Joe Musgrove moves rehab to Triple-A

Musgrove, making his way back from Tommy John, averaged 94.6 mph with his fastball, which is really encouraging. He averaged 93.0 mph in his 19 starts in 2024, and his career high for a season was 93.5 mph in 2018. He threw 53 pitches today, so he’ll probably need at least one more rehab start. However, the uptick in his stuff makes him worth stashing in mixed leagues now.

Musgrove threw 39 pitches in his first rehab outing as he continues to work his way back from Tommy John surgery that he underwent back in 2024. There’s an outside shot he’s ready to make his season debut in late August or early September.

They will be opposed by Tyler Glasnow (back), who is on a rehab assignment with Single-A Ontario, so that’s quite a low-minors pitching duel. Both Musgrove and Pivetta are working back from long layoffs due to elbow injuries, but both have been building up to around two or three innings. We could see both of them in the Padres’ rotation by September if all goes according to plan.

Musgrove is now nearly 22 months removed from Tommy John surgery and hopefully has finally turned the corner.

“This is the best I’ve felt in a long time,” he said. Musgrove won’t be back until around Sept. 1 in a best-case scenario, so he probably doesn’t need to be stashed in mixed leagues just yet.

The next steps for both veteran right-handers are still to be determined, but they’re inching closer to beginning minor league rehab assignments. Both should be expected to rejoin the Padres’ rotation at some point during the month of August.

“People who have seen Musgrove and Pivetta throw or gotten reports about those throwing sessions have expressed greater optimism about their progress over the past week or so,” Acee continues. Pivetta was scheduled to throw a live batting practice this week. Both would need to be setback-free to continue to a rehab assignment, obviously, but it sounds like the Padres could get rotation reinforcements in late August or September.

Musgrove has made painstakingly-slow progress back Tommy John surgery that he underwent back in late 2024. It was his first time throwing off a bullpen mound since suffering a setback at the conclusion of spring training. The 33-year-old veteran has an outside shot at making it back to San Diego during the second half, but he’s going to be racing the clock to do so.

Musgrove’s situation remains murky and extremely complex as he attempt to make it back from Tommy John surgery. The 33-year-old hit the injured list at the conclusion of spring training to continue building up his arm strength and stamina, but wound up being shut down completely from throwing shortly afterwards. The hope is that he’ll begin ramping up without any setbacks and could be an option for the Padres at some point in the second half. He’s a long ways off from making it back to San Diego, but any sort of progress is encouraging.

Nothing has changed in the prognosis for the 33-year-old hurler, who has still yet to begin throwing off of a mound as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery. This was done as a procedural move to free up a spot on the team’s 40-man roster for the addition of Rodolfo Castro on Thursday.

Musgrove has been limited to side work as he tries to get over the hump. “To get major league hitters out, your (expletive) has got to be good and you’ve got to be confident,” Musgrove said. “And I just don’t have that right now. I’m not far off. I showed signs of it in spring. My stuff was there. Just the ability to execute breaking balls and get in the zone consistently and recover well enough to do it again in five days, just …” Musgrove had an MRI last month that showed his repaired ligament was intact. Still, until his arm gets better about bouncing back from throwing sessions, he can’t even think about a rehab assignment. Clearly, he’s not going to be back on a major league mound before June and perhaps not then.