Pivetta resumes rehab assignment with three-inning start in Lake Elsinore
This browser does not support the video element.
SAN DIEGO -- Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta resumed his rehab stint on Tuesday night, working three innings with Single-A Lake Elsinore.
Pivetta -- whose rehab was paused after he exited a start earlier this month with elbow discomfort -- threw 47 pitches, 35 for strikes. He allowed three runs on a pair of homers, while striking out four and walking one.
Suffice it to say, it was much more encouraging than the last time Pivetta took the mound for Lake Elsinore. He walked off the mound after 14 pitches during that Aug. 4 start and later indicated his elbow “didn’t feel right.”
Pivetta has been on the injured list since April with a flexor strain in his right elbow. But that early-August setback was only temporary, as the Padres paused his rehab to ensure his full health.
But Pivetta never fully shut down, playing catch throughout and eventually working his way back onto the mound. Last week, he pitched two innings in a bridge league game at the team’s complex in Peoria, Ariz.
Pivetta posted a 2.87 ERA and finished sixth in NL Cy Young Award voting last season. The Padres could clearly use that version of Pivetta in their rotation -- even if that rotation has been much better since reinforcements arrived at the Deadline.
Pivetta’s extended absence has already cost him his player option, which was converted to a team option on Saturday when he exceeded 130 consecutive days on the IL with the injury. That’s much longer than Pivetta or the Padres envisioned when he left his fourth start of the season on April 12.
This browser does not support the video element.
But there’s still time for Pivetta to make an impact down the stretch (and perhaps make a case for the Padres to pick up that player option, worth $14 million for 2027).
Meanwhile, right-hander Joe Musgrove is also on the way back. He’s slated to make his fourth rehab start on Thursday with Triple-A El Paso. It’s not yet clear if that will be Musgrove’s final rehab start, or if the Padres would ask him to make one more after that.