The Padres are still waiting on Nick Pivetta, and for now, there’s no clear date circled for his return.
Pivetta has been sidelined since mid-April, when he exited his fourth start of the season early because of a flexor strain in his right elbow. He has recently begun a throwing progression, but San Diego is still treating the process cautiously. Manager Craig Stammen said the club does not have a firm timeline for the veteran right-hander to get back on the mound.
“There’s no timetable,” Stammen said. “Obviously, you’ve seen that with a bunch of pitchers. They throw off flat ground, but it doesn’t really matter until you get to the mound, face live hitters and progress innings-wise.”
That lines up with the way Pivetta has approached the rehab process. He said he wants to be patient and make sure he’s fully healed before returning. For him, the real test won’t come until he gets back on a mound and starts building up again.
“It’s just making sure my arm can move, and my arm moved fine,” Pivetta said recently. “It won’t be until I get off a mound and get some length and put something behind the ball that we will know how I feel.”
The injury has complicated what the Padres thought they were getting from Pivetta this season. After a strong 2025, he was expected to anchor the rotation, but his absence has left the starting staff thin.
San Diego clearly doesn’t want to rush him. The risk of bringing him back too early and having him get hurt again is obvious, and Stammen stressed how careful the ramp-up has to be.
“[Relapses] happen a lot with pitchers,” Stammen said. “With these guys we’ve got to be very diligent with what we’re doing. The ramp-up process is the most difficult part of the process.”
Pivetta is not the only rotation arm on the shelf. Joe Musgrove is also dealing with an elbow injury and is said to be weeks behind Pivetta in his recovery. That leaves more uncertainty around when the rotation will be whole again.
Lucas Giolito, Germán Márquez and Matt Waldron are also on the injured list, though the expectation is that all three could return before Musgrove and Pivetta.
With that much uncertainty, the Padres could also choose to be more aggressive at the trade deadline to add help to the rotation if those arms aren’t ready when needed.
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