According to Padres manager Mike Shildt, starter Joe Musgrove won’t play in the National League Division Series due to an elbow injury sustained in the wild-card round. Musgrove threw the two slowest curveballs of his career and was taken out of Game 2 in the fourth inning after allowing one run and one hit with four strikeouts.
He underwent imaging this week; the results have not yet been announced. Shildt did not say if Musgrove would be available to make it back at all this postseason, a potential blow for a Padres pitching staff that was primed for a deep postseason run. Musgrove had righted the ship after some early struggles coming back from an earlier injury and was coming off a second half with a 2.15 ERA supported by excellent walk and strikeout rates.
A.J. Preller to provide a medical update on Joe Musgrove in the visiting dugout at 2:15 p.m.
— Jeff Sanders (@sdutSanders) October 4, 2024
What’s the potential impact of Musgrove’s absence?
The Padres still have a fearsome threesome with a rested Dylan Cease, a resurgent Yu Darvish and Michael King coming off a commanding 12-strikeout, no-walk scoreless outing against the Braves. They’re probably still in better shape than a Dodgers team that has lost Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone, Clayton Kershaw, River Ryan and Dustin May to injury this season, but losing Musgrove pulls them back to the pack a little in terms of pitching depth and excellence this postseason.
The Phillies (with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez, and Ranger Suárez) are now probably a better and deeper rotation, and that matchup potentially looms for the Padres if they make it past the Dodgers in the Division Series.
What will the Padres do to replace Musgrove’s production?
Good thing A.J. Preller was so busy at the deadline. The Padres could have probably made the postseason without Martín Pérez, but the veteran starter steps out of his depth role and into a more prominent one for the rest of Musgrove’s absence. Pitching coach Ruben Niebla had the lefty emphasize his curveball upon arrival from the Pirates — Pérez threw the pitch almost twice as much with the Padres as he ever had before — and helped him improve his strikeout rate and drop his ERA by more than a run and a half with his new team.
That said, Pérez can be prone to blowups and still strikes out fewer batters than the league average. The best idea probably is to slot Pérez in before a rest day, and then use middle relief quickly at the first sign of trouble. The good news for the Padres is that their excellent bullpen goes as much as seven guys deep, and pitchers like lefty Adrian Morejon and righty Bryan Hoeing have experience coming in for more than three outs at a time. Injuries always come, and this team has the depth to recover, as much as Musgrove is loved in San Diego.
(Photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
