Padres recalling Kyle Hart as they mull paths forward for Michael King, Yu Darvish

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on May 26, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SAN DIEGO — Kyle Hart will be recalled to start Wednesday’s series finale against the Miami Marlins, allowing the Padres to give Nick Pivetta two extra days of rest ahead of starting again on Friday, the start of 13 straight games.

The Padres do not yet know if Yu Darvish will be available to bolster the rotation during that long stretch of games, nor have they wrapped their head around the scapula issue that sent Michael King to the 15-day injured list on Saturday.

“We’re still trying to figure out exactly what’s taking place with the scap,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said Monday afternoon at Petco Park. “He’s feeling marginally better today and we’re getting our head around it and getting the medical team to look at it with the doctor. So we’re still exploring what it is and what it looks like long-term.”

King was not in the clubhouse during media availability on Monday and has not addressed the injury since waking up with a “knot” in his shoulder.

As for Darvish, he continued to play catch on Monday from about 90 feet, a continuation of the throwing that he’d been doing in San Diego while the team was in Toronto and Atlanta. He has not thrown a bullpen since throwing four innings of two-run ball in a rehab start in Las Vegas on May 14. That could happen as soon as this weekend, “If I feel really good,” Darvish said Monday afternoon.

He declined to get into the exact specifics of what had previously been described to the San Diego Union-Tribune as “residual effects” of the elbow issue that shut him down in spring training.

“It’s getting better, feeling better every day,” Darvish said Monday. “Especially the last couple days. Just a bad recovery from Las Vegas, high altitude, dry … just a bad combination.”

As sharp as Darvish looked in Las Vegas, it appeared as if the Padres were preparing to add him to the rotation on the previous road trip as a six-man rotation would have provided extra rest as the team played nine games in a row, a stretch that concludes Wednesday. After that, the Padres will play 13 in a row twice before the end of June.

While the team does not have any clarity on if Darvish or King will be available to help shoulder that load, they are pre-empting the next long stretch of games by having Hart start for Pivetta on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old Hart began the season in the Padres’ rotation (6.00 ERA over 21 IP), but he was sent to Triple-A El Paso during a portion of the schedule in which the Padres only needed four starters. In the minors, Hart has posted a 2.29 ERA over four starts (19 2/3 IP) despite walking (15) nearly as many as he’s struck out (16).

Pivetta is 5-2 with a 2.72 ERA, 63 strikeouts and a 1.01 WHIP through 56 1/3 innings. Only one of his 10 starts so far has been made on the traditional four days of rest.

“Just taking advantage of the off day to give Nick a little extra time,” Shildt said. “We’re always intentional about it. We’ve had a really good schedule taking place this year relative to off days and been able to keep our starting pitchers pretty fresh, and we continue to look to be intentional about what that looks like.”

____