Padres pitcher acquired in Juan Soto trade optioned as Joe Musgrove return looms

A huge reason why the San Diego Padres are on such a roll right now is because their rotation has stepped up like no other. Dylan Cease just threw a no-hitter and has been great overall lately, Michael King has been throwing gems for months now, and Matt Waldron has made the knuckleball cool again.

One rotation arm that hasn't been overly impressive is Randy Vasquez. One of the key parts of the Padres' return in the Juan Soto trade along with King and Drew Thorpe, Vasquez has struggled to cement his place in San Diego's rotation, and his 4.20 ERA and lack of swing and miss since the beginning of July has left a lot to be desired.

With Joe Musgrove set to return this weekend and the Padres still dealing with the after-effects of a heavy workload for their bullpen this week, San Diego sent Vasquez back to the minors in exchange for reliever Jhony Brito.

Padres News: Randy Vasquez optioned to minors, Johny Brito recalled

Brito (also acquired in the Soto trade) isn't exactly the most exciting reliever to bring up as he doesn't strike out a ton of batters and sports just a 4.35 ERA in 25 appearances in the big leagues this year. However, what Vasquez's fellow Soto trade piece does have the ability to do is throw multiple innings, which could be extremely useful to the Padres' taxed bullpen in the short term.

All of this makes sense in the context of managing the arrival of Musgrove from the injured list. Manager Mike Shildt already indicated that Musgrove would return this weekend against Miami, and a cursory look at the Padres current rotation had Vasquez as the odd man out even before this move.

In all likelihood, what we will see next is the Padres make the move to reinstate Musgrove from the IL and send a reliever down to the minor leagues. That could be Brito, especially if he pitches a good bit on Friday, or the recently recalled Carl Edwards Jr., who didn't exactly impress upon his return to the big leagues this week.

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