Joe Musgrove’s latest rehab outing in El Paso came with plenty of traffic on the bases, but the Padres had bigger reasons to smile.
On Aug. 14, Musgrove was tagged for five runs and nine hits over 4 2/3 innings, an ugly line on paper for his third rehab start.
Even so, the numbers that mattered most were the ones showing up on the radar gun and in the workload. He threw 70 pitches, landed 47 for strikes and struck out five while getting back out for a fifth inning.
That final trip mattered. Musgrove’s fastball hit 97 mph in the opening inning, sat at 96 in the fourth and was still reaching 95 when he returned for the fifth. For a pitcher still working back from Tommy John surgery in October 2024, that kind of late-life velocity is the real headline.
The encouraging part is where Musgrove started and where he is now. He opened this rehab assignment sitting around 93 to 94 mph, so the jump in velocity is another sign that his arm strength is coming back. And 97 mph is a number that stands out for a reason: Musgrove hadn’t reached that mark in a major-league game since 2017, back when he was still with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
There are still obvious areas to clean up. The hits were one thing, but a walk and a hit batter added to the mess, and the command clearly isn’t there yet. If he’s leaving too much over the plate, major-league hitters would make him pay even more.
Even so, the Padres appear to be weighing what comes next. The sense is that he could be in line for his next start in a Padres uniform if everyone agrees he’s ready, though the lean right now is toward one more rehab outing before they reassess.
That would give Musgrove another chance to push closer to 80 pitches, tighten up the location and build toward five or six innings at the big-league level. For now, though, he hit the key checkpoints: workload up, velocity holding, no reported physical issue at the end of the night. That’s the part San Diego cares about most.
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