Padres take a fascinating flier on a forgotten top pick with a risky comeback twist

The Padres don’t really do “normal” minor-league pitching signings anymore. If San Diego is adding an arm to the minor league system, there’s usually a hook.

That’s why Andrew Thurman fits so cleanly. On paper, it’s just a minor-league deal. In reality, it’s a very specific kind of Padres bet: low-cost, high-weirdness, and quietly useful if the season turns into the usual chaotic parade.

Padres’ Andrew Thurman pickup feels small until you realize what it’s really for

Thurman isn’t a random arm. He was the 40th overall pick back in 2013. And for a while, his track looked like what you’d expect — bouncing through organizations, hanging around the edges and trying to stick. Then you realize there’s been a seven-year gap in the middle of it. Just… gone from affiliated ball before 2018 even started.

For most pitchers, that’s the end of the story. The next wave comes in and your name turns into trivia.

Instead, Thurman resurfaced in 2025 in the Atlantic League and basically announced he wasn’t here for a ceremonial comeback. He took a starter’s workload — 25 starts, 125.2 innings, 128 strikeouts — the kind of volume that doesn’t happen by accident after a long layoff. The 4.94 ERA isn’t the point. The point is he showed up, took the ball, and missed bats while doing it.

This doesn’t read like a heartwarming flier. It reads like upper-minors insurance. San Diego has spent years trading from the system, patching the back end, and trusting player development to manufacture usable innings on demand. But you can’t “development” your way out of needing someone who can simply survive five-and-dive duty when injuries and workload limits start squeezing.

Maybe Andrew Thurman is nothing more than a stabilizer. But maybe he turns into a Triple-A option who can cover emergency starts when the rotation gets wobbly. And maybe, if the Padres’ instruction actually sharpens the stuff and the sequencing, he becomes the most annoying kind of surprise: the name you didn’t expect forcing its way onto the radar.

Either way, it’s classic Padres logic and a quiet admission. The fastest way for this team to survive a season is still the same: keep collecting innings wherever they can find them.