Joe Musgrove Injury Deals Padres Latest Blow In Disappointing Season

The timing couldn’t have been worse.

Joe Musgrove, arguably the best pitcher in the starting rotation of the San Diego Padres, is back on the team’s injured list – hoping to return before the end of the season.

A San Diego native who also threw the only no-hitter in team history, Musgrove is suffering from shoulder inflammation that could keep him sidelined for the rest of the season.

“I’ve got one shot at getting this thing right and getting back to play this year,” he told reporters. “If I push it and then I have to shut down again, there is no chance of throwing again (this season). So I’m going to be really smart about how I build back.”

Musgrove has managed to compile a 10-3 record and 3.05 earned run average while pitching through pain much of the season. He said the shoulder issue surfaced after he rushed back from a broken toe. An MRI scheduled for the end of this month could determine whether he pitches again in 2023.

Without Musgrove, who was leading the team in victories, the Padres will need Blake Snell, Yu Darvish, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, and swingman Nick Martinez to pick up the slack.

Entering Thursday’s schedule, the Padres were fourth in the National League West with a 55-60 record, 13 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers but within striking distance of a wild-card berth for the second straight season.

Saddled with a four-game losing streak, San Diego stood four-and-a-half games in its bid for one of three wild-card spots. But three teams – the Cubs, Reds, and Diamondbacks – were ahead of the Padres.

Last year, the team qualified for the playoffs with an 89-73 mark, defeated the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers in their first playoff matches since 2006, but lost the pennant to the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series.

The Padres have not reached the World Series since 1998 and have never won it.

Even before they lost Musgrove, their chances weren’t great this year anyway – although general manager A.J. Preller bet on his ballclub by holding onto prospective free agents Snell and Josh Hader at the Aug. 1 trade deadline.

That was before Musgrove went down, however.

The injured pitcher plans to play catch before the end of the month and before submitting to another MRI. If the pain subsides and the test results are good, he could return in mid-September. But he also doesn’t want to risk causing further damage to his shoulder and perhaps need surgical repair.

“I’m doing everything I can to give myself the opportunity to heal,” he told local media members earlier this week. “The doctors seem pretty optimistic that three weeks is a manageable amount of time to get it to a spot where you can avoid any surgeries or operations and just let it physically rest and get back to it. So I’m trying to be religious with that and not push it a day sooner than three weeks, really give it the rest it needs.”

If current trends prevail, the Padres could actually have a higher payroll than winning percentage. Only the two New York teams pay their players more than San Diego’s $280,490,527, its current 40-man payroll with the competitive balance tax included (Cot’s Baseball Contracts).

That ranks third in the major leagues, ahead of 27 other clubs.

In some ways, the Padres are the Mets of the West, signing several high-profile free agents to long-term contracts and trading for others over the past two years.

Three Padres – Juan Soto, Xander Bogaerts, and Darvish – earn more than $20 million per year while two others – Manny Machado and Fernando Tatís, Jr. – have long-term contracts that stretch to nine figures.

Tatís missed all of last year with a broken wrist and PED suspension but his April return did not provide the upstart to the offense that the Padres expected.

“Every team deals with injuries,” said Wacha, who also spent time on the San Diego Injured List this season. “You’ve got to have guys step up and be able to fill those voids – even when it’s a big void to fill.”