While Waldron is officially considered day-to-day, Shildt said the knuckleballer is “going to need some rest for some period of time, which will be determined.”  Simply given the nature of oblique injuries and the timing, Shildt admitted that Waldron’s chances of making the Opening Day roster “would seem like it would be in jeopardy.”

The news would seem to erase any chance Waldron had of winning the fifth spot in San Diego’s rotation.  An 8.68 ERA over 9 1/3 spring innings wasn’t helping his cause, and Waldron’s planned usage out of the pen on Friday might’ve hinted that the Padres were considering a long relief role for the right-hander.  Naturally the first order of business will simply be for Waldron to get healthy, giving the team time to decide whether Waldron could be used as a reliever, or as a Triple-A depth starter.

Waldron has worked almost exclusively as a starter in the minors since the Padres acquired him in the 2020-21 offseason, and he has started 32 of his 35 career MLB games, posting a 4.79 ERA over his 188 innings in the Show.  Injuries within the Padres’ rotation opened the door for Waldron to get a good amount of playing time, including 146 2/3 frames last season, though a 12.76 ERA over his last four starts suggested that Waldron ran into some fatigue.

Assuming a late trade doesn’t change the equation, Dylan Cease, Michael King, Yu Darvish, and Nick Pivetta are slated to be the Padres’ top four starters.  Stephen Kolek, Randy Vasquez, and Kyle Hart are the remaining candidates for the fifth starter’s job now that Waldron has seemingly been removed from the competition.

Waldron, MLB’s lone knuckleballer, has held a rotation spot all year. He has made 26 starts and is second on the team behind Dylan Cease with 142 2/3 innings. His 4.79 ERA belies decent peripherals. Waldron has a roughly average 21.6% strikeout percentage and has kept his walk rate to a tidy 6.6% clip. Hitters have generally had a tough time making hard contact against him. An abnormally low 67.1% left on base rate is the biggest factor in Waldron allowing nearly five earned runs per nine. ERA estimators like FIP and SIERA suggest his peripherals should point to an ERA in the low-4.00s.

Things have gone downhill over Waldron’s last few starts. He carried a 3.71 ERA into the All-Star Break. He has given up exactly eight earned runs per nine innings in 36 frames during the second half. Waldron has surrendered five-plus runs in four of his last five starts. The Twins blitzed him for 12 hits and 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings last night.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that the assignment is about giving Waldron some rest before the stretch run. While it’s possible that fatigue has played a role in the righty’s recent struggles, Waldron isn’t too far beyond last year’s innings total. He combined for 133 2/3 frames between the majors and Triple-A a season ago. There seems to be something amiss with his recent skid, so the Padres will give him at least a couple weeks away from big league hitters. A pitcher cannot be recalled from an optional assignment for at least 15 days unless he’s replacing another pitcher who is going on the injured list.

San Diego doesn’t have an off day until September 3. They’ve got a handful of rest days built into their September schedule but will need a full rotation for the next two weeks. The Friars have Cease, Michael King, Joe Musgrove and Martín Pérez in their rotation for now. There’s still not much clarity on whether Yu Darvish will be able to return from the family matter to which he’s attending. Randy Vásquez is the top depth arm on the 40-man roster. He has a 4.63 ERA over 17 major league starts this year and has been hit extremely hard (8.78 ERA) in the Pacific Coast League.

The demotion shouldn’t have much impact on Waldron from a service time perspective. He entered the year with 54 days of MLB service and has already topped the necessary 118 days on the active roster to surpass the one-year service mark in 2024.

Aug. 28: The Padres announced that right-hander Yu Darvish has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to August 26, due to right elbow inflammation. Righty Matt Waldron was recalled in a corresponding move.

At this point, it’s unclear what kind of absence the club is expecting from Darvish. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the righty had spoken of fatigue after his start on Friday, though there hasn’t been any kind of firm update from the team. Even if the issue is minor, the calendar figures to be a factor, with just over a month remaining on the schedule.

It’s been a frustrating season for both Darvish and the Padres, with the overall results misaligned with the underlying numbers in both cases. For Darvish as an individual, he has a 4.56 earned run average on the year, a big jump from last year’s 3.10 figure. But his 24.6% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate are both above league average. However, his .319 batting average on balls in play and 71.3% strand rate are both significantly less fortunate than last year’s marks of .250 and and 78.2%. His rate of fly balls leaving the yard also jumped from 9.6% to 13.5%.

His 4.04 FIP suggests he’s been better than his ERA might indicate, but that’s likely little comfort to him or the Padres, as the whole club has been undercut by a similar discrepancy this year. Their +53 run differential is the fifth-best in the National League, and yet they have a record of 61-70 that places them eight games out of a playoff spot, well behind several clubs with far worse run differentials.

It’s not the season that was hoped for in San Diego, as they spent aggressively this offseason to try to build off a strong 2022 campaign that saw them reach the NLCS. Part of that aggressive spending was giving Darvish a six-year, $108MM extension that runs through 2028, which will be his age-41 season. Though the Friars were likely aware that could hurt them in the long run, they wanted to lock him up while he was still throwing well and the club’s competitive window seemed to be wide open.

There’s still some time for the club to salvage the season but the odds are against them, with FanGraphs giving them just a 2.5% chance of cracking the playoffs at this point. Despite a somewhat down season from Darvish, losing him to the IL for the next couple of weeks isn’t ideal, as Joe Musgrove is already on the IL and could be shut down if the club doesn’t get back in the race. Since Darvish won’t be eligible to return until mid-September, perhaps the same is true of him, though that’s not clear at this point.

For now, the Padres will proceed with a rotation of Blake Snell, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Pedro Avila, with one opening available. Rich Hill’s last appearance was out of the bullpen but perhaps he will be slotted back into the rotation. Waldron has been starting in the minors and could be another option and the same goes for Jay Groome, who is on the 40-man.

Looking to the long-term, a bounceback from Darvish next year will be key for the Padres, as there’s plenty of uncertainty in their rotation. Snell and Hill are set to become free agents while Lugo and Wacha both have contract options that could lead to them hitting the open market as well. That leaves Musgrove and Darvish the two building blocks with three potential openings.

Castillo, 27, posted a strong 3.23 ERA through his first 39 big league innings back in 2018-19 but has since seen that promising debut derailed by injury. His 2019 season was cut short by a torn ligament in his hand, and he missed the 2020 season due to a lat strain. Castillo’s 2021 campaign and much of his 2022 season were then wiped out by Tommy John surgery. He’s pitched just two total MLB frames dating back to 2019.

While Castillo posted solid numbers in the upper minors last year as he returned from that deluge of injuries, he’s struggled immensely in 2023. His lone MLB appearance saw him yield four runs in one-third of an inning, and he’s been tagged for a 9.82 ERA in 18 1/3 frames of Triple-A ball.

Castillo is in his final option season and will be arbitration-eligible this winter. The Padres will have a week to trade him, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. If another team picks him up, he can be optioned for the remainder of the season but would need to be carried on the active MLB roster beginning next season. That said, if he can get back on track with a new club, he’d have an additional two seasons of club control remaining.

Suarez, 32, fanned 32% of his opponents and notched a 2.27 ERA as a 31-year-old rookie in San Diego last season after a years-long run of excellence in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. The Friars re-signed to a five-year, $46MM deal with an opt-out clause early last offseason, but he’s yet to pitch this season due to an elbow issue. He’ll give San Diego a high-quality arm to slot into the late innings as the Padres try to salvage an immensely disappointing start to their 2023 season.

Regardless, Grichuk would still count as a relatively inexpensive acquisition for the Yankees.  Grichuk can play at least passable defense at all three outfield positions, making him a usefully flexible option for New York both before and after Aaron Judge returns from the injured list.  While his splits indicate a lot more success at Coors Field than at away ballparks this season, Grichuk does at least have a solid track record of success at Yankee Stadium, with a .279/.333/.532 slash line and seven home runs over 120 career PA in the Bronx.  The struggling Rockies are reportedly open to moving pending free agents like Grichuk, though there’s a slight question mark about his health, as Grichuk has missed Colorado’s last couple of games due to groin tightness.

Here’s more from around the NL West…

• Padres catcher Luis Campusano has missed most of the 2023 campaign after undergoing thumb surgery in early May, leaving the club to rely on the struggling Austin Nola and in-season signing Gary Sanchez behind the plate.  Fortunately, Campusano appears to be nearing a return as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune write that the backstop is in “the final stages” of his Triple-A rehab assignment, and is expected to rejoin the club during their current road trip (which runs through July 23).  According to Acee, Campusano’s return will result in a timeshare with Sanchez, though the playing time specifics are expected to be “merit-based.”  Sanchez has hit .197/.279/.426 (94 wRC+) in 136 plate appearances with the Padres while Campusano posted a .238/.227/.429 (70 wRC+) slash line prior to his trip to the IL, albeit in just 22 trips to the plate.
• Sticking with the Padres, the club announced today that left-hander Adrian Morejon was placed on the 15-day injured list due to right knee inflammation.  It’s been a difficult road for Morejon, who has pitched just 47 2/3 innings since the start of the 2021 campaign due to a Tommy John surgery, and then an elbow sprain that sent him to the 60-day IL at the start of this season.  Morejon will be replaced on the active roster by right-hander Matt Waldron, who sports a 3.86 ERA in 4 2/3 innings of work with the Padres this season.
• Luis Gonzalez underwent back surgery in March, but Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle) today that the outfielder is set to begin a rehab assignment.  It will take a while for Gonzalez to ramp up after the long layoff, but his recovery should line up with the August timeline recently mentioned by Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.  Gonzalez was a solid contributor to the 2022 club, hitting .254/.323/.360 over 350 PA in his rookie season.
• Bookending the post with some more Rockies news, Brendan Rodgers and Tyler Kinley will start rehab assignments with the Rockies’ high-A affiliate on Monday, according to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (Twitter link).  Neither player has seen any action this season, as Rodgers underwent shoulder surgery during Spring Training and Kinley is recovering from an elbow surgery a little over a year ago.

Cruz, 43, has long been one of the most feared sluggers in the league but has struggled over the past couple of years. In 2021, he was hitting .294/.370/.537 for the Twins with a 142 wRC+ when they flipped him to the Rays. That deal worked out very well for the Twins but Cruz slumped after switching jerseys, hitting just .226/.283/.442, 95 wRC+. He then signed with the Nats for 2022 but hit just .234/.313/.337 for a wRC+ of 85.

As last season was winding down, he underwent surgery to address some inflammation in his eye, which he said was impacting his ability to pick up spin on the ball. The Padres took a gamble on a bounceback from Cruz, giving him a $1MM guarantee on a one-year deal. Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to pass, with Cruz hitting just .245/.283/.399 thus far for a wRC+ of 85. He’s striking out at a 30.3% rate and walking just 3.9% of the time, both of those marks easily the worst of his career.

He’s essentially just a designated hitter at this point in his career, having not played the outfield since 2018 and logging just one inning at first base this year. That makes it especially important that he produce at the plate, something he hasn’t been able to do for a couple of years now.

The Padres will now have one week to trade Cruz or pass him through waivers. It’s possible that some club is intrigued based on his past production and modest salary, though that remains to be seen. As a veteran with more than five years of service time, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment in the event he clears waivers while retaining his salary. That means he’s likely to end up released if the Friars can’t find a trade partner in the coming days.

As for Wacha, his shoulder has been an ongoing minor issue. His start on June 24 was skipped due to fatigue in that shoulder, though he did later take the ball on July 1 and toss five innings. Manager Bob Melvin tells AJ Cassavell of MLB.com that the club is trying to use next week’s All-Star break to give him a chance to fully heal up. He has a 2.84 ERA through 15 starts this year, so the team will surely be hoping that a little breather is all he needs to get back on track.

JUNE 23: The Padres will promote knuckleballer Matt Waldron to start tomorrow night’s game against the Nationals, the club informed reporters (including Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune). He’s not on the 40-man roster but San Diego has an opening after designating Nabil Crismatt for assignment on Tuesday. Michael Wacha had been slated to start the game. The Friars are skipping his outing due to some shoulder fatigue, tweets AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.

Waldron, a 26-year-old righty, entered the professional ranks as an 18th-round pick of the Indians back in 2019. Cleveland traded him to San Diego after the 2020 season as the player to be named later in the Mike Clevinger/Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill blockbuster.

The University of Nebraska product has slowly progressed up the minor league ranks over the two and a half years since then. He reached Triple-A El Paso midway through last season and has spent all of 2023 there. He has a 7.02 ERA over 66 2/3 innings this year, starting 12 of 14 appearances.

That’s obviously not a strong run prevention mark, even in the context of the brutal Pacific Coast League setting for pitchers. Waldron ranks 27th among 38 PCL hurlers (minimum 40 innings) in ERA. He’s seventh among that group in strikeout rate, however, fanning just under a quarter of opponents. He has kept his walks to a manageable 7.8% clip, with the inflated ERA largely attributable to a batting average on balls in play just shy of .400.

It’s unclear if Waldron will get more than one start in his initial MLB look. Even if it’s a one-off appearance for now, it’ll mark both a major personal achievement and a win for fans of the knuckleball.

According to Statcast, there hasn’t been a single knuckleball thrown in the major leagues (outside of a few scattered eephus pitches from position players in mop-up duty) in either of the last two seasons. Mickey Jannis made one relief appearance for the Orioles in 2021; the last knuckleballer to pitch more than twice was Steven Wright back in 2019.

Waldron, who turned 24 in September, joined the Indians when they chose him in the 18th round of the 2019 draft. He made a good impression during his first minor league season, in which he amassed 45 2/3 innings of 2.96 ERA pitching with 11.2 K/9 against a measly 0.8 BB/9 between the rookie and Low-A levels. Of course, Waldron wasn’t able to build on those numbers this year because the pandemic wiped out the minor league season.

However Waldron pans out, the Padres probably don’t regret making the deal. Even though he missed time with injuries after the team picked him up, Clevinger helped the Friars to the playoffs with 19 innings of six-run ball in September. Clevinger has two more years of affordable control left, so he’ll remain a key cog for the Padres going forward.

The Indians, meanwhile, saw three of the six players they acquired for Clevinger and outfielder Greg Allen don their uniform in 2020. Righty Cal Quantrill was highly effective over a small sample of work; outfielder/first baseman Josh Naylor went on a tear during their two-game playoff loss to the Yankees after a subpar regular campaign; and catcher Austin Hedges’ struggles at the plate continued.

When Summer Camp was booting back up, a trade sending Clevinger out of Cleveland at a time when the Indians sat atop the AL Central standings would’ve seemed far-fetched. The club had already dealt away Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber in the past 12 months, setting Clevinger up as a front-of-the-rotation workhorse.

Much has changed since that time, however. Clevinger drew ire from organizational higher-ups not only for breaking Covid-19 protocols but then taking a flight with the team rather than being forthcoming about his actions. That led to Clevinger being optioned to team’s alternate training site alongside Zach Plesac, who also violated protocols but was found to have done so before traveling with the club. Reports after the pair was optioned indicated that some teammates were so furious with the pair that they threatened to opt out of the season if Clevinger and Plesac were permitted to rejoin the club right away.

All the while, the Indians were receiving better-than-expected performances from other arms. Shane Bieber had already established himself as an above-average starter, but he’s ascended to bona fide Cy Young and MVP-caliber performance in the first month of play. Righty Aaron Civale has become the latest Cleveland pitching prospect to rise from obscurity to what looks like a high-end arm (3.72 ERA, 3.07 FIP in 46 innings). Carlos Carrasco is rounding back into form after last year’s frightening battle with leukemia. Triston McKenzie punched out 10 hitters in an electric MLB debut. And the aforementioned Plesac turned heads himself prior to being optioned (1.29 ERA, 24-to-2 K/BB ratio in 21 innings).

That hardly makes Clevinger expendable, but the Indians do seemingly have the depth to field a strong rotation even when subtracting one of the most talented pieces. And while Clevinger may have fallen out of favor a bit with the organization and/or teammates, there’s little denying that he is indeed among the game’s more talented arms. Dating back to 2017, the 29-year-old has compiled a 2.97 ERA and 3.43 FIP with averages of 10.2 strikeouts, 3.4 walks and 0.94 home runs allowed per nine innings pitched.

Beyond Clevinger’s high-end performance on the mound, his remaining club control only added to his allure among other clubs. He’s earning $4.1MM in 2020 — which prorates to about $1.48MM (with $617K yet to be paid) — and is controlled for an additional two seasons beyond the current campaign. For the Padres, that means that their rotation over the next two-plus seasons will feature a blend of Clevinger, Chris Paddack, Dinelson Lamet, MacKenzie Gore, Luis Patino and Zach Davies (though Davies is controlled only through 2021). It’s an enviable stockpile of arms — one that doesn’t even acknowledge the likes of Joey Lucchesi, Michel Baez and Adrian Morejon. Of course, some from that trio could yet be shipped out in trades to address other areas of need.

While Clevinger is the clear headliner of this deal — and perhaps of the entire 2020 trade deadline — he’s not the only piece going to San Diego. The Friars will also pick up four-plus years of control over the 27-year-old Allen. He’s out to a rough start in 2020 and has yet to really hit much in parts of four big league seasons, but Allen is a switch-hitting speedster with an above-average glove and experience at all three outfield spots.

He’s unlikely to push for a starting job, but Allen is a nice bench piece who can provide a late-inning jolt on the basepaths, a defensive upgrade or a more advantageous platoon matchup. He’ll need to improve upon a tepid .239/.295/.344 career slash if he’s to stick with the club into his arbitration years, but he won’t be arb-eligible until after the 2021 season, so he can be a solid reserve option next year at just north of the league minimum.

If Waldron is indeed the third piece headed to San Diego in the deal, he’s more of a long-term play than anything else. The 23-year-old was the Indians’ 18th-round pick in 2019 and posted a strong 2.96 ERA with a 57-to-4 K/BB ratio in 45 2/3 innings last year in his lone pro season. However, he did so as a college arm pitching at Rookie ball and Short-Season Class-A, where he was comfortably older than the majority of his competition. It’ll be much more telling to see how he performs against more advanced competition in 2021, but the early results are still of some note. Waldron wasn’t in the Indians’ pool, hence his inclusion as a PTBNL.

Turning to the Indians, they’ll get a high-volume return — but one that does not contain any of the Padres’ top-ranked prospects. It always seemed likely that for the Indians to move Clevinger, they’d need to acquire MLB-ready talent that can step right onto the roster. They’ll receive just that in Naylor, Hedges and Quantrill at the very least, and Miller probably isn’t too far behind.

The 23-year-old Naylor was the No. 12 overall pick by the Marlins back in 2015 and was already traded once in the deal that sent Andrew Cashner from San Diego to Miami. He’s yet to cement himself as a big league regular but has fared quite well in the upper minors. The Padres haven’t exactly given Naylor an extended audition, but he’ll now presumably receive that in Cleveland. To this point in his career, Naylor is a .253/.315/.405 hitter in 317 MLB plate appearances. That’s not eye-catching production, but scouting reports have in the past credited him with plus-plus raw power and a potentially above-average hit tool. He hit .314/.389/.547 in Triple-A last year and .297/.383/.444 in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting a year prior.

Naylor’s long-term home on defense could be either left field or first base, but with Carlos Santana and Franmil Reyes currently occupying first and the DH slot, respectively, Naylor seems likely ticketed for left field. In some ways, this is reminiscent of Cleveland’s bet on first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers, but the club will hope for better results out of Naylor than they’ve received from Bauers so far. There’s certainly everyday upside present with Naylor, who can be controlled all the way through 2025, but it does seem a bit surprising that Cleveland brass didn’t focus on a more established young hitter.

Also going to Cleveland is Hedges, a 28-year-old defensive standout who has never provided much offense in the big leagues. The former top prospect has shown a bit of pop — career-high 18 homers in 2018 — but in total owns just a .199/.257/.359 slash through 1339 trips to the plate with San Diego. He’s obviously not a clear upgrade over Roberto Perez, but the Indians now possess two of the game’s very best defenders behind the dish.

Hedges, in fact, is widely regarded as MLB’s premier defensive catcher. Hedges was MLB’s best pitch framer in 2019, per Statcast, and has graded out at elite levels in that regard in each season of his career. He’s also thwarted 32 percent of stolen-base attempts against him while consistently drawing above-average marks for his pitch blocking abilities at Baseball Prospectus. Hedges is controlled through the 2022 season.

Quantrill, 25, brings another former first-round pick (eighth in 2016) and top prospect to the Indians organization. He’s shined in 17 1/3 frames as a multi-inning reliever in 2020 (five runs, 18-to-6 K/BB ratio), but he also struggled in a rotation role a year ago.

Quantrill has a low-spinning sinker (which is good for a sinker, as opposed to a four-seamer, where high spin is preferred) and has generally limited hard contact well, per Statcast. He may not have found his groove yet in the big leagues, but the Indians develop more quality arms than the vast majority of teams in the league. Getting their hands on a former top pick who was once a rather well-regarded prospect could yet yield some strong results, and Quantrill, like Naylor, is controllable through 2025.

Among the pure prospects headed to the Indians in this deal, Cantillo and Arias are regarded a bit more highly than Miller, though all three rank firmly in the middle ranks of an absolutely stacked farm system. Cantillo, 20, was a 16th-round pick in 2017 who has elevated his stock with a strong showing to this point in his pro career. He split last season between Class-A and Class-A Advanced, working to a combined 2.26 ERA with 11.6 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen writes that he’s currently tracking as a back-end starter but has a projectable frame that could allow for further growth and add some extra life to his pitches.

Arias, also 20, is regarded as an elite defender at short with some questions about his abilities at the plate. Baseball America ranked him ninth in the deep Padres system, praising his surprising raw power but noting that his current inability to lay off breaking balls out of the strike zone leads to untenable strikeout numbers. Arias is young, though, and he hit .302/.339/.470 in Class-A Advanced last year, so the tools are clearly there. Depending on how the bat progresses, he has everyday upside at shortstop.

Miller, 23, plays second base, shortstop and third base, and he turned in a solid .290/.355/.430 showing in a very tough Double-A setting last year. Miller has hit at every minor league stop and struck out at just a 15.4 percent rate in Double-A last season. MLB.com tabs him as a potential regular at second base, citing an arm that doesn’t quite play as a regular shortstop, or a utility man who can play three infield spots with a quality bat. He’s yet to make his big league debut, but Miller is the closest of the three minor leaguers in this deal.

We might not see a more franchise-altering deal than this at the 2020 deadline. For the Indians, it’s the type of trade fans are used to, painful as it might be. They’ll shed a player whose arbitration salary is on the rise and replace him with a bevy of young talent — a luxury that was possible due to the team’s superlative record in terms of developing starting pitching. They’re still in the driver’s seat as far as a potential postseason berth goes, but the club is quite likely weaker for the balance of the 2020 campaign. The long-term benefits should help the club sustain its long run of contending seasons in the AL Central, but that’ll be more of a challenge in and of itself as each of the White Sox, Tigers and Royals near the end of arduous rebuilding efforts.

The addition of Clevinger to an already formidable Padres rotation mix only further solidifies them as a win-now club for the foreseeable future, and they’re now a clear-cut postseason favorite in the NL. And unlike the last time the Padres went on an aggressive win-now tear, the Padres have the young foundation necessary — fronted by superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. —  to support their recent wave of high-profile veteran acquisitions. They’ve completed a dizzying five trades since the weekend began — including a seven-player swap with Seattle last night — to remake an already strong club. The “Rock Star” GM is back, it seems, and the Padres certainly appear to be positioned better than they have been at any time in Preller’s tenure.

Ryan Spaeder reported last night that a deal sending Clevinger to Padres was in the works, though as of last evening he’d heard of some potential holdups in the deal. Robert Murray first reported that the deal was done (via Twitter). MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, ESPN’s Jeff Passan, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller all broke varying elements of the other players involved in the deal (all links to Twitter).