The Padres shuffled their pitching staff again on May 15, 2026, placing right-hander Matt Waldron on the 15-day injured list and recalling right-hander Alek Jacob from Triple-A in the corresponding move.
Waldron’s season has been a grind from the start. He opened 2026 on the injured list while recovering from a hemorrhoid procedure, then returned to post a 9.28 earned run average through his first five appearances. He also logged two mop-up innings out of the bullpen on May 14, a short outing that proved to be his last before the latest roster move.
The timing matters because Lucas Giolito is set to be activated in the next couple of days, and Jacob is back in the majors as the extra arm the Padres need until that happens. Jacob has been usable in that role before. Across 53 big league innings from 2023-26, he has a 3.91 ERA, and he threw 33 1/3 innings in the majors in 2025 with a 5.13 ERA. His strikeout rate that year was 15.0 percent, and he has also spent plenty of time in Triple-A, where he has thrown 98 2/3 innings since the start of 2024 with a 5.20 ERA.
Waldron, who has one year of service time and no options, acknowledged the situation in plain terms. He said his ERA and numbers were not attractive and added that he had no options, a comment that made clear he understood the roster pressure around him.
The Padres have been making rotation changes around injuries all year, and at one point in 2026 their rotation included Waldron, Michael King, Randy Vásquez, Walker Buehler and Germán Márquez. By mid-April, Waldron was ready to come off the injured list just as the club lost Nick Pivetta to the IL, where he joined Joe Musgrove and Griffin Canning. After Pivetta’s injury, the Padres signed Giolito and agreed to option him to the minors for tune-up starts, then watched Canning return in early May as Márquez went on the shelf.
For now, the move spares Waldron from being designated for assignment. That reprieve may not last long if the Padres keep reshaping the staff around injuries and Giolito’s return, but on this day the roster decision was simpler: one struggling starter goes on the IL, another arm comes up, and the club keeps moving to stay afloat.
