MATT WALDRON

• Position(s): Right-handed pitcher
• Bats / Throws: Right / Right
• 2025 opening day age: 28
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-2 / 185 pounds
• How acquired: Via trade with the Cleveland Guardians in November 2020
• Contract status: Earned $741,800 in 2024; will not be arbitration-eligible until 2027.
• fWAR in 2024: 1.8
• Key 2024 stats: 7-11, 4.91 ERA, 133 strikeouts, 40 walks, 1.26 WHIP, .255 opponent average, 146⅔ innings (27 games, 26 starts)

 

STAT TO NOTE

• .667 — Opponents’ slugging percentage off Waldron’s knuckleball in July 2024, when it appeared as if his first full season in the majors began to catch up with the rookie. Opponents slugged .302 off the pitch in April, .313 off it in May and .286 off it in June before he was hit hard in July and August (.556), warranting the demotion to Triple-A El Paso.

 

TRENDING

• Up — The player to be named later in the 2020 Mike Clevinger trade, Waldron had never thrown a knuckleball competitively until messing around with it in his first spring training with the Padres. He began throwing it in games in the minors in 2021 and had developed something of a love-hate relationship with it by the time he reached Triple-A El Paso. The pitch, currently only thrown by him, helped a rather stock pitch mix stand out, but it was punished in the hot, thin air locales throughout the Pacific Coast League to the point that he wasn’t even throwing it anymore when the Padres called him up for his MLB debut in June 2023. He mixed the pitch into that first game anyway and continued to throw it while finishing that season with a 4.35 ERA over 41⅓ innings. That showing thrust Waldron into the thick of the rotation competition in spring training and he beat out Jhony Brito for the fifth spot. Waldron, however, had a 5.82 ERA through his first seven starts when mix of trial and error and frankly conviction in the knuckleball gave way to 13-start run in which he posted a 2.63 ERA. He peaked at 10 strikeouts in one start and threw as many as seven shutout innings, rounding into form at a time when the Padres were without Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish. The only question as the summer wore on was how long Waldron — who’d topped out at 133 ⅔ innings between the majors and minors in 2023 — could keep up that pace and he hit a wall in July (see stat to note). He had a 13.81 ERA over his last three starts in August, leading the Padres to remove him from the rotation just as Musgrove and Darvish were nearing returns. Waldron returned to pitch one game in relief (4 IP, 4 ER) after the Padres clinched a playoff spot, but he was not on the roster for either postseason series.

 

2025 OUTLOOK

• As poorly as 2024 ended, Waldron has a lot to build on as a potential No. 4/5 starter, which the Padres need with Musgrove lost for the season to Tommy John surgery. Given what he did over the summer and depending on what the Padres do this winter, Waldron should enter spring training with a leg-up in the rotation competition and with some confidence in an outlier knuckleball that should continue to serve him well if he stays the course with the pitch.

 

Roster rankings

• 17. INF Eguy Rosario
• 18. RHP Randy Vásquez
• 19. RHP Bryan Hoeing
• 20. LHP Yuki Matsui
• 21. RHP Sean Reynolds
• 22. C Luis Campusano
• 23. RHP Alek Jacob
• 24. OF Tirso Ornelas
• 25. RHP Ryan Bergert
• 26. RHP Henry Baez
• 27. LHP Omar Cruz
• 28. OF Brandon Lockridge
• 29. LHP Tom Cosgrove
• 30. RHP Stephen Kolek
• 31. RHP Juan Nuñez
• 32. C Brett Sullivan
• 33. UT Tyler Wade
• 34. LHP Wandy Peralta