San Diego, CA - July 4: San Diego Padres' Xander Bogaerts celebrates with Manny Machado after hitting a two-home run in the sixth inning off of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani at Petco Park on Tuesday, July 4, 2023. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
When the Padres pitching staff is healthy it has the talent to hang with the best clubs in Major League Baseball. The trick has been staying healthy.
For the second time this season All-Stars Joe Musgrove (elbow) and Yu Darvish (hamstring) are going to the 15-day Injured List, and they landed there on the same day. San Diego made the announcement before Saturday afternoon’s game in Kansas City, a game Musgrove was scheduled to start. But, the team says on the final pitch of his last side session something didn’t feel right.
“He felt some inflammation in the back of the elbow,” manager Mike Shildt told MLB.com. “He’ll continue to get imaging. We have baselines, but structurally we feel like everything is good. It’s just that the repetitiveness with the elbow is not letting him finish pitches like he needs to finish. We’ll give him another break from it and hopefully get him back sooner rather than later.”
This is the second time in a month that Musgrove has been to the IL for elbow inflammation. The biggest fear is he could be on track for an elbow reconstruction surgery but both he and the organization are hopeful that will not be necessary.
Darvish’s trip to the IL is not as concerning. He left his last start against the Marlins after just three innings with left hamstring tightness so this move is seen as a way for him to rest it enough that it doesn’t interfere the rest of the season. Yu made a trip to the IL in April with neck tightness and came back looking as good as ever, ripping off a string of 24.0 straight scoreless innings.
Starting pitcher Randy Vasquez and reliever Logan Gillaspie were recalled from Triple-A El Paso to fill the roster spots. Vasquez made the start for Musgrove against the Royals. Gillaspie will reinforce the bullpen at least until Darvish’s spot in the rotation comes back around, which would be Tuesday night in Anaheim against the Angels.
