Joe Musgrove frustrated with recovery as Padres weigh alternative roles for return

What happened

Joe Musgrove is frustrated with his injury recovery, and the San Diego Padres are considering alternative roles for his potential return, MLB.com reported. The club has not announced a timetable, and the nature of any return — whether as a starter, in relief, or in some other capacity — remains unresolved.

The report arrives at the end of a difficult stretch for Musgrove's rehab. Per MLB.com and the Padres' official channel, his recovery from Tommy John surgery has stalled, with the Padres manager noting arm fatigue and describing his 2026 return as uncertain. The same channel also reported, on consecutive days, that his return timeline had been pushed back again due to right arm soreness. The picture that emerges is of a recovery that has not followed a straight line — and a pitcher who, by MLB.com's own framing, is running out of answers.

Why it matters

The Padres are 74-67 (.525), sitting second in the NL West and trying to stay relevant in a pennant race. Every arm on the roster carries weight in September, and Musgrove — a homegrown San Diego pitcher who has been one of the franchise's most important starters in recent years — represents a meaningful variable in how the club constructs its pitching plans down the stretch.

The conversation about alternative roles is itself a signal. When a team begins discussing whether a returning pitcher might contribute in a different capacity than the one he left in, it reflects both the uncertainty around his physical readiness and a pragmatic attempt to find some version of a path back. The Padres have not announced what those roles might look like, and MLB.com's report preserves that ambiguity carefully.

Is Musgrove expected to pitch again this season?

That remains genuinely unclear. MLB.com's report does not include a return date, a target appearance, or a formal announcement of any kind. What it does include is the word "hoping" — Musgrove is still hoping to return, in any role. That is a meaningful distinction from a club announcing a player is on track. The Padres are considering possibilities; they have not declared one.

The context of the last several days makes the uncertainty sharper. Right arm soreness pushing back a timeline once is a setback. The same channel reporting it across consecutive days, combined with a manager citing arm fatigue and calling a 2026 return uncertain, suggests the situation has been fluid and has not resolved cleanly. None of that forecloses a return, but it does explain why the framing has shifted from "when" to "whether, and in what form."

The numbers

The Padres carry a 74-67 record, good for second place in the NL West, though they sit 10 games back in the division. They enter this stretch on a one-game winning streak.

The upcoming schedule at Petco Park is not gentle. On Saturday, September 5, San Diego hosts the New York Yankees with Robbie Ray projected against Carlos Rodón. Sunday, September 6 brings another Yankees matchup, with Michael King lined up against Gerrit Cole. The club then turns to face the Washington Nationals on Monday, September 7. Two games against a Yankees rotation that includes Rodón and Cole is the kind of schedule that makes every available arm feel relevant — and every unavailable one feel like a gap.

Where the club stands

At 74-67, the Padres are in the thick of a wild-card conversation even as the division lead has grown to 10 games. The expanded September roster — general league rules allow 28 players from September 1 through the end of the regular season, up from 26 — gives the club more flexibility to carry arms and manage workloads. That expansion is also what makes a potential Musgrove return, in whatever form, logistically more feasible now than it would have been a week ago.

A day after the timeline setback reports, the Padres also called up 20-year-old catcher Ethan Salas for the September stretch run, per multiple reports including Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com. The roster is being shaped for a push; the question is how many of those shapes include Musgrove.

What we don't know yet

There is no announced role, no announced timeline, and no announced plan. The alternative roles the Padres are reportedly considering have not been specified. Whether Musgrove's arm fatigue and soreness have stabilized, improved, or continued to be a concern is not addressed in the current report. The Padres manager's earlier characterization of a 2026 return as uncertain has not been walked back, but it also has not been reaffirmed in this latest update.

What the report does establish is that the conversation is ongoing and that Musgrove himself remains engaged and motivated. "Hoping to return — in any role" is the framing MLB.com chose, and it is worth taking at face value: this is a player who wants to contribute and a club that is trying to find a way to let him, without yet knowing if the body will cooperate.

What to watch

The most immediate thing to monitor is whether the Padres provide any update on Musgrove's arm status in the coming days, particularly given the Yankees series this weekend. If the soreness that prompted the earlier timeline extensions has eased, the conversation about alternative roles could move from exploratory to operational quickly. If it has not, the "hoping" language in MLB.com's report may be the most accurate summary available for a while longer.

The alternative-role discussion is also worth watching on its own terms. A pitcher coming back from Tommy John surgery in a relief capacity, or in some other reduced role, is a different kind of asset than a rotation piece — but in a September pennant chase, different is not the same as less valuable. How the Padres define those roles, and whether Musgrove's arm allows him to fill one, is the thread to follow as the club works through a schedule that does not offer many soft landings.