Nick Pivetta’s minor league rehab project was halted after only one outing on August 4, as Pivetta left the sport attributable to elbow discomfort. He returned to pitch three innings with A-level Lake Elsinore on August 25, after which 4 1/3 shutout innings with Triple-A El Paso on August 30. The subsequent step is a bullpen session at Petco Park this weekend, with Padres brass available to judge Pivetta as he seems to be nearing a return to the energetic roster.
The bullpen session “will set him up for his subsequent begin, and that’s to be decided the place he’ll be beginning,” Padres supervisor Craig Stammen instructed the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jeff Sanders and different reporters. Whereas Stammen particularly referred to Pivetta as a starter, the supervisor didn’t rule out the chance that Pivetta may very well be used as a reliever, saying “I feel all these choices are on the desk.”
Pivetta posted a 4.50 ERA over 16 innings and 4 begins for San Diego earlier than a flexor pressure despatched him to the injured listing in mid-April. An prolonged absence was anticipated however neither Pivetta or Stammen felt the damage would put the right-hander’s season in jeopardy. Whereas this IL stint has actually taken longer than Pivetta or anybody with the Padres would’ve hoped, it does appear like he’ll have the ability to make it again to be a part of the membership’s push for a wild card slot.
Since resuming his rehab project, Pivetta has thrown 47 pitches after which 64 pitches over his two outings. A 3rd minor league begin would probably see that quantity ran into the 80-pitch vary, if the plan is to certainly deliver Pivetta again as a beginning pitcher. Even when Pivetta isn’t totally stretched out, the Padres may use him a limited-capacity starter, with one other pitcher slated to log a number of reduction innings behind Pivetta in piggyback trend. Sanders writes {that a} related technique may very well be within the works for Joe Musgrove, one other rehabbing starter who’s battling arm fatigue in between his minor league begins.
The deadline additions of Robbie Ray and Casey Mize bolstered a rotation that has been thinned by accidents for nearly the entire season. Between Ray, Mize, employees ace Michael King, Randy Vasquez, and Walker Buehler (who has been pitching a lot better over the past six weeks), San Diego’s rotation has gone from a query mark to a drive. For the reason that All-Star break, Padres starters have a collective 3.24 ERA — the second-best rotation in baseball throughout that stretch.
Inside this context, a return to kind for Pivetta or Musgrove isn’t fairly as important as it might have appeared two months in the past, however clearly the Padres need as a lot high quality pitching as attainable for the stretch run (and for October in the event that they do safe a playoff spot). San Diego enters Saturday with a slim half-game lead over the Diamondbacks for the ultimate NL wild card.
