{"id":39295,"date":"2025-07-04T23:27:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T23:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/39295\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T23:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T23:27:15","slug":"pondering-sundays-starter-yu-darvish-michael-king-updates-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/39295\/","title":{"rendered":"Pondering Sunday\u2019s starter, Yu Darvish, Michael King updates \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yu Darvish has not thrown a bullpen since Tuesday\u2019s four-inning, simulated action in Lake Elsinore. That will likely occur before Saturday\u2019s game at Petco Park, taking him out of the running for an aggressive return to the rotation on Sunday. Ryan Bergert is not eligible to return from the injured list until July 9, so that leaves the Padres deciding between someone in their nine-man bullpen or calling up a minor leaguer to take Sunday\u2019s start.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Waldron was optioned to Triple-A El Paso and can\u2019t return to the majors unless he\u2019s replacing an injured player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a bullpen with nine guys, but we\u2019re also in Game 3 of a 10-day stretch consistently so that\u2019s probably not likely,\u201d Padres manager Mike Shildt said. \u201cThere\u2019s some guys that you can do your research on that can come up and potentially grab a start from the minor league side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OK.<\/p>\n<p>At Triple-A El Paso, the likeliest options are left-handers Kyle Hart and Omar Cruz.<\/p>\n<p>Hart has a 6.66 ERA in six starts in the majors this season and a 4.67 in nine starts with El Paso. Hart last threw on June 28 and is not listed among the Chihuahuas starters this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Cruz is slated to start Saturday for El Paso. He has a 5.62 ERA in 41\u2154 innings in the minors and has a 9.50 ERA over his last 18 innings.<\/p>\n<p>Both Hart and Cruz are on the 40-man roster, as is Double-A San Antonio right-hander Henry Baez, Sunday\u2019s listed starter in the Texas League and that circuit\u2019s reigning pitcher of the month with a 1.13 ERA in five starts in June.<\/p>\n<p>Right-hander Braden Nett also has a hot hand at Double-A San Antonio \u2014 a 1.47 ERA over his last six starts \u2014 but he is not on the 40-man roster. Nett is also Saturday\u2019s scheduled starter for the Missions.<\/p>\n<p>Nett is ranked No. 8 among Padres prospects by MLB.com, while Baez is No. 12.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Getting comfortable<\/p>\n<p><strong>Eduarniel Nu\u00f1ez<\/strong> signed a minor league deal with the Padres in early November, in plenty of time to get an invitation to <strong>Joe Musgrove\u2019s<\/strong> Camp 44 at Petco Park in January. It was a good time to begin to get acclimated to a new organization after eight years in the Cubs system.<\/p>\n<p>The path to the Padres from there \u2014 from a 3.57 ERA in 22 \u2154 innings at Double-A San Antonio to 7\u2153 shutout innings at Triple-A El Paso to an MLB debut on Wednesday in the second game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia \u2014 was simple.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just being really confident with my pitches and really attacking hitters as much as possible,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said Friday afternoon through interpreter Jorge Merlos.<\/p>\n<p>Nu\u00f1ez wound up walking two batters and allowing a hit in one-third of an inning without giving up a run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was kind of shocked,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said of the call-up. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to explain it really. I was kind of in awe. \u2026 I felt a lot of emotions out there. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Called up to replace Waldron on the active roster, Nu\u00f1ez is currently part of a nine-man bullpen. He could be sent back down to the minors as soon as Sunday if the Padres call up an arm from the system to start the series finale against the Rangers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Notable<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>RHP<strong> Michael King (<\/strong>shoulder) continues to trend in the right direction, although he is not yet throwing off a mound. Said Shildt: \u201cThis is as optimistic as we\u2019ve been, (but) we\u2019re still guarding the optimism. But all the things that we\u2019re looking for consistently are showing up, just relative to lack of pain. He\u2019s been pain free. His arm\u2019s moving. He\u2019s got more strength, more consistent strength and he\u2019s been able to increase his throws, the intensity of his throws and the distance of his throws, and he\u2019s been able to recover. So Michael is trending in a better direction.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Bergert (forearm contusion) threw a bullpen session on Friday and could throw 50 to 60 pitches in a rehab game on Sunday or Tuesday. Shildt did not yet know where that assignment would take place.<\/li>\n<li>RHP <strong>Logan Gillaspie<\/strong> cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A El Paso, where he started Friday\u2019s game for the Chihuahuas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Originally Published: July 4, 2025 at 3:50 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yu Darvish has not thrown a bullpen since Tuesday\u2019s four-inning, simulated action in Lake Elsinore. That will likely&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-39295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114797559433282302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}