Padres Veteran Just Waiting to Be Replaced After Slow Start

The San Diego Padres took a chance on veteran Walker Buehler, but his time with the team could be running out.

Buehler has allowed seven earned runs in 6.2 innings of work. The right-hander allowed three runs over four innings in his season debut against the San Francisco Giants. He then struggled in his second start of 2026 against the Boston Red Sox over the weekend.

Buehler was scoreless through the first two innings against Boston, which is also what happened in his season debut. He started off strong and then his outing completely unraveled with Buehler lasting just 2.2 innings against his former team.

The Padres spent the spring searching for the back-end of the rotation as Michael King, Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove were poised to be the team's frontline starters. At the beginning of camp, manager Craig Stammen revealed Randy Vásquez had the inside track to earning one of the final two spots.

And so, it appeared the Padres only had to find one pitcher to emerge as their No. 5 starter. That changed once it was announced that Musgrove would begin the season on the injured list after suffering a setback in his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

The Opening Day rotation consisted of Pivetta, King, Vásquez, Buehler and Germán Márquez. The latter two didn't have permanent roster spots as their performance to start the year would largely dictate their future with the team.

Both Buehler and Márquez were shaky in their first starts of the season, however, it was the former Colorado Rockies pitcher who hit his stride in his second appearance for the Friars. Márquez pitched five shutout innings with four strikeouts in the Padres' 5-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.

With Matt Waldron returning from injury soon as well as Griffin Canning and Musgrove also working to get back to the rotation, the Padres will likely have to decide who should be removed from the rotation. Thus far, Buehler has had a rougher time to start the season than Márquez.

After Buehler made the Opening Day roster, he admitted his goal went far beyond that.

“Everybody wants to play in the big leagues,” Buehler said ahead of the season. “I’ve played long enough that going to the minor leagues is not probably something that I would do. To put in an offseason like I did and move the family out here and get in better shape and do a lot of that kind of stuff, it’s super rewarding to kind of achieve the goal.

"But at the end of day, I still want to go out and have a good year. I think that’s obviously more important than anything else.”

The right-hander knew what was at stake with his performance to start the 2026 season, and his early struggles could very well mean his tenure with the Padres could be over sooner rather than later.

He can change that by pitching well in his next start on Friday against the Colorado Rockies.