The Padres badly need their starting pitching to pick up the pace as the calendar turns to September.

On paper, you look at the Padres’ starting rotation and you would think they are at least treading water, maybe even thriving. You could do a lot worse than Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish, Nick Pivetta, and Nestor Cortes when just looking at their track records.

However, the Padres are in a massive slump with their starting pitching.

A quality start in baseball is a minimum of six innings pitched, with a maximum of three earned runs allowed. That seems like a very low bar for success, as that is technically a 4.50 ERA.

Yet, the Padres’ starting pitching is failing to even reach that standard as of late. The last time the Padres had a quality start of any kind was on August 24, when Nick Pivetta pitched against the Dodgers. And the Padres lost that game 8-2. Pivetta was only able to get through five innings in his last start against the Twins.

Adrian Morejon is warming up in the fourth inning. The Padres will probably remain the only team without a quality start over the last week.

— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) September 1, 2025

The last time the Padres had a starting pitcher go at least seven innings was August 1, over a month ago.

Over the last month, both Darvish and Cease own a lowly 4.88 ERA. Only Pivetta owns an ERA below 3.00 in that span.

Counting every starter’s last time on the mound, the rotation combined for a 6.19 ERA.

Frankly, JP Sears has been a disaster. After coming over from the Athletics to replace Mason Miller in the rotation, Sears has not provided the depth the Padres need, as Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek were traded. In three starts, he owns a 5.52 ERA in San Diego.

Cortes has provided a few solid starts after being picked up in what some viewed as a throwaway trade at the deadline. He pitched six shutout innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers last week. He owns a 3.75 ERA in 24 innings for the Padres.

The two factors working against the Padres the most down the stretch are the injury troubles of Michael King and the trade with the Kansas City Royals that sent Bergert and Kolek away.

King has made just 11 starts all year. He missed roughly three months with a nerve issue in his throwing shoulder. Then, after making just one start back from that injury on August 9, he went back on the shelf with knee inflammation.

King threw a bullpen session over the weekend and did some field work. They want to see how his body recovers early this week before making a decision on his timeline. Frankly, the Padres likely won’t get very far into the postseason if King can’t stay healthy.

Against the Braves in the NL Wild Card Series last year, King had one of the most dominant performances by a Padres starting pitcher in the playoffs in franchise history- seven innings of shutout ball with zero walks and 12 strikeouts.

The Padres will need that this October if they have any hopes of a deep run.

Unfortunately, the other side of the coin is no longer in their control. A.J. Preller dealt away two quality depth starters in Bergert and Kolek to acquire Freddy Fermin.

It would be one thing if Fermin came in and became a massive upgrade at catcher. To this point, he has not been. He is batting .236 with an OPS+ of 64.

Bergert and Kolek combined for a 3.65 ERA in 25 combined appearances. They provided valuable depth at the end of the starting rotation.

Those starts are now going to Cortes and JP Sears.

It would certainly be unfortunate if the Padres’ battleship gets sunk in October because of starting pitching depth after they traded away two quality young arms.

The Padres need to get King back and need Darvish, Pivetta, and Cease to re-find their form down the stretch, or it will be a quick exit in October.

Nick Lee

Native of Escondido, CA. Lived in San Diego area for 20 years. Padres fan since childhood (mid-90s). I have been writing since 2014. I currently live near Seattle, WA and am married to a Seattle sports girl. I wore #19 on my high school baseball team for Tony Gwynn. I am a stats and sports history nerd. I attended BYU on the Idaho campus. I also love Star Wars.