With spring training here, it’s time to look at the San Diego Padres starting staff.

The top three spots in the rotation should be locked in with Yu Darvish, Dylan Cease, and Michael King. Late Wednesday night, the Padres signed former Boston Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta to a $55 million deal for four years. He will fill the fourth spot.

The Friars will be without Joe Musgrove for all of the season. Musgrove is recovering from Tommy John surgery, which he underwent late in 2024. The 6-foot-5 righty posted a 6-5 record with a 3.88 ERA in 19 games last year. His absence leaves one starting spot up for grabs coming out of spring training.

On Wednesday, Padres’ manager Mike Shildt told AJ Cassavell of MLB.com that, for the time being, Stephen Kolek would be stretched out to try and fill a rotation spot.

Shildt also said that Adrian Morejon and Bryan Hoeing will remain in the bullpen to start the season.

Even with Kolek being stretched out, there are still multiple candidates to start in that fifth spot.

The Padres officially invited 13 non-rostered pitchers to spring training this year to add to the 22 pitchers they are bringing from the 40-man roster. Looking at those 35 pitchers, six of them look as though they could make the jump to starter. There will be heavy competition for this final spot in the rotation.

Ryan Bergert:

Ryan Bergert is a 6-foot-1 righty out of West Virginia University.

The Friars drafted him in the 6th round of the 2021 MLB Draft. Bergert is a strong candidate to become a starter in 2025 based mostly on the fact that he has started almost consistently throughout his career. During the 2022 and 2023 seasons, he started 24 and 20 games, respectively, and pitched 103.1 and 105.2 innings.

Last year, in both San Antonio and the Arizona Fall League, Bergert started in all 28 of his games. The downside to Bergert’s starts in 2025 was that he amassed a 4.78 ERA in San Antonio in 98 innings and a 7.36 ERA in 14.2 innings in the Arizona Fall League. While this is not the end of the world, Bergert needs to work with Niebla to keep the ERA down and the innings up.

Jhony Brito:

Jhony Brito was one of the pieces in the Juan Soto deal last year.

Brito pitched well for the Padres last year, posting a 4.12 ERA in 43.2 innings of work. In those 42.2 innings, Brito impressed with a 29:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He did not start any games last year.

In New York, in 2023, Brito started 13 times. In the 13 games Brito started, he posted a 6.32 ERA. The right-handed pitcher racked up 38 strikeouts in 52.2 innings as a starter. Brito’s WHIP during his time as a starter in New York was 1.481, as opposed to his WHIP of 0.850 as a reliever. If Niebla can work with Brito to keep the ERA down and the strikeout-to-walk ratio solid, he could be a potential starter for the Padres this year.

Juan Nunez:

A recent Rule-5 pickup for the Padres, Nunez has a high chance of making the big-league roster.

The role the Padres need their No. 11 prospect to fill is as a starting pitcher. The 5-foot-11 righty touts a four-pitch mix with his fastball sitting around the mid-90s but has hit as high as 97 mph. He features a curveball, gyro slider, and a developing changeup that all offset his fastball.

Last season, Nunez posted a 2.45 ERA across 29.1 innings pitched and a WHIP of 1.091. A big upside to Nunez is that he accumulated 38 strikeouts in those 29.1 innings. This translates to an expected strikeout rate of 11.7 per nine innings. Nunez has the potential to be a good starter. The Padres will be looking to keep him on the roster; maybe the starting role will work.

Luis Patino:

Luis Patino was originally signed by the Padres back in 2016.

The Padres traded him to Tampa in the Blake Snell deal in 2020. Patino signed a free-agent contract with the Padres this past offseason. He missed all of the 2024 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. For Patino, it would be harder for him than the others to slide into the starting role. He is coming off surgery and has only started 24 games in his four seasons in the majors.

Additionally, he only pitched in 21.2 innings back in 2023. Patino has the potential to be a starter with a five-pitch mix that relies heavily on his sinker, slider, and 4-seam fastball. He recorded a 4.57 ERA in the nine games he pitched in. It is possible for him to make the jump to being a starter, but it is unlikely.

Randy Vasquez:

Randy Vasquez also came over to the Padres last offseason from the Yankees in the Juan Soto deal.

Last season with the Padres, Vasquez pitched in 20 games and threw for 98 innings. In those 98 innings, Vasquez racked up a 4.87 ERA and a 1.510 WHIP.  The 6-foot-0 righty featured six pitches last year, relying on his fastball only 28% of the time.

Vasquez’s biggest upside is that he started 20 games last season and threw 98 innings. Sliding back into that role this year would be easier for him than the other candidates. Vasquez found mild success in the starting role last season, winning only four of his 20 starts and losing seven. If the Padres were to turn to Vasquez once every five days, he would need to increase his innings from last year to around 140 to 160 innings.

Kyle Hart

The newest addition to the Padres’ staff is lefty Kyle Hart. Hart last pitched in the majors for the Boston Red Sox in the 2020 shortened season.

In Boston, Hart threw just 11 innings, yielding a 15.55 ERA. The southpaw, however, did manage 15 strikeouts across those 11 innings. Last season, Hart spent in the Korean Baseball Organization with the NC Dinos. In Korea, he won the equivalent of the Cy Young award, posting a 2.69 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP over the course of 157 innings.

Hart mixes in five pitches, relying mostly on his slider and 4-seam fastball. Hart started in 26 games for the NC Dinos, winning 13 games and losing three. During those 157 innings, Hart managed to strikeout 182 batterrs while only giving up 38 walks. It would benefit the Padres to break up the rotation of all rightys with Hart being lef handed.  Hart has recent experience as a starter and could slide nicely into the fifth spot for the Padres.

Matt Waldron:

The 6-foot-2, right-handed knuckleballer started in 26 games for the Padres last year and amassed a 4.79 ERA through 142,2 innings.

Waldron is a five-pitch pitcher whose knuckleball gained him notoriety throughout the league. Waldron threw the knuckleball 38% of the time last season. AJ Cassavell reported that Waldron plans to increase his usage of the pitch this year. Waldron won seven games last year and lost eleven while maintaining a 1.241 WHIP.

While Waldron’s overall season was mediocre, he did have a 13-game stretch where he threw 78.2 innings and had a 2.63 ERA. As a starter, he racked up 130 strikeouts while only issuing 4o walks. Waldron was a solid starter last season. This would make it slightly easier for him to be a starter again.

Max Montoya

A Southern California kid from San Clemente, he attended Gonzaga University and obtained a degree in sports management with minors in digital marketing and public relations. Max has been a San Diego sports fan for life.