Waldron lands on IL as Padres call up Jacob

SEATTLE -- Moves had been in store for the Padres’ pitching staff as the club headed west from Milwaukee, and the first one landed on Friday night ahead of San Diego’s series opener at T-Mobile Park as right-hander Matt Waldron landed on the 15-day injured list with a right brachialis muscle injury.

In a corresponding move, San Diego called right-hander Alek Jacob up from Triple-A El Paso.

Manager Craig Stammen also broke the news of the next domino to fall this weekend ahead of Friday's game against the Mariners, announcing that Walker Buehler will start on Saturday, followed by Lucas Giolito’s Padres debut in Sunday’s series finale.

Waldron threw two scoreless innings in the Padres’ 7-1 loss to the Brewers on Thursday. He posted his best outing of the year, allowing one hit, striking out four and needing just 27 pitches (19 strikes) to get through his frames.

It was a good sign for the 29-year-old right-hander in his first appearance of the season as a true reliever after three starts and two outings following openers left him with a 9.28 ERA. But the good news didn’t last through the morning.

“We were pitching him on short rest,” Stammen said. “Feel like he came into the game feeling good, all reports were that he was good to go. But after the game, got a little stiffer than usual, a little bit more tired, a little sore today. So we had to make a move to get him out of there.”

Waldron has pitched to a 1.71 WHIP in 23 1/3 innings this year. He’s been bitten by more than his fair share of bad luck in terms of results; the 4.77 run differential between his 8.49 ERA and his 3.72 xERA is the largest in baseball (min. 50 batted balls).

Stammen said that the team doesn’t currently have a concrete plan for Waldron as to how long he’ll be down before he begins throwing again.

“A lot of guys go through this type of thing and try to pitch through it, which is what he was trying to do,” Stammen said. “And then it finally gets to a certain point where it’s like, ‘I’m not as good as I should be when I’m out on the mound.’ I think that’s what he was starting to feel, like, ‘If I’m going to be out there, I want to be 100%. I don’t want to be at 80% trying to gut it out.’ He didn’t need to do that. Now we have time to be able to settle him down a bit and get him back out there when he’s 100%.”

The Padres also now have a little longer to figure out the impending roster crunch that Giolito’s arrival creates.

Waldron was the odd man out of the rotation and, despite the move to the bullpen, there isn’t a ton of space in a unit that’s among the league’s most loaded, with a collective 1.20 WHIP and a 3.53 ERA. He’s also out of options, meaning the Padres would have to designate him for assignment and hope he clears waivers.

“It’s never good when someone goes on the IL,” Stammen said. “That’s not a good thing. But eventually, we were going to have to make a move this week. … We’ll get to that point when we get to that point.

“Matt, we feel very good with him on our team. We like what he brings to the table. He gives us a lot of options, rotation depth, he can pitch out of the bullpen, he’s got a unique pitch. Hopefully it doesn’t take long and we can get him back soon.”