Vásquez heads to the bullpen as San Diego's rotation gets reshuffled with 46 games left

Randy Vásquez, who has logged 32 starts and 146-plus innings this season, is moving to the bullpen as the Padres reshape their pitching staff down the stretch. The timing is notable: San Diego sits one game out of the last wild card with 46 games remaining, and the rotation around him has taken significant hits. Joe Musgrove and Lucas Giolito are both on the 60-day IL, and Jeremiah Estrada — who had been the staff's best arm, carrying a 1.01 ERA through 32 games — is now on the 15-day IL as well. The Padres are working with what they have.

Vásquez finished his rotation stint at 10-8 with a 4.17 ERA, a reasonable workhorse number if not a dominant one. Moving him to relief isn't a demotion so much as a practical response to a depleted staff. Michael King and Walker Buehler remain the rotation anchors, and Griffin Canning — who has seen his innings shrink sharply over his last five appearances — appears to be settling into a shorter role as well. The bullpen itself has been a strength: Adrian Morejon has been excellent, and Bradgley Rodriguez has been nearly as good.

The bigger concern behind this move is the one-run record. San Diego is 14-19 in games decided by a single run, and that gap between their overall performance and their performance in close games is where wild-card races get won or lost. Adding a veteran arm like Vásquez to late-inning situations is a reasonable bet that he can help close that gap. Whether it works is a question for the next few weeks.