The San Diego Padres have entered the last month of the 2025 season with starting pitching being the biggest issue for a team with sights set on the postseason. The front line starters that figured to carry the team at the beginning of the year have not been what the organization hoped.
Dylan Cease, the presumed co-ace of the rotation, has been inconsistent and mostly unreliable. The other ace, Michael King, has been injured for a good portion of the season and Yu Darvish was out from spring training
until July with elbow issues. He has also not been consistent since his return.
The signing at the beginning of spring, Nick Pivetta, has been the unequivocal stopper for the team. He is the only one providing length when he pitches and has been the only reliable hope for consistency.
Randy Vasquez, Kyle Hart and newly acquired Nestor Cortes/JP Sears have also had significant issues with command and reliability. The two younger pitchers the Padres used to shore up the rotation, Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek, were dealt at the deadline for offensive help.
All this only reinforces the long-held sentiment in baseball, you can never have enough pitching.
Starters already on the team
At the end of this season, Cease and King will be free agents and are eligible to receive qualifying offers from the organization. Nestor Cortes is a rental acquired at the trade deadline and will probably also be lost to free agency. JP Sears is under team control and needs an evaluation of his mechanics and pitch mix during the offseason in order to be considered for the rotation next season.
Randy Vasquez remains a Padre, but after two seasons we have seen the pattern that limits his effectiveness and his ability to pitch deep into games. He could remain a starter with more development, but seems more suited to a swing role.
Knuckleballer Matt Waldron could still be of use to the organization on the major league level. This season was not a good one for Waldron. He struggled with controlling his knuckler in Triple-A and has not had an opportunity to start for the Padres. With offseason adjustments, it is still possible he could be valuable like he was in 2024.
Hope remains for a full recovery for Joe Musgrove and a return to the rotation next season. His rehab from Tommy John surgery remains on track and we can hope for a Fall start to his full rehab. According to the interviews he has given, Musgrove is hopeful for a postseason bullpen availability, but that would require a significant step forward over the next month.
Darvish has not had a healthy season in two years and if he is able to continue pitching past this year it should be accepted that a full season of work is probably not realistic for him. At 39, Darvish has put a lot of mileage on his arm and he is 10 years down the road from his Tommy John repair. His elbow inflammation from this year, and elbow issues last year, all indicate he has limited time left as an MLB pitcher.
Pivetta signed a four-year contract, but has an opt-out after next season. As things stand, he is the most reliable starter we have coming back in 2026. The breakout performance he has put up this year will need to be repeated if the team hopes to have a reliable frontline starter next year.
Jhony Brito
Both Musgrove and Jhony Brito should be ready to ramp up come spring of next year. Brito was placed on the IL early in Spring Training with elbow issues and ended up having internal brace surgery as well as flexor tendon surgery in April. The recovery time for this surgery is faster than Tommy John and reports show a return around 12 months after surgery. If Brito is able to rehab during Spring Training and work his way into a bullpen or swing role then he could also be a part of the rotation option going forward.
Brito was acquired from the Yankees as part of the Juan Soto trade and was a starter for the Yankees in 2023 with a history of both starting and relieving in the minor leagues and with the Yankees. The Padres had stated an intention to use him as a starter when he suffered his injury.
David Morgan
Morgan was promoted to the major league team from the San Antonio Missions in April, and they optioned him to El Paso for 21 days in May, but he has been with the Friars since May 25. At 25 years old, Morgan has only been a pitcher since his last year in college. He was an outfielder with a great arm and minimal offensive ability so it was suggested he try pitching. He has never been anything other than a reliever, but the option to convert him to a starter could be considered.
In his brief pitching career he has shown a high 90’s four seam fastball, a sinker that tops in the high 90’s, a plus curveball in the low 80’s, a plus slider in the high 80’s and he has thrown occasional changeups that look like they need further work.
In his 41.2 innings with the Padres he has a 2.81 ERA with 41 strikeouts and 17 walks and a .209 average against. His ERA was 1.72 until he had a bad game on Aug. 25 against Seattle and surrendered five earned runs in an inning. With the low amount of wear and tear on his arm, he would be an excellent option, but would need to be limited as he has not thrown more than 60 innings in the minors.
Adrian Morejon
Morejon was signed in 2016 as a 17-year-old after defecting from Cuba and establishing himself in the Dominican Republic as a free agent. He was given $11 million as a signing bonus after showing from 2011 on in Cuba that he had a bright future as a pitcher.
After rising through the Padres minor league ranks to the Double-A Sod Poodles in 2019, Morejon represented the Padres in the 2019 Futures Game. His progress through the minors was slowed by several stints on the injured list as he developed. He was then promoted to the Padres on July 21, starting two games after his promotion, but having minimal success. In 2020, despite the short season, he gained valuable experience pitching in nine games and starting four with 19.1 IP and a 4.66 ERA. In 2021, his season was cut short in April when he was diagnosed with a torn UCL and had Tommy John surgery after only 4.2 innings pitched.
Morejon returned in June of 2022 and appeared in 26 games with a 5-1 record and 4.24 ERA in 34 innings. In spring of 2023, he was again on the IL with an elbow sprain. After his rehab was completed, he pitched for El Paso and only had nine innings pitched for the Padres that year.
The 2024 season, when Morejon broke out and showed what he was capable of, was his first complete season since he was signed. He pitched in 60 games, all in relief, with a 2.83 ERA. The only explanation he was able to give for his success and injury avoidance was a change in arm angle suggested by pitching coach Ruben Niebla.
Since his success last season it has been discussed by the organization that a future as a starter is still a possibility for the hard throwing lefty. He is still only 26 years old, but it is understandable, given his injury history, that the team is hesitant to go down that road again.
Morejon has one year left as an arbitration-eligible player for the Padres. He is a client of Scott Boras and will most likely leave in free agency after next season.
There had been some discussion about reliever Sean Reynolds being an option as a starter as well, but his decrease in velocity this season, dropping his fast ball to the mid 90’s, could be a deterrent to any plan for converting him next year. It is possible the issue could be addressed in the offseason so next Spring will be an interesting time when we discover who the Padres might be considering as a starter.
