Padres Daily: This has to stop with starters; Cortes’ polite ejection; Merrill, King updates

Good morning from Minneapolis,

This cannot keep happening.

Or else the bullpen the Padres built for the postseason might not be worth a darn come October.

For the fourth consecutive game, the Padres were into their bullpen way too early last night.

This time, it was with no outs and two on in the fourth inning that manager Mike Shildt had to walk out of the dugout to get Nestor Cortes.

“It’s very important to go deeper in games as starters, and I think we’ve got to do a better job of it,” Cortes said after the Padres’ 7-4 loss to the Twins. “There’s no excuse. I can say for myself, I hate getting pulled early, and I wish I could be out there for the fifth and sixth inning and give my team a chance to win and save the bullpen a little bit.

You can read in my game story (here) about Cortes’ night, Jake Cronenworth’s costly error and the Padres’ sorta kinda but not really almost making it tense at the end.

That Cortes was ejected before Shildt could get to the mound is beside the point, though we will talk later about what happened there.

There is an argument to be made, as well, that the Padres pitching staff is built to thrive in the postseason even with starters that are not pitching at the level they were expected to.

But two things must be considered

The Padres have to get to the postseason with their relief pitchers healthy and strong.

Their starting pitchers do need to be able to make it through five innings (or at least four) without allowing multiple runs in postseason games, or the bullpen’s role will be reduced to merely trying to make sure deficits don’t get worse.

And the Padres’ starters who aren’t Nick Pivetta are too often not giving the Padres a great chance to win in addition to requiring way too many innings by the bullpen.

Cortes and Sears do not figure to be starting postseason games.

But …

Dylan Cease has allowed 13 runs (11 earned) over his past three starts. He made it through five innings in one of those, didn’t finish the fourth in another and didn’t finish the fifth in another. He allowed three runs in the first inning in the first of those three starts, two runs in the third inning in the middle start and four runs in the fifth inning in his last start.

And Yu Darvish has alternated good and bad games over his past seven starts. He allowed seven runs in the first two innings on July 24, two runs in the first inning on Aug. 5, four runs in the first inning on Aug. 17 and three runs in the fourth inning on Wednesday in Seattle.

Some of those games would be managed differently and might have turned out differently in the postseason.

And it does seem the Padres will get to the playoffs, despite last night being their fourth loss in five games.

They lost ground to the Cubs and lost a game on their lead over the Mets. But the Dodgers and Reds lost.

The Padres have a 99.1% chance of making the postseason, according to FanGraphs.

And Mike Shildt and A.J. Preller will pull every lever they can to prevent their bullpen from getting pushed to the point of exhaustion.

The reality is that the past two games have been covered by their lower-leverage relievers.

Alek Jacob did them a solid last night by getting through 2⅓ scoreless innings at the end so the Padres did not have to use a high-leverage arm in a game they trailed by three runs. That seemed like a possibility as Jacob worked toward what ended up being a season-high 34 pitches. It was a good thing he did not run into trouble the way every Padres pitcher before him had.

The good news is the Padres were off Thursday and all five of their high-leverage relievers are available tonight. But the Padres have five games before their next day off, and using one or more of their back-end arms when down big would be a waste.

Wandy Peralta is the only reliever who threw fewer than 33 pitches last night, so it is possible Jacob’s reward for his effort will be a trip to Triple-A so the Padres can recall a reliever for coverage.

The Padres bullpen has worked 18 innings over the past five days (four games). They have seven relievers who have pitched in at least 11 games since Aug. 1.

Three of their high-leverage relievers (Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejón ) have appeared in 63 games this season, which is a 76-game pace.

Tim Hill (78 in 2021) is the only Padres pitcher to have appeared in that many games in any of the past four seasons, and he is one of 13 pitchers in the major leagues to have done so in that span. Hill threw 59⅓ innings in ‘21. Adam, Estrada and Morejón have already worked more than that.

Extraneous ejection

Cortes simply wasn’t sharp.

He knew that.

But he didn’t think home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez was very sharp either, and he let him know it in the most polite way he could.

For that, Cortes was ejected in the fourth inning.

Nestor Cortes ejected pic.twitter.com/0hVzow9JPu

— Bobby (@welcomeMLB) August 30, 2025

The dialogue between Cortes and Gonzalez had begun during a mound visit an inning earlier when Cortes asked him about some close pitches that were called balls and requested he get some of them.

In between innings, Cortes looked at the close pitches on an iPad. And after walking a batter in the fourth, and with Shildt on his way out of the dugout to remove him, Cortes continued his conversation with Gonzalez.

“I said … ‘Hey, you missed your three out of four,’” Cortes recounted after the game. “And I guess that was the turning point for him. Never been thrown out of the game, would never disrespect an umpire. Didn’t cuss him out. I thought I was pretty professional about the way I was letting him know that I wasn’t happy with his calls.”

While the ejection was inconsequential, it might have been had Cortes not been about to be removed anyway. And Shildt had a long talk with Gonzalez and crew chief Cory Blaser.

Replacing Bogaerts

The Padres have a lot of shortstops on their roster, but they seem inclined at this point to stick with Jose Iglesias (and every once in a  while Mason McCoy) as their primary starter at the position while Xander Bogaerts is on the injured list.

“Those are our two primary options,” Shildt said yesterday afternoon.

You can read in our game preview (here) about Bogaerts’ foot fracture, which the team does not believe will keep him out of the postseason.

Shildt did allow that Cronenworth, who made 36 starts at shortstop in 2021 and six starts there in 2022, could slide over to shortstop “if we get into a game that dictates some movement.”

One thing that won’t happen is the Padres moving their former shortstops, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr., in from their spots in the outfield.

The Padres do have an option from outside the organization, though they did not seem inclined to go that route as of yesterday afternoon. The Pirates reportedly put shortstop Isaiah Kiner-Falefa on waivers, and playoff teams have until Sunday to claim him and have him be eligible for the postseason. Kiner-Falefa, who would be owed more than $1 million, is batting .265 with a .635 OPS.

Merrill on Monday?

Merrill is at the Padres’ complex in Peoria, Ariz., and  could rejoin the team during its series against the Orioles that begins Monday at Petco Park.

Merrill is eligible to come off the injured list today, and the Padres had initially thought that timeline was possible. Based on how his sprained left ankle recovered, however, the team decided to give his recovery at least an extra couple days.

Merrill took batting practice and ran Thursday in Arizona and progressed to facing live pitching yesterday.

There is also no real hurry since Gavin Sheets is excelling while filling in for him, playing left field as Ramón Laureano mans center.

Sheets was 3-for-3 with a walk last night and is batting .417 (15-for-36) with three home runs and six doubles since replacing Merrill midgame on Aug. 17.

The delay in Merrill’s return also means the Padres will not have to send anyone down to make room for him, because rosters can expand from 26 to 28 on Monday (Sept. 1).

King update

Provided he recovers well after pitching to minor league hitters in a simulated game yesterday, starting pitcher Michael King is on track to return during the series against the Orioles.

King, who was placed on the IL Aug 17 with knee inflammation, threw 60 pitches in four innings in Forty Wayne, Ind., against players on the Padres’ Single-A affiliate.

King’s 2.59 ERA through 10 starts ranked sixth in the National League when he was placed on the injured list in May with a nerve impingement near his right (throwing) shoulder. He returned to make one start, allowing the Red Sox two runs in two innings on Aug. 9, but was shut down before his next start due to fluid in his knee. He had the knee drained and has now pitched in two simulated games.

Arraez back home

The Twins played a 90-second video tribute honoring Luis Arraez as he warmed up on the outfield grass shortly before last night’s game.

The video board then showed Arraez, who was given a sustained ovation as he waved to the crowd and made a motion as if to embrace them.

“This is the team that gave me an opportunity to play baseball,” Arraez had said earlier in the day. “I’m excited to be here.”

Arraez signed with the Twins out of Venezuela in 2013 and played for them from 2019 to 2022, winning the American League batting title his final season in Minnesota.

Arraez went out and showed the fans what they remembered of a player who hit .374 over four seasons with the Twins, lining a single into right field in the first inning.

He hit a sacrifice fly his next time up before grounding into a double play and lining into one his last two at-bats.

Arraez is batting .283 on the season, which is 11 points off his career low set in 2021.

Tidbits

• Manny Machado spoke a while back about the “dog days” of August getting to him. And they certainly seem to have. He was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts last night and 3-for-24 with 10 strikeouts over the past six games.
• Fernando Tatis Jr. was 2-for-5 last night and is batting .282 with a .404 on-base percentage during a 10-game on-base streak.
• Jake Cronenworth was 1-for-2 and walked twice last night. He is 7-for-14 during a five-game hitting streak.
• Iglesias was 2-for-4 last night and is 5-for-18 over his past four starts.
• The Twins stole four bases last night, most in a game against the Padres this season. Catcher Freddy Fermin did not even make a throw on three of them. He also threw out one runner typing to steal.
• The Padres’ 205-point differential between their home winning percentage (.662) and road winning percentage (.457) is fourth-highest in the major leagues.
• The Padres are 22-22 in series openers. They are 6-13-2 in the previous 21 series in which they have lost the first game. They are 19-2-1 in series in which they won the opener.

All right, that’s it for me.

Talk to you tomorrow.