Randy Vásquez’s journey from a promising Yankees rookie to a key piece in the San Diego Padres’ rotation has been anything but linear-but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. What we’ve seen over the past three seasons is a young right-hander growing into the grind of a Major League season, learning on the fly, and showing flashes that suggest he could be more than just a back-end starter.
Let’s rewind to 2023, when Vásquez first broke into the big leagues with the Yankees. He pitched in 11 games, five of them starts, and wrapped up the season with a 2-2 record and a 2.87 ERA.
Not bad for a rookie just getting his feet wet. The strikeout-to-walk numbers-33 Ks to 18 BBs-weren’t dominant, but they showed enough poise and pitchability to catch the attention of evaluators across the league.
One of those evaluators? Padres President of Baseball Operations and GM A.J.
Preller, who made Vásquez part of the blockbuster deal that sent Juan Soto to the Bronx.
That trade brought a haul of arms to San Diego-Michael King, Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe-and catcher Kyle Higashioka. But Vásquez was more than just a throw-in. The Padres saw something in his arm, and in 2024, they gave him a shot to prove it.
Vásquez’s first full year as a starter came with growing pains. He made 20 starts, threw 98 innings, and finished with a 4-7 record and a 4.87 ERA.
His strikeouts ticked up to 62, but so did the walks (29), and he gave up 56 runs, 53 of them earned. The jump in workload-from 37.2 innings the year before to nearly 100-was significant, and it showed.
That kind of leap can test any young pitcher, especially one still learning how to navigate big-league lineups multiple times through.
Then came 2025, and while the win-loss record didn’t move the needle much-he went 6-7-the rest of the numbers told a more encouraging story. Vásquez made 26 starts, pitched 133.2 innings, and lowered his ERA to a more respectable 3.84.
That’s not ace-level, but it’s solid middle-of-the-rotation production. The concern?
His strikeout numbers didn’t climb with the innings. He fanned 78 hitters but also issued 52 walks, and the total runs allowed ballooned to 127 (122 earned).
That’s a lot of traffic, and it suggests that while he was better at limiting damage, he was still putting himself in tough spots too often.
Heading into 2026, Vásquez is penciled in as the Padres’ No. 4 starter. That’s a critical role-one that often gets overlooked until you realize how many teams struggle to find reliable arms past the top three.
For Vásquez, this season is about turning flashes of potential into consistent performance. The win-loss record won’t tell the whole story-especially on a team still rounding into form-but the walk rate will.
That’s on him. Command and control are the next steps in his evolution.
There’s reason to believe a leap could be coming. Toward the end of last season, Vásquez’s fastball velocity ticked up, a sign that he might be getting more comfortable with the workload and trusting his stuff. A harder fastball doesn’t just help with strikeouts-it can also give a pitcher the confidence to challenge hitters inside the zone rather than nibbling and falling behind in counts.
And while the raw numbers don’t scream breakout just yet, there’s something to be said for a pitcher who’s now logged back-to-back seasons of increasing starts and innings. That’s not easy to do in today’s game, and it speaks to his durability and ability to adjust. Reports out of the offseason suggest Vásquez is in better shape than he was at this point last year-another sign of maturity and a possible indication that he knows what’s at stake in 2026.
The Padres are going to need him. With a rotation that’s still finding its identity post-Soto trade, Vásquez has a chance to not just hold a spot, but to earn trust.
Manager Craig Stammen and the front office will be watching closely. And if Vásquez can tighten up the command and build off that late-season velocity bump, he could be one of the more underrated arms to watch in the National League this year.
He’s not all the way there yet-but the tools are in place. Now it’s about putting them together, one start at a time.