The San Diego Padres did not start the season well at home in their first six games versus the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants, facing excellent starting pitching and showing an anemic offense, the Friars went 2-4 at home.
The road trip to Boston to face the Red Sox for their home opener also featured a struggling Padres offense with four hits against Boston starter Sonny Gray. But then the tide turned and the Padres took the last two against the Red Sox in cold and rainy weather. They moved on to Pittsburgh, playing a Pirates team that had won five straight. Taking two of three from Pittsburgh, the Padres showed their grit and perseverance while again playing in cold weather.
With the Padres starters are having some uneven performances and the bullpen is showing some stumbles to start the year, the offense was finally able to put up some runs with timely hitting and a standout pitching performance from Germán Márquez.
Nick Pivetta and Michael King show that they are working to stabilize their early season command issues while Randy Vasquez has put up a 0.75 ERA through two starts and 12 innings pitched.
Walker Buehler remains the only starter not to show improvement, he has a 9.45 ERA over his 6.2 innings pitched in two starts.
The Padres closer has wowed all of baseball with his dominance, carrying over from the trend he started last season. In five games and 5.2 innings pitched so far this year, Miller has four saves and 13 strikeouts while allowing one hit and one walk. Including last postseason, Miller has 26.2 innings of scoreless relief that began last August. He has a 64% strikeout rate since last August and has K’d 76 of the 119 hitters he has faced.
Miller was at his hometown park in Pittsburgh for the first time as a closer and manager Craig Stammen brought him in for the series finale, despite the team being up by six runs. He had family and friends there to see him pitch so a non-save situation was justified for the reliever. He topped out at 102.8 mph in his appearance, again featuring his wipeout slider and mixing in a changeup.
The Padres bullpen is expected to be a strength in 2026. It has not started out that way. In 12 games and 49.2 innings pitched, the Friar bullpen sits with a 3.44 ERA, 12th worst in baseball. Normally, Adrian Morejon is dominant in his appearances. In 2025 he finished the year with a 2.08 ERA, second only to Jason Adam with a 1.93 ERA for the full season.
He currently has five innings pitched over four appearances with a 10.80 ERA. His command has been way off so far, allowing 10 hits and seven runs with only five strikeouts.
In contrast, David Morgan has been quietly excellent. He has five appearances and seven innings pitched with five hits allowed and no earned runs despite allowing six walks to five strikeouts.
An inconsistent offense has been highlighted by the futility of the lead-off hitter for the Padres. In their first 12 games the Friars have used Fernando Tatis Jr. for five games at leadoff. He has three hits and one RBI. Ramon Laureano has hit leadoff in four games and also has three hits and one RBI. Jake Cronenworth has been leadoff against some right-handed starters and in three games he has one hit. Overall, the three current leadoff batters have a combined .140 average and .369 OPS, the worst in baseball.
Their team batting average of .213 is 25th and the team OPS of .618 is 26th.
The bright spot has been the bottom of the line up. Gavin Sheets, Miguel Andujar, Nick Castellanos, Luis Campusano, Jake Cronenworth and Freddy Fermin have mostly occupied the bottom of the order for the Padres.
Andujar leads all Padres with a .310 average and .823 OPS. Castellanos is second with a .261 average with five RBI. Gavin Sheets has four doubles and two RBI while Jake Cronenworth has delivered a couple timely hits with three RBI and Fermin also has two doubles.
Luis Campusano started the year slowly but went 3-for-9 against the Pirates with two doubles and two RBI.
The power has been slow to develop for the Padres over their first 12 games. They have seven homers with Jackson Merrill and Ramon Laureano having two each. Their slug has been slightly better due to the number of doubles they have so far this year (26) and they are tied for second in that category.
Joe Musgrove has continued to play catch since he began at the beginning of April. No timeline exists for his return to pitching and he has not graduated to the mound yet.
Jason Adam completed pitching in back-to-back games with El Paso on April 4 and 5 then was kept with the Chihuahuas to pitch two innings in their game on Wednesday. He threw two perfect frames after skipping a day from his back-to- backs. He has a total of five scoreless innings with El Paso. He should be joining the Padres for this homestand.
Griffin Canning started the first game of the doubleheader on April 4, going 2.1 innings with three hits and a run and four strikeouts in 51 pitches. He will be advanced slowly and should have a buildup similar to a spring training schedule.
Yuki Matsui has made two appearances and two innings pitched with two hits and no runs with two strikeouts. He will need to go back-to-back and maybe multiple innings before being ready.