NOLA EASES BACK AFTER BREAK
Bent over behind home plate on Sunday as blood poured from the gash on his nose, Austin Nola had enough wits about him to conduct his own spot-check even as trainers began their own evaluations.
“I definitely checked my vision and whether I had a concussion,” Nola recalled three days later in the Padres' clubhouse at the Peoria Sports Complex. “I knew if I was dizzy, but I wasn't dizzy and I could see so I knew that was very important. I was like, ‘OK, I can handle whatever's next if I can see and if I'm not dizzy.' ”
Toward that end, Nola, all smiles while briefing reporters on his remarkable condition following Sunday's brush with a runaway fastball, pulled the straps of his catching gear bag over his shoulder and lugged it out to the bullpen to begin a tempered return to baseball activity.
Nola hit and went through some catching drills in the batting cage as he begins to see just what he can handle. The ball that struck him on Sunday resulted in a small fracture toward the top of his nose, with the cut requiring three stitches to close up. The swelling had continued to decrease, and while he remained sore, the 33-year-old catcher expects he can return as quickly as his pain threshold allows. He already suspects his mask is as padded as it gets, so the initial big test is what it feels like to have a ball ricochet off the front of his face.
“That's what I'm about to go find out,” he said. “… I'm going to see how I feel, move around, kind of get back into the catcher's gear, hit a little bit, throw, stay moving. …
“I know baseball, so I want to get back into baseball.”
Padres manager Bob Melvin continues to remain hopeful that Nola can still break camp with the team next week, although the team will need to monitor his progress over the next several days.
For his part, Nola is astonished that it's even an option.
“The amount of blood and stuff like that,” Nola said, “I didn't realize that it would be this quick, but I'm glad.”
Tracking Darvish
Yu Darvish returned from the World Baseball Classic on Wednesday and was expected to rejoin camp today, allowing the Padres to begin to assess exactly where he is in his progression toward the start of the season.
All told, the 36-year-old veteran threw a total of 93 pitches across three appearances for Samurai Japan: a three-inning start, Thursday's two-inning relief appearance and Tuesday's eighth inning in the championship.
Whatever work he did on the side, Melvin not only acknowledged that “opening day is going to be tough,” he cracked the door open a bit on the idea that the team may — may — have to go one turn through the rotation without him.
“It's Yu Darvish,” Melvin said. “If it were up to him, he would probably be pitching four innings (today), but that's not going to happen. We'll be semi-careful with him. But the way we have it worked out, he's going to pitch the first time around or close to it. It just depends on how he feels going forward.”
Melvin added: “Based on the fact that he was throwing 70-pitch bullpens in January, I don't think it will take long to build him up.”
Musgrove’s action
Between the bullpen leading up to a simulated game, the three “innings” he threw to hitters (who were instructed not to swing) and work in between, Joe Musgrove estimated he threw close to 100 pitches on the back fields in Peoria.
He remains without a timetable, but the Padres aren't discouraging Musgrove aiming to return for the seventh game of the season and Wednesday's session at least is a good sign that his arm remains in shape despite the setback with the broken toe.
“I feel really good coming out of it,” Musgrove said. “Hardly talked about the foot at all. It was mainly pitching stuff, so that's a good sign.”
Facing hitters who are allowed to swing is the next logical step.
Padres Hall inductees
Before throwing out the first pitch of Game 4 of the NLDS last October against the Dodgers, Jake Peavy had not been around the Padres since he was traded out of town at the 2009 deadline.
He's not going anywhere now.
The 2007 NL Cy Young winner will be inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame on July 28 alongside former owner John Moores.
Peavy's 2007 campaign remains the only pitching Triple Crown in franchise history: He led the NL in wins (19), ERA (2.54) and strikeouts (240), with the latter two categories also leading the majors.
A two-time All-Star as a Padre (three times overall), Peavy finished his stay in San Diego as the franchise's all-time leader in strikeouts (1,348) and ranks second in winning percentage (.575), quality starts (142), strikeout rate (9.04 per nine innings) and opponent average (.232), tied for second in wins (92) and inside the top four in starts (212), innings (1,3422⁄3) and ERA.
Peavy, who twice struck out a franchise-record 16 batters in starts, was originally drafted by the Padres in the 15th round in 1999 and spent eight years in the majors with them until he was traded — a season and a half into his four-year, $52 million extension — as payroll was scaled back as Moores prepared to sell the team.
“This honor means more to me than I'll ever be able to put into words,” Peavy said in a statement released by the team. “The San Diego Padres feel like home. This organization developed me professionally and help mold me personally. When I was drafted by the Padres at 18 years old, I never could have imagined that some 20 years later we'd be here. I'm so proud to be a Padre for life.”
Moores owned the Padres from 1994 through 2012, a period in which the Padres won four NL west titles, the 1998 NL pennant and erected Petco Park in a project that revitalized the Gaslamp district.
“While I would rather have been an MLB player than an MLB owner,” Moores said in a statement, “my experience in baseball for 18 years was remarkably satisfying . ... I never had a bad day at the ballpark.”
Both Peavy and Moores will be inducted in a ceremony before the July 28 game at Petco against the Rangers.
Notable
OF Juan Soto (oblique) said he “feels good” as he walked through the clubhouse, but the Padres erred on the side of caution and kept a bat out of his hands Wednesday. He remains dayto-day.
• RHP Reiss Knehr was optioned to Triple-A El Paso and RHPs Eric Hanhold and Aaron Brooks were reassigned to minor league camp. There are 53 players remaining in big-league camp, including 16 non-roster invitees.