The San Diego Padres have had a rather underrated starting rotation thus far. Outside of the blemish that is Walker Buehler, the Friars’ starting group has combined for a solid 3.90 ERA (24 ER, 55.1 IP). Buehler will start tonight against the Colorado Rockies and is seeking to turn around his first two outings (7 ER, 6.2 IP).
Going into the season, there were a lot of questions about the pitching staff. Those worries have been mostly put to bed, with Nick Pivetta and Michael King returning to form, as well as Germán Márquez bouncing back in his second start of the year. But of the starting group, one pitcher has taken major strides forward from last year.
The Humble Beginnings of Randy Vásquez
Don’t look now, but Randy Vásquez has a 1.02 ERA through three outings. He’s gone deeper in games than any other Padres starter (17.2 IP). And his strikeout numbers are way up, flashing put-away stuff with 19 K’s.
After being sent over from the New York Yankees in 2024, he was a mostly serviceable back-end starter. Vásquez was a more-forgotten piece of the offseason trade that sent Juan Soto to New York. He had success in 2023 as a swingman, but the sample size was too small (2.87 ERA, 37.2 IP).
He came to San Diego, figuring to be a back-of-the-rotation starter where he managed a 4.87 ERA across 98 innings. That was mostly due to his inability to miss bats, coupled with poor command of the strike zone. Those issues led to abnormally high 1.51 WHIP and .304 opponent batting average marks in 2024.
A Unicorn Year
Then 2025 came. Rotation concerns elevated Vásquez’s place, but he remained a back-end option for the Friars. He delivered by putting together a career year as a starter.
Across 133 2/3 innings (26 starts), Vásquez lowered his ERA to 3.84, opponent BA to .247, and WHIP to 1.32. The put-away stuff wasn’t there just yet, but it was starting to appear. The problem was still with walks. He walked a career-high 52 batters, causing his WHIP rate to remain high despite the 57-point drop in opponent BA.
His strike percentage (percentage of pitches thrown for strikes) was at an all-time low at .630, and all of the underlying metrics (FIP, xERA) suggested that he wouldn’t be able to keep up the production in 2026.
He proved them wrong.
Future as an Ace..?
2026 has started in the best way possible for Vásquez. He has almost single-handedly willed the Padres to wins in all three of his starts (though he only has one win on his record to show for it). His 2026 debut was a two-hit performance against a Detroit Tigers lineup that, only days earlier, had tagged Pivetta for six runs.
It was the start of a different kind of pitcher entirely. He was aggressive in the zone and striking out batters left and right, ending with eight K’s across six innings of work. He’s since followed it up with a combined 11 2/3 innings of two-run ball and 11 strikeouts between his last two starts.
The shocking thing has been the strikeouts, for sure. He’s second only to Pivetta (20 K’s) with 19 strikeouts in three starts. That mark has led to a dominance head-and-shoulders above San Diego starters, with Vásquez leading the pack in ERA and WHIP.
If he keeps this up across a full season, Vásquez could easily gain status as a bona fide ace in the Friars’ rotation. For a pitcher whom the Padres have under club control for the next four years, San Diego can expect to see big things from the young right-hander.
Main Photo Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
