Padres shutting down Joe Musgrove was the right move

MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell reported on Friday that the San Diego Padres were ending Joe Musgrove’s season because of where the team was in the standings, not because there was a setback. Cassavell added “the Padres have not formally announced the decision, but multiple people with knowledge of their plans confirmed as much.”

Just like the Yu Darvish decision was the right one, this was too.

Musgrove still has four years remaining on his contract and we all know San Diego has been out of it for weeks now. If the 30-year-old had gone out there and pitched an inning like he wanted to and had hurt his shoulder again, we would’ve all been outraged that the Padres allowed him to go do that in a meaningless September baseball game.

With this said, I absolutely love Musgrove’s desire to get back out there to try to pitch. Padres fans should want this team to have more of those real competitors who won’t just give up when things get tough, as has been reported on multiple times this season.

Musgrove finishes the first season in his five-year contract with a 3.05 ERA in 17 starts. His start in New York against the Yankees was the turning point his year, as he would go on to post a 1.84 ERA in his final 12 starts and 73.1 innings.

It was unfortunate that we didn’t get to see a fully healthy version of Musgrove all season, as he wasn’t able to start the season on the mound because of his broken toe and then he had to fight through blisters on his feet after running on the Mexico turf.

Again, Musgrove shutting things down doesn’t mean something is wrong right now. It’s just that the risk outweighs the reward in this situation. “I feel great,” Musgrove told Cassavell recently. “I feel the best I’ve felt since the [IL stint]. The big thing is you don’t want to be playing catch-up. The offseason is a time where you get an extended period to really work on things. … There’s peace of mind in knowing that you’re healthy.”