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The Padres have released veteran pitcher Marco Gonzales

The San Diego Padres have had one of the more interesting starts to the 2026 campaign across the majors. Despite sporting a solid 38-35 record, they haven’t been particularly dominant, and they have gone from leading the National League West division early in the year to now trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by nine games heading into play on Thursday.

Expectations are understandably high for the Padres, and they have been constantly tinkering with their roster in an effort to find the right mix of players that will lead this team to the playoffs. Earlier this week, that resulted in the front office deciding to move on from veteran left-handed pitcher Marco Gonzales.

Padres Release Veteran Pitcher Marco Gonzales

Gonzales broke into the majors back in 2014 with the St. Louis Cardinals, but he didn’t truly find his footing in the pros until he found his way to the Seattle Mariners in 2017. After a slow start, Gonzales eventually became a key piece of the team’s starting rotation up until the 2023 season, with his best year coming in 2019 (16-13, 3.99 ERA, 147 K, 1.31 WHIP).

In 2024, Gonzales spent the year with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but he ended up undergoing flexor surgery late in the year that forced him to miss the entire 2025 campaign. Still, that didn’t stop the Padres from taking a flier on him this offseason, as they signed him to a minor league deal in hopes that he could find his form and return to the majors.

Unfortunately, that did not end up happening. Gonzales has spent the entire year at Triple-A so far, and he’s gotten destroyed to this point (2-4, 7.99 ERA, 36 K, 2.03 WHIP). San Diego decided to give up on its Gonzales experiment, as it opted to release him ahead of its upcoming series against the Texas Rangers.

“The Padres announced they’ve outrighted reliever Ty Adcock after he was designated for assignment over the weekend. San Diego also released starter Marco Gonzales from his minor league contract yesterday, according to the MLB.com transaction log,” Anthony Franco wrote for MLB Trade Rumors.

Padres Looking to Get Back on Track vs. Rangers

GettyThe Padres have released veteran pitcher Marco Gonzales

Sometimes, older veterans like Gonzales are able to prove that they still have some juice left in the tank after returning from a serious injury. In this case, though, that simply doesn’t appear to be true. Gonzales was getting lit up at Triple-A prior to his release, and there wasn’t much from his time on the mound this season that indicated he would fare much better in the majors.

The Padres will lose some pitching depth by moving on from Gonzales, but considering how it seems unlikely he was ever going to get promoted at this rate, his departure isn’t a major loss. After losing two out of three games against the Cardinals earlier this week, San Diego will enjoy a day off on Thursday before returning to action at 8:05 p.m. ET on Friday night, as it will kick off a new three-game series against Texas.