Throughout the years, the San Diego Padres have consistently boasted a strong back-end of their bullpen.

The city has emerged as a haven for great late-game pitchers. Trevor Hoffman, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Josh Hader, Kirby Yates, Robert Suarez, Craig Kimbrel, and the list goes on and on.

However, the Padres’ early season success in 2055 may depend on production from the other end of the bullpen.

The recent injuries to Yu Darvish and Matt Waldron add complexity to the Padres’ pitching scene. With the rotation already missing Joe Musgrove for the 2025 season, San Diego has three healthy, reliable starters. Beyond those three, not a single player on the 40-man roster has thrown more than 100 innings in an MLB season.

The contestants in the mix for the vacated rotation spots certainly don’t lack major-league stuff.

Stephen Kolek features a sweeper and changeup that both average north of 16″ of horizontal break. Kyle Hart allowed just a .213 AVG across 157 innings in the KBO last season. Randy Vasquez features a six-pitch mix, all of which were vastly improved from his 2023 variants. Jhony Brito unloads 96-98 mph from a wicked 55° arm angle.

However, length, durability, and stamina will all be question marks. Kolek and Brito primarily served as relievers in 2024, while Vasquez failed to average more than five innings per start, and Kyle Hart is a complete question mark coming from the KBO.

How will this impact the Padres’ bullpen?

The back end will remain similar, with Jason Adam sliding into the setup role following Tanner Scott’s departure, and Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejon will work the seventh.

That leaves Alek Jacob, Yuki Matsui, and Wandy Peralta to cover the earlier innings, along with presumably a designated long relief pitcher. The question is, who do you utilize in that role? Do you use whoever loses out on the rotation spots? Or do you convert a bullpen arm into more of a long relief option?

That designated long relief role will be absolutely crucial. The Padres had 38 comeback wins in 2024, good for fourth-best in the National League. While the Padres’ offensive production in high-leverage situations was by far the best in the MLB, the bullpen’s consistent ability to keep games within striking distance played nearly as large of a role.

We can expect a number of short outings from the fourth and fifth starters until Darvish and/or Waldron return. For the bullpen, this means that the fourth and fifth innings could frequently fall under their responsibility on these pitchers’ bump days. The designated long reliever will help out, for sure. But especially in the case that any other starters miss time, more bullpen arms may have to step up to multi-inning tasks.

Who could potentially fill those roles?

As stated earlier, the Padres could utilize their “6th starter” in long relief. With Vasquez and Kolek spending the majority of 2024 on the MLB roster, it’s looking more and more like Kyle Hart will find himself in the bullpen to start the year.

Outside of that, the Padres have a couple of pre-established options before they would have to look elsewhere or convert. Bryan Hoeing is expected to begin the season on the IL but should be made available shortly into the season. When healthy, he makes the most sense, as he made numerous multi-inning appearances and posted a 1.52 ERA.

The other option would be relying on Alek Jacob for multi-inning work. Jacob’s -1° arm slot allows him to throw more pitches with less fatigue, as he doesn’t rely on velocity. He figures to be a great option to pitch a second or even third inning if the situation makes sense.

Summary

San Diego’s rotation will be among the toughest to square up in the league. However, the “bridge” between the early and the later innings could be expanded and be left into the hands of the front end of the bullpen far more frequently.

San Diego will need production in the middle innings to maintain their formula of late-game dominance. However, any further injuries to starters could spell trouble for San Diego. The effectiveness of Alek Jacob, Kyle Hart, and Bryan Hoeing following his return to action will be important to monitor.

The front end of the bullpen’s production early on could have a major impact on how the Padres’ begin their 2025 campaign without Yu Darvish and Matt Waldron.

Willy Warren

A 17-year-old San Diego native, Willy Warren is a baseball fan at heart who created High Leverage Baseball, a combination of around-the-league statistical analysis and breakdowns on X, and daily newsletters on the TikTok platform. Willy passionately studies Journalism at San Dieguito Academy, and is working to become billingual in Spanish to assist in communicating with Latin-born players and coaches.