The Padres placed setup man Jason Adam on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to June 30, with a shoulder strain. Germán Márquez came back from his own IL stint to replace him on the pitching staff.
Adam hits the IL for a second time this season. The All-Star righty was delayed ever so slightly as he finished his rehab from last year’s season-ending quad surgery. Adam’s 2.51 earned run average would suggest he’s back to his usual form, but his underlying numbers raised some questions. Adam has a career-low 16.4% strikeout rate and has lost a tick off his fastball. He’s still getting opponents to expand the strike zone but having a little tougher time missing bats.
The diminished stuff started to catch up to Adam in recent weeks. He gave up seven runs across 12 1/3 frames in June, surrendering four homers in the process. He’s still the team’s top right-handed setup man in front of Mason Miller, leading the club with five holds last month.
San Diego’s bullpen overall has started to show some cracks. It’s among the league’s best on paper and pitched at that level for the first couple months. They had a middle of the pack 3.66 ERA in June. Their July numbers are going to be ugly for a while too after the Cubs hung 23 runs against them yesterday, though a lot of that damage came against backup catcher Rodolfo Durán in mop-up work.
Adam is their third righty reliever to go down within the last month. They’ve been without Jeremiah Estrada since June 3 because of knee inflammation. David Morgan went on the shelf with the same issue earlier in the week. Miller and Morejon are an elite 1-2 combination, but rookie Bradgley Rodriguez has quickly been pushed up the ladder as their best righty setup man. Ron Marinaccio is the only other right-hander in the current bullpen, though they could use Márquez in long relief as well.
Márquez missed two months with nerve irritation in his forearm. He’d opened the season in the rotation and been blitzed for a 5.76 ERA across six starts. San Diego has Randy Vásquez, Michael King, Griffin Canning and JP Sears lined up as their rotation for this weekend’s four-game set at Dodger Stadium. Walker Buehler got rocked by the Cubs yesterday but was the team’s only effective starter in June. San Diego has lost five straight and dropped two games back in the Wild Card picture.
