There wasn't much that went right for the San Diego Padres during the 2023 season, but the performance of starting pitcher Michael Wacha was one of them. He gave all he could to the team and entered the offseason with a club option at $16 million.
It was a question mark about what the team would do regarding him for next season, but we now have our answer. The Padres declined the option on Wacha and he will now enter into free agency.
There is a chance that he could return to the Friars, but his success this season may also see him land a bigger deal with another team.
Wacha was great during his time in San Diego, and he gave them an opportunity to win each time out. While he did miss some time due to injury, Wacha was the Friars best pitcher other than Blake Snell this season.
He put together a solid year, posting an ERA of 3.22 over 24 starts. He also added in a WHIP of 1.16 and struck out 124 over 134.1 innings of work.
If the team doesn’t retain Wacha, they will have a big hole in the rotation to fill. They already will be losing Snell and possibly Seth Lugo, so this is an interesting move by San Diego.
The offseason just got even more interesting for this Padres team, and it should only continue to become even more intriguing. They want to get themselves back into a spot to make the playoffs next season, so losing multiple starting pitchers is certainly a strange way to start the winter out.
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