Matt Waldron – San Diego Union-Tribune

Padres roster review: Matt Waldron – San Diego Union-Tribune

MATT WALDRON

Position(s): Right-handed pitcher
Bats / Throws: Right / Right
2026 opening day age: 29
Height / Weight: 6-foot-2 / 185 pounds
How acquired: Via trade with the Cleveland Guardians in November 2020
Contract status: Will not be arbitration-eligible until 2028; will not reach free agency until 2031
fWAR in 2025: Minus-0.1
Key 2025 stats: 0-1, 7.71 ERA, 3 strikeouts, 6 walks, 2.57 WHIP, .316 opponent average, 4⅔ innings (1 start)

STAT TO NOTE

6.48 — Waldron’s ERA over 90⅓ innings in the minors in 2025, nearly a full run higher than his career minor league ERA (5.67).

TRENDING

Down — The player to be named later in the Mike Clevinger trade in 2020, Waldron had a rather stock pitch mix when he moved from the Guardians to the Padres. He started throwing the knuckleball in games in 2021 after messing with it in his first camp with the Padres, but he also began to develop a love-hate relationship to with the unpredictable pitch, so much so that he really wasn’t throwing it at Triple-A El Paso when the Padres first called him up in 2023. Among the reasons, it was punished in the Pacific Coast League — think of all the hot environment in altitude — when it wasn’t dancing right and the all the experimenting with the robo umps made it difficult for Waldron to stay out of hitters’ counts. But in the majors, the knuckleball yielded a .210 expected batting average while throwing it 26.7% of the time in 2023. That led to Waldron leaning into the pitch more in 2024 (38.2%, .226 XBA) and had a lot to do with a 13-start run in which he posted a 2.63 ERA. Waldron hit a wall late in the summer and was not used in the playoffs, and then an oblique injury sustained in spring training prevented him from building on his success. He opened the season on the injured list, didn’t get on a minor league mound until mid-May and made just one poor spot start in Philadelphia in late June before he returned to Triple-A El Paso for the rest of the season.

2026 OUTLOOK

A poor 2025 season placed Waldron firmly behind Randy Vásquez and JP Sears in the Padres’ rotation depth chart. Waldron is out of options in 2026, too, so he’ll need a strong spring to force his way into the Padres’ plans without being exposed to waivers.

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