Inside The Padres

Padres' Nick Pivetta Dealing With Arm Fatigue, Has Scheduled Start Pushed Back

He's the Padres' presumed Opening Day starter.
Noah Camras|
Sep 17, 2025; New York City, New York, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher Nick Pivetta (27) reacts after allowing a solo home run to New York Mets designated hitter Starling Marte (not pictured) during the fourth inning at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Sep 17, 2025; New York City, New York, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher Nick Pivetta (27) reacts after allowing a solo home run to New York Mets designated hitter Starling Marte (not pictured) during the fourth inning at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

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San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres have pushed back right-handed pitcher Nick Pivetta's next scheduled spring start due to arm fatigue, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Pivetta was scheduled to start Sunday's Cactus League game, but has now been replaced by Logan Gillaspie. Pivetta didn't throw his scheduled bullpen session on Friday, but will potentially throw one in the coming days before getting into Cactus League action shortly thereafter.

According to Acee, "multiple people said there is no concern about any long-term issue."

Pivetta, 33, is the presumed Opening Day starter for the Padres as he's the most sure thing in the rotation. While Michael King is coming off of an injury-riddled 2025 campaign and Joe Musgrove hasn't pitched since 2024 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Pivetta is coming off a career year with San Diego in which he went 13-5 with a 2.87 ERA and 190 strikeouts across 181.2 innings.

The Padres need Pivetta to have an encore season as there's plenty of question marks in their rotation. After King and Musgrove, the Padres are expected to go with Randy Vásquez as the No. 4 starter and then one of either Germán Márquez, Walker Buehler, JP Sears, Triston McKenzie or Marco Gonzales as the fifth starter. None of the five veterans have shown anything this spring to warrant confidence in them just yet.

Thus, it's especially important to have Pivetta as a sure thing in a rotation that lacks just that. So it's not exactly a great sign that he's already dealing with some arm fatigue this early in the year.

Pivetta's 181.2 innings pitched last year was a career high, but he's thrown at least 140 innings in each of the last five seasons, including 179.2 innings in 2022. He's proven he can handle a larger workload, and the Padres will need him to do that again in 2026 as they search for some consistency from their starters this season.

The Padres should provide an update on Pivetta in the coming days, but the sooner he can get back on the mound the better as Opening Day is less than three weeks away.

Pivetta has made two starts this spring, allowing five earned runs over five innings for a 9.00 ERA with more walks (3) than strikeouts (2).

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Noah Camras
NOAH CAMRAS

Noah Camras graduated from the University of Southern California in 2022 with a B.A. in Journalism and a minor in sports media studies. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and has extensively covered Southern California sports in his career. Noah is the publisher of Padres on SI after contributing as a writer and editor over the last three years.

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