Padres Pause Nick Pivetta’s Rehab, May Have Contractual Ramifications

The Padres are pausing Nick Pivetta’s rehab assignment pending further evaluation, manager Craig Stammen told reporters (including AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). Pivetta departed in the middle of his first inning of his rehab assignment with Low-A Lake Elsinore on Tuesday.

It’s not entirely clear what happened, as the veteran starter was able to throw a 20-30 pitch bullpen session later that day. He went through a long toss program yesterday and was not scheduled for any imaging, at least as of last night (link via Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune).

Stammen said today that nothing has explicitly changed with his health and framed this as a matter of caution. “Any time someone comes off the mound in the middle of an inning when they’re rehabbing an elbow injury, we’ve got to pause,” the skipper said. Pivetta has been out since the middle of April with a flexor strain.

Even if it’s true that this isn’t a major setback, it’s likely to have contractual ramifications. Pivetta signed a four-year, $55MM free agent deal over the 2024-25 offseason. That came with opt-out chances for the righty after the ’26 and ’27 seasons but also included an injury protection clause for the team (as reported at the time by Ronald Blum of The Associated Press).

Pivetta’s contract contains a conditional $14MM club option for 2027 that goes into effect if Pivetta suffers a specific injury within the first two seasons that cause him to spend more than 130 consecutive days on the injured list. Blum’s report didn’t name the exact injury covered by that provision, but it’s probably not a coincidence that it was negotiated after Pivetta suffered a flexor strain in April 2024 while a member of the Red Sox. Indeed, both The Union-Tribune and Bob Nightengale of USA Today have written that Pivetta’s current injury would trigger that clause if he doesn’t return within 130 days.

The injured list placement occurred on April 14. Pivetta would therefore need to return by August 22 to stay at the 130-day mark or below. He’d likely have been on track to do that had his rehab assignment gone smoothly. That’s a much tighter window now, as even pushing the rehab stint by a week or so would mean he’d be down to one or two minor league appearances before he’d need to be reinstated.

If the conditional option goes into effect, that would void the final two guaranteed years of his deal and negate the opt-out clause. The $14MM option price is the same as Pivetta’s salary for 2027 if he didn’t opt out. His $18MM salary for the ’28 campaign would no longer be in play.

Those will be offseason mattes. There’s also the more immediate fact that it’s going to represent some kind of delay for the Padres in getting Pivetta back for the stretch run. The injuries to him and Joe Musgrove have left the Friars patching together the rotation behind Michael King all year. They stabilized that with the Casey Mize and Robbie Ray deadline acquisitions (Mize’s ugly first start notwithstanding) but are still eagerly awaiting the return of their injured righties.

Musgrove, working back from 2024 Tommy John surgery, pitched 2 2/3 innings in the same Lake Elsinore game to begin his own rehab stint on Tuesday. In the interim, it’ll likely be Randy Vásquez in the fifth starter role behind the aforementioned three veterans and Walker Buehler. They’ve used Griffin Canning in relief since the middle of July and designated Germán Márquez for assignment yesterday.