2 players Padres fans must remain patient with despite consistent struggles

Some Padres relievers have put together some serious meltdowns this season, which altered the earlier perspective of San Diego having the most dominant bullpen in baseball.

Although on a nightly basis, Padres fans can expect their bullpen to clean up the mess, but unfortunately these clunkers have begun to compile as we fall into the second week of June. One reliever, Yuki Matsui, should not be treated too harshly, however. Despite a bit of a rough road to end the month of May, Matsui looks like he is already back on track, so let's give him some breathing room.

In the starting rotation, Dylan Cease has not been the Cy Young-level pitcher we saw last season, but judging by his career resume, it's okay to be patient with the right-handed starter as well - for now.

Yuki Matsui, Dylan Cease deserve Padres fans' patience

Matsui began the season on fire, boasting a 2.42 ERA across his first 22 appearances. 18 of those 22 appearances went scoreless, and he was an under-the-radar savior of the bullpen while Robert Suarez and Jason Adam stole most of the headlines.

Matsui closed out May sub-optimally, allowing three runs on five hits, recording just two combined outs. That stretch inflated his ERA to 3.52, but it already appears as though Matsui is not letting that slump carry any life into June. Through two appearances this month, he's fired two perfect frames, and even logged the win on June 3 in San Francisco.

As for Cease, his 4.72 ERA and 86 ERA+ is not synonymous with the guy who finished second the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2022, and fourth in the NL voting last season. He's allowed 12 earned runs across his last four starts, and mixed in with his nine-run outing back in April, that ERA is not going to look pretty just 13 starts into the 2025 campaign.

However, we are thankfully out of May, which is historically one of Cease's two worst months across an MLB season (August being the other). So these next two months will be crucial for Cease, and we will see if he can tap back into his superstardom in June and July. We know he is capable of it.