Padres' Joe Musgrove Reveals He Has No Timeline to Return After Setback

On Oct. 2 2024, Joe Musgrove walked off the Petco Park mound in the fourth inning of a Wild Card game against the Atlanta Braves.

Nearly 18 months later, after undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing the entire 2025 season, Musgrove is on the injured list without a timetable to return to the mound.

Musgrove entered spring training expecting to factor into the team's plans come the start of the 2026 season. However, he didn't bounce back from his March 4 exhibition against Great Britain exactly as he wanted.

He had a bullpen session on March 8 and has been shut down from throwing ever since. He finally started playing catch on Thursday, hours before his team was blown out, 8-2, on the same field he walked off 18 months ago.

Before the game, Musgrove provided an update on how he's feeling and what went into the decision to shut him down.

“I didn’t feel quite as good throughout the buildup of the offseason,” Musgrove said. “Nothing that prohibited me from throwing. Just not feeling as free and consistent during the throwing, and then the recovery stuff was a little more difficult. And again, I kind of chalked that up to just the process of building back up, and was hoping to hit that stride and break through and start feeling better and just never really came.

“So it’s important to address it now, instead of forcing my way in at the start of the season and missing a bigger chunk of time.”

Musgrove recently underwent an MRI to make sure there was nothing of concern. The results came back clean.

“I mean, you look at an MRI after Tommy John and it never looks great,” Musgrove said. “There’s always the idea of looking at something and finding something that you don’t feel. … So I personally haven’t even looked at the image. I just told them, like, ‘Tell me what’s wrong. If there’s something serious, we’ll address it. If not, I don’t even want to see it.’ So I feel physically good right now, and I’m heading in the right direction.”

Musgrove admitted that this was a "setback," but he's hoping that the decision to shut him down now will help him have a smooth return later in the year.

"It's a setback, I guess, because I looked at coming into camp and breaking with the team and being ready for Opening Day," Musgrove said. "Physically, how I felt, [the setback] became more of a realistic thing as spring went on. And again I was just holding on to hope that one day I would break through and feel better, and it just never came."

As for when he will return, Musgrove said, "I don't have a timeline yet."

President of baseball operations A.J. Preller didn't have a timeline, either.

“It’s not like he’s been down for six to eight weeks, so hopefully he can get going here,” Preller said. “But we’re not going to really know until he gets through days like today, where he starts to play catch and he puts some volume on what he’s doing and he starts to build up innings and we’re seeing the bounce-back.

“So it’s not like next week he’s coming back. But this isn’t something either where we’re talking about months. We’ll know a lot more here over the course of the next week to 10 days, how he starts bouncing back from these early throwing sessions.

“You know he’s gonna put the work in, for sure. So we’re hoping it’s sooner rather than later.”

In the meantime, the Padres will see what they have in February additions Walker Buehler and Germán Márquez. They will also hope that Michael King bounces back from a rough 2025 season, while Nick Pivetta bounces back from an ugly first start on Opening Day.

If not, the Padres rotation could be in trouble as they await the return of Musgrove — who isn't exactly a sure thing himself coming off major surgery and an 18-month hiatus.