The San Diego Padres know a little something about controlled chaos. Over the holiday weekend, general manager A.J. Preller made a flurry of moves (and he’s likely not done yet), signing Griffin Canning, Germán Márquez and Walker Buehler in order to address the depth question in the starting pitching group.
These players might seem like random selections by Preller — like the Friars are blindfolded, throwing darts at the board until they happen to hit a bullseye — and maybe there’s a part of that that’s true. But the prevailing belief at play is that these pitchers can return to form this season.
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In that sense, each of them is somewhat of a reclamation project for pitching coach Ruben Niebla. The Padres are hoping that if just one of them can have a Nick Pivetta-esque surge then they’ll have the problem of another ace in the rotation.
Here’s a look at what’s holding these three pitchers back, and how they could return to their former glory.
Griffin Canning
Canning is an interesting case because (of the three) he is the closest removed from being a reliable starter. After spending his first five seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, Canning had a renaissance year in 2025 pitching for the New York Mets. In his first seven starts for the club, he turned in a 2.47 ERA before a couple rocky starts bumped it up to 3.77. Across 16 starts he averaged close to five innings with a 1.38 WHIP.
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Prior to ‘25, Canning had never turned in an ERA below 4.00 outside of the shortened 2020 season. His resurgence ended when he ruptured his Achilles tendon in late June, putting a stop to the comeback year for the right-hander.
If Canning can build on the positive trend forward he had with the Mets, the Padres will be able to slot him into the fifth spot of the rotation with ease.
Germán Márquez
The longtime Colorado Rockies ace found a new place to call home this offseason for the first time in the last decade. Over the better part of that time in Colorado, Márquez was one of the most reliable starters in the game. Prior to 2022, he posted a 4.25 ERA across 795.2 innings (135 starts). During that he also held a 6.9% walk rate and a 24.0% strikeout rate.
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However, in ‘22 his performance took a nosedive, and eventually Márquez underwent Tommy John surgery in May of 2023. Since coming back he has not been the same, posting an ERA over 6.00 in both 2024 and ‘25. If Márquez can return to the durable strikeout artist he once was, San Diego will have a de facto replacement for free agent departure Dylan Cease.
Walker Buehler
It’s easy to forget that Buehler is only five years removed from finishing fourth in NL Cy Young voting. In 2021, he finished with a 2.47 ERA across 33 starts for the rival Los Angeles Dodgers. However, the following year he had Tommy John surgery and didn’t pitch for the entire 2023 season. When he finally did return, he struggled to find his footing, posting an ERA above 4.00 every year since.
Buehler was a borderline ace for the Dodgers prior to his injuries. He spent the 2025 season splitting time between the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies. His time in Boston was rough, to say the least, with a 5.45 ERA in 23 starts before eventually being released in August. He then made three appearances for Philly and turned in a 0.66 ERA across 13.2 innings.
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The bet for San Diego is that Buehler can return to a fragment of the ‘21 version of himself that took the league by storm. After spending the first seven years of his career in the NL West (and with the Padres’ rivals no less), the hope is that Buehler can use that elite knowledge of the division to his, and the Friars’, advantage.
Whatever comes of these three pitchers in the 2026 season, the long and short of it is that the worries about rotation depth are now gone. At bare minimum, the Padres now have competent pitchers to fill out the back end of their rotation and eat innings, giving their bullpen time to rest. But the hope is (as always) that these three can become more than that and be contributors to San Diego’s bid for its first World Series championship.
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