Padres' Optioning of Kyle Hart Became Unavoidable & Presents New (But Familiar) Issues

On Friday, the San Diego Padres announced that they've optioned starting pitcher Kyle Hart to Triple-A. Hart will ply his trade with the El Paso Chihuahuas for at least the next few weeks. With a rash of injuries limiting the team's ability to replace him directly from the 40-man, Hart will be replaced on the active roster by reliever Ryan Bergert. 

It's not an entirely unusual situation that the Padres optioned a player who is essentially their fifth starter—maybe their fourth. But the impact on the roster presents a couple of different layers of intrigue.

First is just Hart's direct optioning. While he wasn't guaranteed a roster spot in his return from the KBO, Hart was able to grab the job largely due to Yu Darvish's elbow inflammation. His spring wasn't terrific (9.39 ERA), so there was a sort of "by default" factor given that he'd, ideally, be able to eat up some innings. Through his first five starts, though, Hart was leaving a lot on his plate. 

He went five innings in his first start but couldn't escape the first in his second. While he was able to turn in six shutout innings in the third start, it came against a brutal Colorado squad. His subsequent two starts saw him surrender five runs in five innings against Houston before working through just 4.1 innings of two-run ball in Detroit. 

It's left some pretty shoddy numbers on the books for him to date. Hart's line includes 21 innings, a 6.00 ERA (6.07 FIP), a 17.8 K%, and a 6.7 BB%. The walk rate looks pretty good. The issue is that virtually nothing else does: 

That's a lot of hard contact, a lot of barrels, and not much compensating for a relatively high overall contact rate (82.1 percent). He'll head to El Paso to work on some things. Ideally, he returns with a more stable foundation from which to work. His usage has been messy in terms of the usage itself and subsequent outcomes. With pressure already on the bullpen, given some injuries there, it was simply necessary.

In a more pressing concern for the roster at large, though, you'll note the word "reliever" in the above regarding Ryan Bergert. The aforementioned slate of injuries — the team's Injured List currently features 11 different names — is problematic not only because of the direct impact of said injuries, but also the lack of flexibility wrought by them. Most of them are relatively short-term; almost none require a trip to the 60-day IL, which would provide a bit more flexibility on the 40-man roster. 

As such, the Padres are largely left to work with what they have. Moving out a position player or pitcher isn't going to happen with the team scraping the bottom of the barrel for personnel. While Bergert is not a starter, he can go multiple innings at a time if needed, so even a bullpen game should be manageable. That means, however, that with Hart's demotion, the team is set to roll with a four-man rotation for the time being. 

That could (?) be fine. The team has a day off on Monday and another on Thursday. The schedule could play out reasonably for them, permitting a short-handed starting group to remain roughly on time. 

There's also the possibility that Yu Darvish nears a return by the time a five-man rotation becomes a necessity again. He's begun ramping up more recently, with live BP appearing on the horizon. Such impeccable timing would be uncharacteristic of the massive bout of poor luck the Padres have experienced this year, but it does remain a possibility. Otherwise, you hope they get healthy elsewhere on the roster to open up more 40-man flexibility. 

It's a new situation for the Padres in 2025 to option out a player; their roster has performed so well to date, despite the injuries that have been the primary culprits of forcing players out. But subtracting Kyle Hart from the mix indefinitely is still an all-too-familiar problem for the team to confront as they move into the month of May.