The dog days of late July and August are usually a section of the schedule when the Major League season becomes a grind for many teams. But last season, they were the happiest days for the San Diego Padres. The National League West club went on a tear, ripping off 19 wins in 22 games from July 20 to August 14, then putting together a solid 24-13 record the rest of the way to play themselves into the postseason as a Wild Card with 93 wins on the season.
The Friars defeated the Atlanta Braves in a two-game Wild Card round sweep, then pushed the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers to the full five games before bowing out at the Division Series stage.
Now, the Padres head into the 2025 campaign looking to make the playoffs in back-to-back years for only the second time since joining the NL as an expansion team in 1969, and first since 2005 and 2006.
Friars Have Enjoyed Relatively Healthy Spring
Of course, the Padres would hope to do even better than that. The San Diego club has made only two World Series appearances in its history, winning only one World Series game. That came in 1984 when they lost to the Detroit Tigers four games to one. The Padres were next in the Fall Classic in 1998 when they had the misfortune to run into a New York Yankees juggernaut that had won 114 regular season games and swept the Padres in four straight.
The Padres 2025 campaign has been off to a reasonably healthy start in Spring Training, with only a few scattered injuries, apart from starter Joe Musgrove who will miss all of 2025 as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
Unfortunately, on Monday with Opening Day just 10 days away, the Padres were hit with perhaps their worst news of the spring, when 12-year veteran starter Yu Darvish, entering the third season of his six-year, $108 million contract, was shut down from throwing for an indefinite period due to suffering what San Diego manager Mike Shildt described as “general fatigue.”
The 38-year-old Darvish was scratched from his scheduled Tuesday Cactus League start against the San Francisco Giants, and the team said he will be evaluated on a daily basis to determine when he is ready to resume his throwing program, according to a report by Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Darvish Entering 20th Pro Baseball Season
The Padres have emphasized keeping Darvish rested throughout the season to allow him to be effective late in the season and, the team hopes, in the postseason, according to the Union-Tribune report.
It is not entirely unexpected for Darvish to be feeling a degree of fatigue. Including his first seven seasons pitching for the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League, Darvish will be pitching his 20th professional season in 2025.
Darvish was limited to just 16 starts and 81 2/3 innings last season, his fourth with the Padres, due to a series of injuries including a groin strain and elbow inflammation. But he also spent two months away from the team on the MLB restricted list while he dealt with what was described as a “personal family matter” which he declined to discuss publicly.
Darvish’s fatigue condition leaves the Padres with only three spots filled in their five-man starting rotation. Those three pitchers are currently Michael King, Dylan Cease, and Nick Pivetta, though trade rumors continue to swirl around Cease. The Padres have yet to land on a fifth starter.
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