MLB Trade Rumors dropped the update Friday: the Padres have gained a 2027 club option on Nick Pivetta. It sounds like a boring transaction-page line, but it's actually the byproduct of a nasty stretch for San Diego's rotation and a very specific contract clause finally tripping.
Pivetta signed a 4-year, $55 million deal with the Padres before the 2024-25 offseason, and the contract came loaded with player opt-outs after both 2026 and 2027. That's the kind of structure that heavily favors the pitcher — unless he gets hurt and stays hurt.
That's exactly what happened. Pivetta landed on the injured list back in April with a right elbow flexor strain, and his rehab has been a mess since. He walked off a mound mid-inning during a Low-A rehab outing in early August, which spooked the Padres enough to pause the whole return process. Buried in the fine print of his deal was a 130-consecutive-day IL clock — and if he blew past it, his 2027 and 2028 player options would flip into club options for San Diego instead.
He blew past it. With the deadline landing right around now, the $18 million 2028 salary and Pivetta's opt-out leverage are gone, replaced by a $14 million club option for 2027 that belongs to the Padres, not him.
It's a rough break for Pivetta, who was reportedly having one of the best starts to a season in franchise history before the elbow issue derailed everything. Instead of pitching his way toward a big 2026 opt-out, he's now negotiating rehab starts and hoping to just get back on a big-league mound before the season ends.
For the Padres, it's a quiet but real win on the roster-building side — cost certainty on a rotation piece at a discount, even if it came at the expense of watching one of their arms go down for the year. San Diego's front office, run by AJ Preller, has stayed publicly optimistic that Pivetta pitches again in 2026. Whether he does or not, the contract math is already locked in.