This unheralded right-hander has helped Padres' starting rotation stay intact

This season, several Padres pitchers have gotten their praise. Guys like Nick Pivetta, Jason Adam, and Robert Suarez have definitely helped San Diego stay afloat as they navigated through injuries to Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Matt Waldron, and Michael King. Whether starter or reliever, these arms have undoubtedly been solid to keep the Friars in the postseason race halfway through the regular season.

But let's take a look at Randy Vásquez. The 26-year-old right-hander has not been on the same stage of praise as the aforementioned pitchers, and it might be time to recognize Vásquez for his contributions in the back-half of the rotation in 2025.

He went from fighting for a final spot at the tail-end of spring training as the injuries piled up early, to earning that spot as a bit of a surprise, to being one of the more reliable pitchers this year. On Friday against the Texas Rangers, Vásquez handed in his sixth quality start of the season, which guided the Friars to a 3-2 victory in extra innings.

Vásquez's career-high in starts is 20, and his career-high in innings pitched is 98. He is well on his way to shattering those numbers, as he's gone 90 1/3 frames through 18 starts in 2025.

The cutter-heavy Vásquez owns a 3.79 ERA and a .238 batting average against, two respectable metrics for a No. 4 or No. 5 starter in MLB. Every time he has gone six or more innings, it did go down as a quality start -- so when he goes the distance, he is locked in the entire time.

Vásquez has only logged three poor starts this season. In those outings, he allowed 14 runs in 10 innings. If you were to remove those three outings from his stat line, Vásquez has a 2.69 ERA in 15 starts. You'd take that level of production from anyone.

Can we rely on Vásquez to maintain this level of consistency? It's fair to put that pressure on him now, as he is no longer that surprise pitcher to crack into the rotation. The Padres need him, and if he can pile on a few more wins, San Diego will be in good shape.