With the news that Joe Musgrove will start the season on the injured list, the San Diego Padres now have two rotation spots available instead of just one.
Germán Márquez was lined up to take the fifth spot due to his big-league contract, but now there’s room for one more. One name has continued to come up this spring for San Diego: Walker Buehler
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An inconsistent career
The Los Angeles Dodgers mainstay has struggled since having the best year of his career in 2021, with a 4.83 ERA from 2022-25. But in ‘21 he dominated the league with a 2.47 ERA and 0.97 WHIP.
Toward the end of the ‘22 season, Buehler underwent Tommy John surgery and was out for the entire 2023 season. Since then, he has been largely ineffective outside of a dominant postseason run in ‘24.
In 2025, Buehler put up a 5.45 ERA while on a prove-it deal with the Boston Red Sox to bolster their rotation depth. Suffice it to say, he did not prove it. He was released by the club in August before being picked up by the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Through three games in Philly, Buehler dominated. It’s obviously a small sample size, but a 0.66 ERA down the stretch is nothing to sneeze at. It pointed to a possible return to the success that had eluded him the last few years.
Fighting for rotation spots in San Diego
The Padres’ rotation has been a thing of immense scrutiny this offseason. With Musgrove now out of the group due to injury, there are two spots remaining behind Nick Pivetta, Michael King and Randy Vásquez.
Buehler has been fighting for his life in Cactus League play. He was signed by the Friars to a minor-league contract with an invite to Spring Training. Since joining the club, he’s put up a 3.09 ERA in 11 ⅔ innings.
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Monday’s dominant outing
Prior to Monday, Buehler had a 5.40 ERA this spring. He’s made two solid starts but nothing awe-inspiring, giving up four runs in 6 ⅔ innings.
But against the San Francisco Giants, Buehler dominated. Pitching five full innings in a spring game and striking out seven, he allowed only three hits and two walks without allowing a run.
The even greater thing of note was his pitch count. Buehler only threw 77 pitches through five innings, meaning he could have likely gone deeper if this were a regular season game. But this has been a winning formula for San Diego: starter goes six innings, relievers pick up one apiece to close it out.
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Now don’t immediately go and say that he’s going to dominate every single game. He is far from the pitcher he was in 2021. But he’s beginning to lean into the stuff he now has after his fastball lost velocity. That has given him some new ways to get outs during Cactus League.
How will it translate to real games?
If anything, Buehler has earned the starter spot head-and-shoulders above Márquez, who has struggled to a 9.26 ERA this spring. But with room in the pitching staff for both now, they’ll each get an opportunity to prove themselves for the big-league club.
If Buehler can continue to build on what he showed against San Francisco, it would go a long way to anchoring a shaky Padres rotation. The pitcher has long struggled with pain in his throwing arm but has said that it disappeared this offseason.
It’ll be exciting to see what this new form of Buehler looks like in San Diego, and what he can do to add to the Friars’ World Series aspirations.
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