Padres are watching Randy Vásquez deliver an encouraging jump in spring training

Spring training always lies a little. But velocity doesn’t.

And right now, the Padres are watching Randy Vásquez show up to camp looking like a pitcher who’s tired of being treated like the last option. After a solid 2025 where he made 26 starts and posted a 3.84 ERA across 133 2/3 innings, Vásquez didn’t come into 2026 trying to simply “hold his spot.” He came in trying to take ownership of it. 

Padres are watching Randy Vásquez take a reassuring step forward in spring training

The early returns have been loud in all the right ways. He opened his spring with two scoreless innings against the Dodgers, a clean little reminder that last season wasn’t a fluke. Then on February 27 against the Rockies, he took it a step further — 2 2/3 hitless innings, four strikeouts, and the kind of life on the ball that makes hitters late instead of comfortable. 

Spring always has a new shiny phrase, and this one is easy: the jump. Vásquez is actually flirting with the upper-90s, that’s the stuff that turns a fringe starter into someone the Padres can’t justify leaving out.

What makes it feel real is it’s not a one-pitch flex. He’s got multiple looks, and he leaned on them in 2025 instead of hiding behind the heater.

Craig Stammen has already hinted Vásquez has the “inside track” to open the year in the rotation, and this is exactly what that looks like in practice: early outings that feel controlled, not survived. 

He doesn’t have to be an ace. He just has to be steady. The Padres need another starter who takes the weird out of the back end. Shows up, throws strikes, and keeps the game from getting sideways early. If this spring version sticks, it stops feeling like a temporary fifth-starter patch and starts looking like real stability — the kind that keeps the Padres from scrambling every time the back end of the rotation comes up.

They might’ve found a pitcher who’s finally arriving.