Padres’ surprise 2025 breakout makes pitching depth a real conversation

The San Diego Padres don’t just like shortening games — they practically treat it like a personality trait. Get a lead after five or six, turn the lights down, and let the bullpen turn the rest of the night into a slow walk to the handshake line. It’s been baked into how this organization tries to win, especially when the rotation is either expensive, injured, or in flux (pick one… or all three).

That’s why Miguel Mendez popping up as the Padres’ 2025 “breakout prospect” isn’t just a fun farm-system nugget. It’s potentially a team-shaping development.

Miguel Mendez’s 2025 breakout could change the Padres’ pitching depth outlook

MLB Pipeline laid out the rise pretty bluntly: unranked to start the season, staring at Rule 5/roster limbo, and suddenly looking like a “must-add” after showing a 95–98 mph fastball and a plus slider across three levels. He finished 2025 with a 3.22 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, and 118 strikeouts in 95 innings, while chopping his walk rate down from 15.5 percent (2024) to 11.2 percent (2025). 

And for Padres fans, there's something else that should be encouraging: this wasn't a "soft contact," "he competes" breakout; this was some serious power; serious whiff; and so much momentum that the Padres are treating him like someone they cannot afford to lose.

The bullpen route is just too attractive at this point. The organization has stated they will continue to look into exploring him as a starting pitcher since the blend of both roles is possible; however, the exact same report also alludes to the obvious question: Does his "whippy" delivery and lingering command issues play better in shorter stints?

That’s where the 2026 bullpen case gets really compelling. If Mendez is sitting upper-90s (and even touching triple digits at times) with a slider that can miss bats, the Padres don’t need him to be a perfectly-polished six-inning starter right away. They need him to be something they’ve leaned on in the past: a multi-inning weapon who can bridge the gap, erase rallies with strikeouts, and give the manager options when the starter’s pitch count climbs early.

The control still has to keep trending the right way (11.2 percent is better… but it’s still a headline). But if you’re building a staff for how the Padres actually want to win — shortening games, stacking leverage, turning innings into matchups, Mendez in the bullpen feels less like a fallback and more like a cheat code waiting to happen.