JP

Sears

Sears surrendered eight hits, and three of those left the ballpark in a start that didn’t come close to matching his season debut against Atlanta this past Wednesday. The 30-year-old clearly had command issues, as he also walked three batters and threw 52-of-95 pitches for strikes before exiting. Sears will try and bounce back in his next scheduled start, but that’s likely to come Sunday against the Dodgers. Probably not a good idea to bet on a rebound for that one.

Committing $2.75 million to retain Sears as rotation insurance paid off tonight, as the 30-year-old lefty kept the Braves scoreless into the sixth. It seems likely that Sears will now return to Triple-A, as Germán Márquez should be ready to come off the IL, but he could prove important in the second half if injuries continue to strike.

Sears provides San Diego with some additional length out of the bullpen with starter Lucas Giolito heading to the injured list with an elbow issue. The 30-year-old lefty has yet to pitch in the majors this season after posting a lackluster 5.04 ERA, 1.36 WHIP and 117/36 K/BB ratio across 135 2/3 innings between the Athletics and Padres last year.

Miranda hit .304/.373/.522 this spring, but his fate was sealed when the Padres committed to Ty France as a bench guy. Sears probably would have had a rotation spot with a strong spring, but he turned in an 8.44 ERA in his three starts. If the Padres had it to do over again, they probably would have non-tendered him in November instead of retaining him for $2.75 million.

Sears was awful in his first spring start — not that it counts/matters — but it was still nice to see a bounceback. The one blemish was a homer from Luke Raley. Sears is trying to earn one of the final rotation spots in the San Diego rotation, and outings like this won’t hurt a bit.

We’re not overly optimistic about Márquez’s chances of resembling an average MLB starter at this point, but the price is certainly right. He figures to have a good chance of overtaking Randy Vásquez or JP Sears for a spot in San Diego’s rotation, especially if Griffin Canning needs some IL time at the start of the year. Márquez went 3-16 with a 6.70 ERA for the Rockies last season in his first full year back from Tommy John. His velocity was down only about one mph from where he peaked at six years ago, but his secondary pitches just weren’t what they used to be.

No word yet on the financial terms of that deal, but Sears had been projected by MLBTradeRumors.com to earn $3.5 million via arbitration. The 29-year-old southpaw posted an uninspiring 5.04 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and a 117/36 K/BB ratio over 135 2/3 innings between the Athletics and Padres in 2025.

Sears allowed seven hits, walked three and struck out four. After four months in which he went 7-9 with a 4.95 ERA as a member of the A’s rotation, Sears was used only sporadically in San Diego, going 2-2 with a 5.47 ERA in five starts. The Padres would probably need to pay $2 million-$3 million to keep him in arbitration, and time will tell if they think it’s worth it to hold on to him as a depth option or if they ship him elsewhere.

Sears draws the starting assignment for Sunday’s mostly meaningless regular-season finale against the Diamondbacks. There’s some definite streaming appeal here since Arizona has little to play for and the 29-year-old southpaw punched out eight batters over 4 1/3 innings his last time out against the Rockies.

Sears pitched decently in a losing effort against the Rockies on Friday night, but was only up for a spot start so he’ll head right back to Triple-A in exchange for a fresh bullpen arm. Bradgley Rodriguez was recalled from Triple-A El Paso in a corresponding move.