The Padres are staring down Tuesday night with their season hanging by a thread, and Nick Pivetta is the man tasked with keeping them alive. But there’s another layer to Game Three of the NLDS against the Brewers: this could also be the right-hander’s final start in a San Diego uniform.
That possibility comes from a clause in Pivetta’s contract. He signed a four-year, $55-million deal with the Padres in February 2025, and the agreement gave him an option for 2027 and 2028 worth $14 million and $18 million.
But if he spent more than 130 days on the injured list in either 2025 or 2026, the Padres would control that option after the 2026 season. Pivetta did stay healthy in 2025, but a flexor strain in his right elbow on April 12 led to an IL stint in 2026 that lasted 147 days before he came back on Sept.
So while the Padres are trying to claw back from a 2-0 series deficit, they also may be approaching a decision point on one of their most reliable arms. No one in the organization has tipped its hand, but Pivetta has clearly done his part.
In his healthy 2025 season, he made 31 starts, went six innings or more in 25 of them, and finished 13-5 with career highs in innings pitched, 181.2, and ERA, 2.87 in 10 more starts. After returning from the injured list in September, he logged four solid outings, throwing 18.2 innings and allowing three earned runs for a 1.45 ERA.
He then followed that with what some called an "elite" 3.1-inning, four-strikeout showing in the Padres’ 4-1 Wild Card win over the Chicago Cubs.
Tuesday’s assignment is a tough one: Pivetta will oppose Milwaukee’s Dustin May with San Diego needing three straight wins to reach the NL Championship Series against either the Atlanta Braves or Los Angeles Dodgers.
The bigger question for the Padres may be what comes next in 2027. The rotation could look very different by then, with Walker Buehler, Robbie Ray and Casey Mize all in the final years of their deals, while ace Michael King could choose to opt out of the final two seasons of his contract. If that happens, Pivetta and Randy Vasquez might be the only holdovers.
The free-agent market may not offer an easy solution. Tarik Skubal of the Los Angeles Dodgers is the headline name, but Kevin Gausman, Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs and Freddy Peralta of the Tampa Bay Rays are among the other pitchers who could be available, depending on their contract situations. Sonny Gray of the Boston Red Sox, Drew Rasmussen of Tampa Bay, Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins and Corbin Burnes of the Arizona Diamondbacks all have option-related wrinkles that will determine whether they reach the open market.
San Diego’s in-house depth is thin, too. MLB Pipeline lists left-handers Luis Gutierrez and Jagger Haynes as the organization’s closest minor league starters to the majors, ranking them 12th and 14th among the Padres’ top prospects.
Both struggled in 2026, combining to go 4-11 over 40 starts, mostly between Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A El Paso. Gutierrez posted a 4.25 ERA, while Haynes finished at 4.80.
For now, though, all of that sits in the background of a must-win night at Petco Park. Padres fans will be watching for a season-saving performance from Pivetta, even if there’s a real chance they’re also watching his last appearance in brown and yellow.
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Padres Face A Game 3 Problem Fans Will Hate
Nick Pivetta gives the Padres a familiar kind of October question heading into Game 3 against Milwaukee: can recent form outweigh a history that has not gone well in this matchup? Since coming back from the injured list, he has looked much sharper, but his track record against the Brewers has been hard to ignore, with trouble limiting walks and runs across his career starts against them.
For San Diego, the concern is less about what Pivetta has shown lately than whether the Brewers can lean on a matchup they have handled before. His numbers against Milwaukee include an ugly 8.76 ERA and a rough outing dating back to 2017, the kind of background that gives a postseason start a little extra weight, even before the first pitch is thrown. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Head Into Elimination Game With Mason Miller Under Real Scrutiny
Mason Millers sudden October wobble has become one of the sharper questions hanging over the Padres as they head into an elimination game against Milwaukee. After he blew the save in Game 2 by allowing two runs in the ninth inning, the focus shifted quickly from a single rough outing to the possibility that something more was going on, with reports suggesting he may have been tipping pitches.
Miller has denied knowingly doing it, and he has pointed to fatigue from a multi-inning save attempt as part of the explanation for his struggles. Either way, San Diego cannot afford much more uncertainty in the late innings, especially with its offense needing to do more to keep the season alive. [Read more 🡒]
Padres May Have Found An Outfield Answer At The Perfect Time
With the Padres facing an NLDS hole against the Brewers, every bit of lineup clarity matters, and Dustin Harris has given them something they can at least build around. After bouncing among multiple teams in 2026 before landing in San Diego, Harris has settled in quickly enough to look like more than a short-term fix, which is no small thing for a club trying to keep its roster competitive now while planning beyond October.
Harris is under club control through the 2031 season, so this is not just about one hot stretch or one October series. The real question is how firmly he can lock down left field, a competition that is expected to carry into spring training, and whether the Padres have stumbled onto a long-term answer at exactly the moment they need stability the most. [Read more 🡒]