Padres pitching options appear slim

The San Diego Padres organization, by its own admission, has a starting pitching problem. With Dylan Cease signing a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, there is only Michael King left as a re-sign possibility and the chances of that appear to be quite slim. Although he doesn’t have the best health history since becoming a starter, King has standout stuff and a tough mentality. Someone will end up giving him a big contract. Probably not the Padres.

With a limited budget available and an ownership issue to be resolved, A.J. Preller has his work cut out for him filling out the Padres roster with quality players to keep the team in playoff contention. He will have to shop the low end of the free agent market and maybe even dangle some highly ranked prospects in order to acquire a quality starter.

The unknown in this scenario is Joe Musgrove. How ready will he be at the start of the season? Will he be all the way back to his former self, or possibly better?

Those answers won’t come until we get to spring of next year. Preller can’t stock the roster all on hope. He has done fairly well in the past by signing low-priced free agents and getting quality in return (see Gavin Sheets). But that isn’t a sound strategy for a team that wants to compete in the postseason. There has to be some luck, but also some educated and thoughtful choices to bring in multiple players to fill the open positions.

How many pitchers?

The Padres need multiple starters for the rotation. Most all baseball fans know that five starters aren’t enough for a full season. There needs to be eight, at least. Even counting JP Sears and Matt Waldron, the Padres have only six who have pitched in the major leagues.

Newly re-signed Kyle Hart could be a starter but could also wash out and end up back in the bullpen, where he was more effective last season. Jhonny Brito is coming back from rehab, like Musgrove, and is an unknown quantity in this equation. The addition of Miguel Mendez to the 40-man roster guarantees a spring invite, but sticking with the major league club would be a big leap for the 23-year-old righty.

All that being noted, there is a big group of starters on the free agent market. Not all of them will command top dollar to sign. But one of the pitchers the team signs will need to be a proven and reliable veteran. It makes sense the organization will devote the bulk of its resources to signing starters.

They will need to trade for or get lucky with signing a bat to fill out the lineup. The bench help could end up being one or two of those $1 million free agent flyers that Preller is famous for.

Kohei Arihara will be available Dec. 2

One new name to the free agent class has surfaced. Japanese pitcher Kohei Arihara has been floated as a possible player who is interested in returning to MLB. Arihara was with the Texas Rangers from 2021 to 2022. He was hampered by a shoulder injury during that time and returned to Japan after his contract expired. Since then, he has recovered from his injury and has pitched well with the SoftBank Hawks of the NPB.

The 33-year-old right-hander has had three straight seasons of health with 26 starts, and 14 wins, in 2024. He won another 14 games in 2025 and has kept his ERA close to or below 3.0, while throwing 175 innings in back-to-back seasons.

He will join the other international free agents when he becomes available on Dec. 2.

Tomoyuki Saguaro (36), as well as Cody Ponce (32), Tatsuya Imai (28), and Kona Takahashi (29) remain as free agents available to MLB teams.

RHP Kenta Maeda, who played for Detroit in 2025, has signed with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the NPB and will seemingly finish his career in Japan. RHP Carlos Carrasco, 38, has reportedly signed a minor league deal with Atlanta. There remains around 60 starters still available per MLB.