The starting pitcher suffered a torn UCL in his elbow on Wednesday and could miss the entire 2025 MLB season
The San Diego Padres won their NLWC Series, 2-0, over the Atlanta Braves, thrusting San Diego into the NLDS, where they will face the Los Angeles Dodgers, with Game 1 on Saturday.
However, they lost one of their best players in the process, not only for the NLDS, but much longer. Starting pitcher Joe Musgrove
suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his throwing elbow in the Padres’ Game 2 win over Atlanta on Wednesday, and he will miss the remainder of the postseason and likely all of the 2025 MLB season.
After the Padres defeated the Braves, 4-0, in Game 1 on Monday, Musgrove took the mound with a chance to close out the series on Wednesday. He gave up a run in the first inning but was lights-out thereafter, retiring nine straight batters and not allowing another baserunner after the opening frame. Meanwhile, his offense scored five runs in the bottom of the second to give Musgrove a 5-1 lead.
However, when facing first baseman Matt Olson in the top of the fourth inning, Musgrove lobbed back-to-back curveballs that checked in at 75 mph, much lower than his
average curveball velocity this season of 81.6 mph. That was a warning that something was not right, and Musgrove would be replaced mid-batter by reliever Bryan Hoeing.
Testing would then reveal the tear, and Musgrove will have the dreaded Tommy John surgery to his pitching elbow.
Musgrove met with reporters on Friday during a team workout and was asked what his immediate thoughts were.
“I’m devastated about not finishing what we initially started,” Musgrove said. “I’m not all that concerned about the work or the rehab or the time off. I know how to work hard. It’s just a matter of coming to grips with the fact that this is it for me.”
Musgrove also noted that after the third inning, his elbow felt “significantly tighter” and that while he didn’t know it was a UCL injury, it was something he hadn’t experienced before.
Even before this injury, Musgrove’s elbow had given him problems all year as he had two separate stints on the injured list due to them, including undergoing a PRP injection while being out from May 21-Aug. 11. He underwent an MRI at the time which didn’t show a UCL tear, but Musgrove admitted it did show some damage to the ligament.
“I’ve been dealing with it for a while. Everyone’s got some tears and some damage in the UCL,” Musgrove said. “I was told back in the middle months of this summer that there was some damage there and that it was kind of a matter of time. This seemed like something I could manage. Physically, I felt like I was capable of throwing still. I didn’t feel like anything as extreme as a UCL injury. But over the last few weeks, it was getting a little more intense.”
It’s a potentially crippling blow to the Padres as Musgrove had performed like an ace since coming off the injured list for the second time. Upon his return, he started nine games and
posted a sparkling 2.15 ERA, holding opposing hitters to just a .159 batting average. He also provided San Diego with a proven postseason performer. The last time he was in the playoffs in 2022, he produced a 2.89 ERA over 18.2 innings as the Padres made a run to the NLCS before losing to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1.
The Tommy John surgery could keep Musgrove on the shelf for the entire 2025 season. A UCL tear is what’s kept Shohei Ohtani from displaying his two-way brilliance and limiting him to being only a hitter all season, and he
had surgery in September 2023. Two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom of the Texas Rangers
underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2023 and didn’t return to MLB action until just three weeks ago—an absence of 15 months. That’s roughly the midpoint of the normal recovery from the procedure, which has a range of 12 to 18 months.
Musgrove, 31, won a World Series ring in 2017 with the Houston Astros and was a 2022 MLB All-Star with the Padres. He has a career record of 66-62, with a 3.73 ERA and 1,050 strikeouts.
While this is a massive blow for this postseason and next year for the Padres, not all hope is lost as they managed to win 93 games this year even with Musgrove missing almost half the season. Those 93 wins are the second-most in the 56-year history of the Padres franchise, and the only time they won more—98 wins in 1998—they advanced to just their second World Series in club history.
The team also persevered through absences from star players such as Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Yu Darvish to reach this stage, and they can take solace in their season record against the Dodgers. San Diego went 8-5 against Los Angeles in the regular season, making the Padres just
one of four teams that the Dodgers had a losing record against (minimum of four games).
