great, and he worked around a lot of traffic on the bases due to walks.
In the 2025 season, Vásquez threw 133.2 innings in 28 appearances and 26 starts. His ERA of 3.84 was significantly improved, with 78 strikeouts to 52 walks. He became known by the Strandy Vasquez nickname with his penchant for walks and skill at working to get outs with multiple runners on base.
Vásquez featured seven pitches during that season, relying mostly on his cutter/four-seam combination for 46% of his pitches. He threw his sinker 19% of the time and his sweeper 13%. His curve, changeup, and slider were all less than 15% usage.
Going into this year, Vásquez reported a change in his preparation for the season with weight training and working on his mental approach. He has had a mentor/mentee relationship with RHP Yu Darvish since joining the organization, and he credits Darvish with helping him in his preparation for games and his mental work.
Now in his age 27 season, Vásquez has shown significant growth as a starter. He can still lapse into the command issues seen earlier in his career. He had a stretch in July, after coming back from the injured list, when he looked a bit like the 2025 Vasquez.
Other than those 14 innings in July, Vasquez has a sub-4.00 ERA every other month of the season and has a 2.60 ERA in 45 innings pitched post All-Star break.
Besides his increased physical strength and increased focus and preparation, the player and his coaches have reworked his pitch usage this year.
Now, he throws his four-seam 31% of the time and it averages 95 mph, up from the 93 mph of last year. His cutter is now used 24% of the time, and his sinker at 16%. His changeup, curveball, slider, and sweeper are all now less than 10% usage. He walks hitters much less than in previous seasons. In 129 innings pitched, Vásquez has 81 strikeouts to 35 walks. That gives him a 6.5% walk rate versus a 9.1% from 2025.
His stats as a reliever are not as reassuring for this year. In 18 innings over six appearances, Vasquez has a 5.00 ERA versus his 3.81 ERA in 111 innings over 22 starts.
With the addition of Nick Pivetta back into the starting rotation, the Padres have put Vásquez into the bullpen, allowing the overworked relievers to get a little help. In his first relief outing since the change, Vasquez pitched 1.1 innings against the Nationals with one hit. Unfortunately, that was a double that allowed the two runners on base to score. Starter Casey Mize was charged with three earned runs because of that hit.
It appears this will be his role going forward. Vásquez will try to be a high-value reliever out of the bullpen and can pitch in length as well as piggyback a starter who is having a rough day. His acceptance of his role is not an issue, as he has stated on multiple occasions his willingness to do anything to help the team win.
His new focus and effectiveness should serve him well in his new role.
