Before the Padres’ season came to an end with tonight’s shutout loss in Los Angeles, San Diego provided a pair of injury updates. Ha-Seong Kim and Joe Musgrove both underwent their previously announced surgeries this week. Dennis Lin of the Athletic tweets that Kim had a labrum repair on his right shoulder yesterday, while Musgrove’s Tommy John surgery was performed on Friday.
Kim’s status will be one of the bigger stories of the offseason. The Padres haven’t provided a timetable for the infielder’s return. It’s not clear how much of next season, if any, he’ll be sidelined. The surgery comes at a brutal time for Kim, who is set to decline his end of an $8MM mutual option and reach free agency this winter. The defensive stalwart had an argument for a deal of four or five years at $15MM+ annually if he were healthy.
His market value is much more difficult to pin down now. Kim looked like a lock to receive and decline a qualifying offer midway through the summer. Unless the Padres expect him to be fully recovered early in the 2025 season, they probably won’t make the QO. The surgery raises the possibility of Kim taking a shorter-term contract. That could be a straight one-year deal or, more likely, a two-year pact that allows him to opt out after the first season.
San Diego will need to weigh a qualifying offer decision on both Kim and Jurickson Profar. If they let Kim walk, they’ll decide whether to go outside the organization for a shortstop or move one of their current players back to the position. The Padres used Xander Bogaerts at shortstop down the stretch. They could keep Bogaerts there with Jake Cronenworth and Luis Arraez on the right side of the infield. San Diego also has the option of giving Jackson Merrill a look at shortstop, but the 21-year-old had such a fantastic season in center field that the Padres may not want to change his role again. Bringing Merrill back into the infield would open a second gap to plug in the outfield alongside Profar’s potential departure.
Musgrove is under contract for $20MM in the third season of his five-year extension. The timing of the surgery means he’s very likely to miss the entire 2025 season. Musgrove isn’t willing to already close the book on the year, however. The righty told reporters he’s maintaining some hope that he could contribute if the Friars make a playoff push. “Some guys regenerate tissues faster than others,” he said earlier this week (via Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune). “I’m always going to leave room for the miracle of coming back in a crazy amount of time. But hearing the stories and reading up and doing my homework and talking with our trainers who have rehabbed tons of these, there’s a lot of importance in giving it the time on the front end that it needs.”
The 31-year-old (32 in December) would need an atypically quick recovery to pitch next season. The standard Tommy John rehab takes around 14-16 months. If Musgrove were to make a surprising return, it’d probably in short relief. The Padres will go into next season with Michael King, Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish as healthy starters. Martín Pérez will be a free agent, while Matt Waldron and Randy Vásquez profile better in depth roles. Musgrove’s injury could lead the Padres to acquire multiple starting pitchers this winter.
fba0017
Padres going to be trending down. The Xander deal is such an albatross of a contract. And Preller will continue to decimate the minor league system.
SweetBabyRayKingsThickThighs
Good thing Preller can scout and develop new minor leaguers
I Believe We Can Win
Which he just replaces with more draft picks and international free agents.
MLB.com did an analysis of prospects traded and found like 3-5% actually become something.
If you trade away 20 guys and 19 don’t become something but 1 does well trade usually favors you when you’re getting mlb production from guys you got for the prospects.
One part of prellers game people severely underrate is his ability to identify foreign talent
Pierce Johnson
Robert Suarez
Ha Seong Kim
Yuki Matsui
He’s hit more on guys coming over from the east than most.
I expect him to be active in the market again this off season
bag o ballz
3-5% unless you are the bobby Evans era Giants lol
Smacky
He traded Max Fried and the draft pick that became Austin Riley.
Zerbs63
Dodger pitchers surgically cut through the Padres offense, 24 consecutive scoreless innings..
Informed Sportsball Discussion
@Zerbs63 Hey, thanks man. All of us totally missed what happened.
Informed Sportsball Discussion
@fba0017 Everyone said that about the Pads this year. Not what happened. They cut money and got better.
You’re right about Bogaerts. Running out of “supposed to be a superstar” front years of that contract to make good.
Preller’s farm system was back to a top 10 system a year after trading for Soto. Everyone can pipe down on the “omg muh farm system” talk.
Butter Biscuits
Bunch of losers these guys
Informed Sportsball Discussion
Ok, super cool anon on the internet.
YankeesBleacherCreature
Labrum tear surgery is really tricky. Michael Conforto, Tatis, Jr., Miguel Andujar, Shawn Green, and Troy Glaus come to mind. It can take years to regain strength, if ever, as their post-surgery stats indicate. Kim isn’t a power-hitter so I wonder how it will effect him.
I also found this:
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666061X230…
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I don’t what happened between Game 3 and Game 4 but the Padres had all the momentum and energy in the world until…they suddenly did not. And that all happened in their park too. Confounding and head-scratching. Wha’ happened??
YankeesBleacherCreature
Yamamoto found impeccable command and ball movement. He went 5 IP, 2H, and 2Ks through only 63 pitches and only 39 of them were strikes. The Padres hitters were off-balanced facing a $300MM pitcher. Dodgers relievers tonight hasn’t given up a run through 5 games.
I Believe We Can Win
Dodgers made adjustments game 4 padres didn’t make adjustments game 4 or game 5
Game 4 padres should have went with a pen game and played match ups
Game 5 they should have switched up batting order moving guys hitting up and guys not producing down. Tatis should have led off with peralta behind him then manny.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
You’re right, starting Dylan Cease again on only 3 days rest was not an optimal decision. It wasn’t like he was dominant in his first start against the Dodgers. But he’s your Ace, your number one guy, they had the faith in him. But Cease might be the main culprit behind losing the series.
BlueSkies_LA
It’s hard to argue with the strategy when you have Darvish up next in a game 5. This series could have easily been decided by one swing of the bat.
Cap & Crunch
Lot of the insiders are giving a major hat tip to the Buehler water cooler slam, no joke…that’s when the streak started too
This team can lack emotion at times, I think it was a wake up call majorly needed
Butter Biscuits
I certainly enjoyed watching him take out his emotions that day he still has the fire in him
fred-3
The crazy part was that the Padres might’ve swept if they simply don’t pitch to Ohtani in G1. What a turnaround this series for the Dodgers. They’re finally peaking at the right time.
BlueSkies_LA
Momentum is sort of a myth. You have it until you don’t. We see this all year long through the regular season but for some reason it’s surprising when it happens in the postseason.
Smacky
Dodgers deployed the trash cans.
amk1920
Preller found the Ohtani killer in Scott. But they lose and now Snelling and Mazur were lost for nothing. Most unsustainable model in baseball.
oldguyG
It’s playoffs if Tatis got a 3 run HR instead of DP . Padres lost bats went silent . It was a fun season
27champyankees
Padres CHOKED
They had a 2-1 lead in a best of 5 and couldn’t put LA away. The series went 5 games and they scored their last run in the 3rd inning of game three. Lol
A total collapse…..Not unlike The 2021 Giants who like SD had a 2-1 lead and completely CHOKED