Padres News: Bob Melvin Glad To See Musgrove's Activity, Return Date Still Uncertain

Musgrove is showing welcoming signs as the regular season grows closer.

All-Star pitcher Joe Musgrove is doing everything in his power to miss as few games for the San Diego Padres this season as possible. One of the unlikely blows to the franchise earlier this Spring Training was when he suffered a fractured left big toe after dropping a weight on it. Alongside Yu Darvish and Blake Snell, he will be headlining the Friars pitching rotation when he is healthy.

However, Musgrove is showing every positive sign that he will be back sooner than we think and is still participating in all workouts that his injury allows him to. His activity on the field over the past few days has increased tremendously and he has looked solid moving around on the tender foot.

Sammy Levitt captured Musgrove's throwing workout with his teammates. Have a look for yourself:

Just 10 days after fracturing his big left toe, Joe Musgrove is throwing and landing on his left foot. pic.twitter.com/yPy3xHOXRa

— Sammy Levitt (@SammyLev) March 9, 2023

Team manager Bob Melvin was confident in Musgrove's ability to make a smooth comeback since the day he first found out about the freak accident. Even though he wants his team at full power to start the season, Melvin prefers for his RHP to be 100% even if that means missing a couple of starts.

Melvin does not want to get too excited about the 30 year old's progression thus far and hasn't taken back his original projection of Musgrove missing about a month. He also highlighted the veteran for keeping his body ready for his return to the mound.

"You know what, originally, I would've told I thought it was going to be a month," said Melvin. "And the, with where he is right now, it's still kind of all over. I don't want to get everybody too fired up about the fact that he may miss one start or two starts. He was in his boot, throwing the weighted balls up against the wall upwards of 100 times in a day, so he's trying to keep his arm in shape the best he can."

Padres fans should be very pleased to hear that Musgrove is on a terrific path to return to All-Star form this season.