LOS ANGELES -- There’s never a good time for injuries to mount up at the level they have for the Padres lately. But right now, the timing couldn’t be much worse.
San Diego placed two more players on its growing injured list ahead of Friday’s game in Los Angeles. Right-hander Randy Vásquez landed on the IL with a right ankle contusion. Catcher Freddy Fermin joined him with a head contusion, though manager Craig Stammen said Fermin avoided a concussion.
Vásquez was taken to the emergency room late Thursday night after fainting while on his way to receive an X-ray. But that X-ray revealed no fracture in Vásquez’s ankle and further testing cleared Vásquez regarding the fainting incident.
“All things pointing positive for Randy today,” Stammen said.
Nonetheless, the moves come with San Diego riding a six-game losing streak, which has dropped them to .500 for the first time since April 8. In particular, their pitching staff is in a precarious position.
The Padres did receive some measure of positive injury news on Friday. An MRI on right-hander Jason Adam revealed no significant shoulder damage, only what he believes to be a minor muscular strain. Meanwhile, catcher Luis Campusano has returned from his toe fracture to take Fermin’s place on the roster.
Here’s what it all means:
Vásquez joins a growing list of starters on the IL
For the season’s first couple months, Vásquez was one of the Padres’ most important pitchers. But he’s struggled lately, posting a 7.75 ERA across his past eight starts. The Padres will miss him nonetheless, considering how beaten down their rotation is at the moment.
Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove are the biggest names on the IL, as both rehab major elbow injuries and aren’t expected back until August at the earliest. But the Padres are also without Lucas Giolito (right elbow inflammation) and Matt Waldron (right brachialis strain). Add Vásquez to that mix, and that’s an entire rotation’s worth of starters on the IL.
The Padres did, however, activate Germán Márquez from the IL on Thursday, and he pitched three solid relief innings. Márquez is the obvious candidate to slot into Vásquez’s rotation spot. The team promoted righty reliever Alek Jacob to take Vásquez’s spot on the roster.
In the meantime, the Padres are hopeful Vásquez’s stint on the IL won’t be a particularly long one.
“It’s not broken,” Stammen said of Vásquez’s ankle. “So that’s the very positive news about it. But it’s definitely really sore. He’s limping around a little bit with it. It shouldn’t be an extended IL stint. But you also never know and can’t predict.”
Fermin back on the IL
Last month, Fermin landed on the 7-day concussion injured list. He took a hard foul ball to the mask on Thursday night and was promptly removed from the game. But Stammen noted that Fermin cleared concussion protocol.
The team placed him on the IL anyway with what is being called a head contusion.
“We’ve known the hits that Freddy has taken to the head throughout the season,” Stammen said. “While he did not get diagnosed with a concussion, we felt it was smart to take care of him and just give him a little bit more time -- heal up from that previous concussion without getting another head blow.”
Campusano’s return, meanwhile, is an unquestioned positive for the Padres, who haven’t gotten much offense from their catchers lately. Campusano was hitting .288 with a .958 OPS in 18 games before he sustained his injury. He only played in two rehab games, but the Padres felt that was enough to call for his return.
Positive news on Adam
On Thursday, Adam landed on the IL with a right shoulder strain and later underwent an MRI. It came back clean, he said, and added that he’s targeting an early-to-mid August return.
“As far as shoulder-related injuries go, this is as good as I could ask for,” Adam said. “The capsule is all strong. The labrum is all strong. It’s just that [subscapularis muscle]. It’s wait and see how long. But I should definitely be pitching down the stretch this year.”
Adam said he began to feel soreness in his shoulder on Tuesday, the day after he pitched in multiple innings at Wrigley Field. But that soreness, Adam figured, was normal, because of his workload. But on Wednesday, when the soreness hadn’t subsided, he knew something was off.
The Padres need Adam. He was an All-Star last season and has posted a 2.51 ERA in 36 appearances this year.