Padres Manager Provides Unfortunate Update on Matt Waldron's Injury

Maren Angus-Coombs | Mar 17, 2025

Aug 21, 2024; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher Matt Waldron (61) walks to the dugout during the fourth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images / Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

Matt Waldron felt like something was wrong so he shut down his warmup in the bullpen before it was his turn to start the San Diego Padres' Cactus League game Friday night.

He was right and will now have to miss some time because of an oblique injury.

However, manager Mike Shildt isn't sure just how much time Waldron will have to miss.

“It’s going to be some time,” Shildt said. “… We’re hopeful that (there will be) a quicker recovery (by) getting ahead of it a little bit. But it’s going to be some period of time that’s going to impact the start of the season.”

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Hopefully, the Padres will have a better idea in a day or two, but Waldron will definitely miss his first start, had he won the fifth starter job.

“The thing about obliques — we’re always going to err on the side of (caution with) almost any injury, but you have a setback with an oblique, similar to a hamstring, the second setback is longer,” Shildt said. “… We’ll just make sure we’re intentional about not having a second.”

Through four appearances, including three starts this spring, Waldron is 1-2 with an 8.86 earned run average. The numbers aren't ideal, but the Padres were looking beyond the stat sheet.

Outside of his last start on March 9 against the San Francisco Giants, Waldron was throwing his knuckleball for strikes. Until that point, he had only given up four earned runs, struck out five and walked four.

The relief appearance against the Giants was terrible. He gave up six earned runs on four hits in just 1.2 innings of work. He also walked four batters while only striking out two.

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Waldron was still in a position to earn the starting job despite his last outing, but things might have changed because of the injury.

The knuckleballer is still expected to pitch for the Padres in 2025.

However, the competition for the final spot to slot alongside Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish, Michael King, and Nick Pivetta is now down to three candidates: Kyle Hart, Stephen Kolek, and Randy Vásquez.

For more Padres news, head over to Padres on SI.