Padres’ Joe Musgrove Out Indefinitely After MRI Reveals Bone Spur in Right Elbow
Back on the IL for the second time this season, it’s unclear when Joe Musgrove will return to the mound after an MRI revealed a bone spur in his right elbow.
The San Diego Padres hurler has been plagued by elbow inflammation and triceps tendinitis, limiting him to just 10 starts in 2024. He was scratched from last Friday’s start against the Kansas City Royals before landing on the 15-day IL a day later.
After being shut down from throwing recently, Musgrove received a PRP injection – as well as a cortisone shot previously – which he hopes will allow him to resume playing catch in a few weeks. The possibility of arthroscopic surgery, however, remains on the table if healing doesn’t improve.
Musgrove’s first IL stint in early May was brief, missing only two turns through the rotation before he returned. But his current absence figures to be significantly longer than his first.
The 31-year-old believes he didn’t afford himself enough rest and likely returned too quickly the first time around. As such, he plans to trust his body, intending to opt for recovery over surgery.
“It’s more based on symptoms,” Musgrove told reporters Thursday, including MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. “If I can go out there and throw pain-free — or even if there’s a little bit of discomfort, but I can have a clean delivery and feel confident about letting the ball go — we’ll probably start looking at progressing. But right now, I can’t let the ball go. I don’t trust anything that’s coming out of my hand.”
The Padres’ rotation is also without Yu Darvish, who’s currently on the IL with a strained groin. But, the 37-year-old has recently increased his throwing program and should return at some point later this month.
Injuries to Musgrove and Darvish have forced rookies Randy Vásquez and Adam Mazur – who tossed six innings of one-run ball in his major league debut on Tuesday – into big-league roles, needing to fill innings on a staff now headlined by Dylan Cease.
But San Diego’s injury woes have bled over to the position players as well as Xander Bogaerts is out long-term due to a fractured shoulder. Manny Machado left Wednesday’s contest with a hip ailment suffered while running to first base but entered Thursday’s affair as a pinch-hitter.
Musgrove has struggled mightily when healthy this season, faltering to a 5.66 ERA and 5.33 FIP over 49.1 innings, worth a career-worst -0.1 fWAR. He’s posted a career-low 20.6 percent strikeout rate and a 1.82 HR/9 – by far the highest of his nine-year big-league career.
The 2022 All-Star’s fastball velocity has been down a few ticks, likely caused by his elbow injury, with his four-seamer and sinker averaging 0.7 m.p.h. slower from ‘23. His four-seamer has allowed most of the damage, surrendering four home runs after allowing just one all of last season.
It’s the second straight injury-riddled season for Musgrove, who made only 17 starts a season ago – despite pitching to 3.05 ERA and 3.52 FIP with 97 strikeouts in 97.1 innings – while battling shoulder problems and a fractured toe.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Ryan Casey Aguinaldo. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.