Padres’ Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove head to 15-day injured list as San Diego’s pitching staff takes huge hit

The San Diego Padres have hovered around .500 all season and will now be without their two most veteran starters for the foreseeable future. Right-handers Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove were placed on the 15-day injured list on Saturday, the team announced. Darvish has a groin strain and Musgrove has a recurrence of the elbow inflammation that sidelined him for 16 days last month.

The Padres have not yet revealed the extent of the injuries, although Musgrove’s is not expected to end the season, reports the San Diego Union Tribune. The 31-year-old native San Diegan has struggled when healthy this season, posting a 5.66 ERA in 10 starts. He allowed 10 home runs in 49 1/3 innings after allowing 10 home runs in 87 1/3 innings last year.

Darvish, 37, is having an excellent season, posting a 3.20 ERA in 11 starts. He recently went on a career-high 25 scoreless inning streak and became the third pitcher with 200 wins between MLB and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Darvish’s 2023 season came to an end in late August due to a stress reaction in his elbow. He has shown no ill effects this season.

Righty Randy Vásquez, who joined the Padres in the Juan Soto trade to the New York Yankees, and fellow righty Logan Gillaspie were called up in corresponding moves. Gillaspie is a reliever. Vasquez has been up and down this season and has made five starts. The club’s rotation depth chart currently looks like this:

1. RHP Yu Darvish (came out with groin strain)
2. RHP Dylan Cease
3. RHP Michael King
4. RHP Joe Musgrove (no elbow/triceps inflammation)
5. RHP Matt Waldron
6. RHP Randy Vasquez
7. LHP Jay Groome (on the Triple-A injured list)
8. LHP Jackson Lobo

No team has used just five starters this season and the Padres are one of only six teams to use six starters. Wolf has allowed 34 runs in 40 1/3 innings in his 10 Triple-A starts. El Paso, where San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate plays, is an extreme hitter environment, but still, Wolf being next on the depth chart isn’t great.

The upcoming schedule is relentless. The Padres play a day of 13 games in 13 days. They won’t have another day off until June 13th. Vásquez will start in place of Musgrove against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday. Darvish’s next game was scheduled for Tuesday against the Los Angeles Angels. San Diego has a few days to propose a replacement.

The Padres are hardly the only team dealing with pitching injuries. The Baltimore Orioles lost left-hander John Means and right-hander Tyler Webb to season-ending elbow surgery on Friday, and our RJ Anderson analyzed 10 possible trading options. Those same 10 players now also become possibilities for San Diego. It would, however, be difficult to carry out an impact trade in time for Tuesday.

San Diego’s rotation has been middle of the pack this season, ranking 18th out of 30 teams in ERA (4.13) and 15th in WAR (4.4). Including the bullpen, the Padres are allowing 4.32 runs per game this season, almost exactly the league average of 4.32 runs per game. The offense has been much better than average, with 4.43 runs scored per game.

The Padres enter Saturday’s game with a 31-29 record and a plus-7 run differential. They have never been more than four games above or below .500 at any point in 2024.