"Joe Musgrove in his 30s, Yu Darvish in late 30s" – MLB insider forecasts trouble ahead for San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres did their best to pursue Roki Sasaki this offseason in hopes of bolstering their starting rotation. But he eventually signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, leaving their divisional rivals with no major additions to their pitching depth and a relatively quiet offseason.

On the Talkin' Baseball's podcast with host Jake Soraile, Jeff Passan raised concerns for the San Diego Padres rotation. He connected the ongoing ownership dispute to the payroll cut-down and subsequent trade rumors surrounding Dylan Cease and Michael King.

If their two top high-leverage starters are gone, a lot of the onus will fall on Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish, both pitchers who have a lot of veteran experience but are ageing. Passan said (31:01):

"They’ve got a nasty fight over ownership of the franchise, which is always the sort of thing that can destabilize the product on the field, because, you know, if you don’t know where the future ownership’s going to go, the likelihood of getting spending okay is a whole lot lower. And they’ve also got Dylan Cease and Michael King going into their walk year, with Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove, who’s out right now, really being the lone holdovers in that rotation.

"You can look at Randy Vasquez as well or Matt Waldron, but in reality, those are more backend-of-the-rotation type guys. When you’re talking front-end starters, you know, Musgrove in his 30s, Darvish in his late 30s, like, this is not a group of pitchers that’s getting any younger. ... And so, the Padres, it’s a real rock-and-a-hard-place situation."

---

Padres general manager intends to get internal fix to starter problem

The Padres have been one of the few teams who have helped bullpen arms transition into a starting pitching role.

Their success stories include Seth Lugo from 2023 and Michael King, last year. Currently, there has been chatter about Adrian Morejon taking the same trajectory. General manager A.J. Preller made his feelings known in Decemeber:

“It's something that we'll talk a little bit more about when we get to the next couple weeks and see how the whole roster plays out,” Preller said. “We'll have a little bit better sense of which path for Adrian specifically, and honestly a couple guys in our 'pen that we think have a path to extend out."

It remains to be seen if the Padres rotation can match up with the likes of the Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League as the other contenders heading into 2025.