Without Michael King and Yu Darvish, Padres so far weathering major rotation test

New York Times

4 days ago

SAN FRANCISCO — It was almost three weeks ago that Yu Darvish, the fourth-oldest starting pitcher with a major-league contract, appeared in his first game of 2025. Inside a noted hitter's park, he surrendered a two-run homer to the fourth batter he faced. He went on to complete four innings against the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators without yielding another run, topping out at 96.8 mph and seemingly resembling vintage Darvish.
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Then, he experienced more discomfort in his surgically repaired elbow. Almost three weeks later, he has yet to pitch in another game. Darvish began this season on the injured list because of elbow inflammation, and the San Diego Padres are inclined to let the 38-year-old dictate his recovery.
'We can have our timelines and we need to have them,' manager Mike Shildt said before Tuesday night's 3-2 win against the San Francisco Giants. 'But Darvish is an experienced guy and he's going to create his own timelines with us.'
Tuesday afternoon at Oracle Park, Darvish threw his second bullpen session in two days. Neither was especially strenuous. There is internal optimism that he could make his season debut before July, but Darvish estimated he threw 10 or 11 pitches on Monday and 16 or 17 on Tuesday, when he topped out at 90 mph. He hopes to throw more pitches, with more intensity, in another bullpen on Friday.
'Getting better every day,' Darvish said.
Still, there are no firm timelines for Darvish or San Diego's top pitcher, Michael King. The Padres have to wait to see how Darvish recovers from his latest bullpen and any upcoming throwing sessions. They have to wait for King, the Opening Day starter, to regain strength in his right shoulder before he can throw with intensity again; King has not pitched since May 18 because of what the team is describing as a pinched nerve. Without King and Darvish, the Padres' current challenge — 26 games in 27 days, including 14 matchups against National League West opponents — is even more daunting.
How will they navigate it?
'That's a great question,' Shildt said. 'I think the same answer would be applicable with those guys (as) without them. But it's probably more important that what I'm about to say takes place, and that's efficiency of playing the game well. When guys have Michael King's stuff, Darvish's stuff, you just typically have a little bit more margin for error.'
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Both Monday and Tuesday, the margin proved razor-thin. A series against the Giants had brought a matchup of struggling offenses and two of the league's better pitching staffs. In the opener, reserve infielder Jose Iglesias delivered his best performance as a Padre, providing a few defensive gems at third base and a 10th-inning sacrifice fly in a 1-0 win.
The victory was also made possible because Stephen Kolek, making his sixth big-league start, traded zeroes with Giants ace Logan Webb. Kolek, who debuted last season as a Rule 5 reliever, was stretched out in spring training by a team that was short on rotation depth. Yet he has shown promise in the role; three of his starts have been scoreless, and Kolek's 58.7 percent groundball rate puts him on par with Webb.
'This was the first time I got to face, like, a true superstar of a pitcher and a little bit of an idol,' Kolek said. 'I was definitely excited to pitch against him.'
Tuesday, for Ryan Bergert, brought another milestone. The rookie, who debuted earlier this season as a reliever, resurfaced from Triple A to make his first big-league start. He struck out only two batters in five innings, but with help from the Padres defense, he survived a two-run third to complete two more frames without further damage.
Padres reliever Sean Reynolds proceeded to supply three scoreless innings and, after he was done, a jolt of energy as he screamed in the dugout. A mostly dormant offense awoke in the top of the ninth, combining patience with a couple of well-placed singles to tie the game. In the 10th, Jake Cronenworth drove in the go-ahead run before the San Diego bullpen posted another extra-inning zero.
The @Padres are the first MLB team to win back-to-back road games despite being shut out through 8 innings in both since the Diamondbacks did it during their 2001 World Series-winning season (May 28-29).
Both teams did so at San Francisco. pic.twitter.com/tvpFnXPZ7r
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) June 4, 2025
'We have a lot of wins like this, and it just becomes even more ingrained,' Shildt said after the Padres secured their 17th comeback win and improved to 13-5 in one-run games. 'Just got to find a way, man.'
With King sidelined, the Padres may have to give Bergert an extended look as a fifth starter. Kyle Hart recently returned to Triple A with a 6.66 ERA in six big-league outings. Matt Waldron recently completed a rehab assignment for an oblique strain, but the knuckleballer's effectiveness has fluctuated in the majors. Rookie Omar Cruz, currently in Triple A, might be better suited as a long reliever. Another member of the 40-man roster, Henry Baez, is in Double A.
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King indicated Sunday that he expected to return from his nerve issue in a matter of weeks rather than months. He said he had begun to play light catch, adding that Padres head team physician Dr. Bryan Leek told him 'he's seen some guys (with a similar issue) take a couple days, some guys take a couple months. I think that I'm more on the former of that, just because of the progress that I've had.'
Dr. Ilan Danan, a sports neurologist at Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedics in Los Angeles and neurology consultant for multiple NHL teams, said the combination of shoulder involvement and a pinched-nerve diagnosis can indicate a herniated disc in the cervical spine.
'Referred pain can run up toward the shoulder. Sometimes it can run even further down the arm,' Danan, who has not treated or examined King, said in a phone interview. 'There's no real nerve in the shoulder, so to speak, that can be pinched.
'When it comes to disc degeneration, it's something that happens with time, with age, and certainly can evolve with overuse.'
Danan said that, depending on the response to treatment and rehab, a professional athlete with such an injury can return to play in approximately two weeks to two months. He agreed that it was 'prognostically reassuring' that King had reported early improvement in his symptoms.
For the Padres, the next couple of weeks will bring 12 more games against NL West clubs. And there could soon be tougher tests, at least on the mound; the Giants offense has totaled 32 runs over its past 16 games, failing to score more than four runs in any of them.
Still, halfway through a four-game series, San Diego has proven sufficiently efficient. The starting rotation might be the unit facing the single biggest test, but to survive and perhaps even thrive in June, the Padres have to come up with more games like Tuesday's.
'That's a f—ing huge team win,' Reynolds said. 'Those are the wins that you kind of feel an identity forming amongst the group.'
(Photo of Padres pitcher Ryan Bergert: Kelley L Cox / Imagn Images)