Padres notes: Yu Darvish delayed; Manny Machado won’t be among regulars in Cactus League opener

Yu Darvish spent time Wednesday morning doing some tinkering in the bullpen, consulting with pitching coach Ruben Niebla between pitches.

Darvish, who has not established his usual command through two live batting practice sessions, is scheduled to throw again on a back field before making his Cactus League debut.

He had tentatively been slated to start Friday after Joe Musgrove started Thursday’s spring training opener. Both games are against the Dodgers. Jhony Brito is now scheduled to start Friday with Matt Waldron following him in that game.

“Yu is doing great,” manager Mike Shildt said. “He’ll be in a theater soon. Coming soon to a theater near you. But he’s in a great spot. He’s going through a progression that he’s comfortable with, we’re comfortable with, and he’s in a really good place. … Guys with more experiences and comfort levels, them being (allowed) to get built up and work on some things with a more controlled environment is important.”

Shildt said he doesn’t “necessarily” think the delay will have an effect on Darvish’s ability to start one of the Padres’ two games in their season-opening series against the Dodgers in Seoul, South Korea. Even if Darvish started Friday, he would have had time for a maximum of just four starts, which he can still achieve. (Musgrove is the only pitcher with time to make five spring starts before the Padres depart for Korea on the night of March 13.)

However many starts they make, the Padres’ goal entering spring was to get Musgrove and Darvish built up to 75 or so pitches in time for their season debuts.

“It’s a fine line,” Shildt said of getting pitchers built up in time for the early start, eight days before MLB’s official opening day. “We don’t want to overcorrect and sit there and go, ‘OK, we feel like we’ve got to rush and get everybody ready.’ We clearly are going to be for Korea. We also don’t want to ramp up and (not) be mindful that (while) two games clearly are important, we have 160 after that.”

The tentative plan is to have the third and fourth members of the Padres’ rotation start the team’s exhibition games in Korea on March 17 and 18. It is possible, with six days off between the second Korea game and their home opener against the Giants, that one or both of the starters in Korea pitch twice before any other starter makes his season debut. One thing Shildt does not anticipate doing is using any starters out of the bullpen in Korea.

“I can’t say it wouldn’t happen,” Shildt said. “But I can tell you right now we do have a lot of guys in the bullpen we feel good about. And I don’t know if it behooves us to (have) guys, first time out, come out of the bullpen that are going to start for us.”

A Manny down

Shildt said at least some Padres regulars will be in the infield and hinted that Fernando Tatis Jr. will start in right field on Thursday.

“I would expect you to see a good representation in our infield and our outfield,” Shildt said.

Manny Machado, however, will not be one of those regulars, and he will not serve as designated hitter either.

“Manny will be enjoying the contest close to me; not right beside me, but close to me,” Shildt said. “Manny is trending in a really good place. We just want to clearly be smart. You can expect a DH game out of him, if things progresses they are, sooner rather than later.”

Machado, who underwent right elbow surgery in October to repair a torn extensor tendon, is expected to be in the opening-day lineup.

While he and the Padres are not making predictions as to his readiness to play third base or whether he will be limited to serving as designated hitter by March 20, he has been participating close to full-go in spring training. He has worked every day on the field with minimal limitations in throwing effort and frequency and no limits on his swing.

Not yet

Reliever Wandy Peralta, who has been in the Dominican Republic while awaiting visa approval is expected in camp by the weekend. Outfielder Jurickson Profar, in Curacao awaiting his visa, could be shortly behind him.

Neither player could begin the visa process until signing their contracts, which did not happen until earlier this month.

Padres officials have expressed optimism the two veterans will be able to begin the season on time.

Peralta, who has played eight seasons in the majors, is throwing in the Dominican and does not need to build up as much as if he was a starter. Profar, a 10-year veteran, played winter ball.

Pitcher Luis Patiño is also awaiting a visa in his home country of Colombia. He was not being counted on for the opening-day roster even before being delayed.

Adding to ’24 international class

The $750,000 in international bonus money the Padres picked up while sending a pair of prospects to Houston and Detroit last week was put to good use on Wednesday, when the Padres agreed to a deal with right-hander Humberto Cruz.

The top arm out of Mexico, the 6-foot-2, 170-pound Cruz throws a fastball generally in the low- to mid-90s with an advanced slider and change-up. The 17-year-old is known as a strike-thrower, as he had an 18-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 15⅓ innings of one-run ball (0.60 ERA) in the Mexican winter league.

Cruz’s addition to the Padres’ 2024 international class was initially reported when the Padres signed top prospect Leodalis De Vries. But De Vriers commanded $4.2 million of the Padres’ $4.65 million bonus pool, not leaving enough money left to officially sign the right-hander. Wednesday’s deal with Cruz is for $750,000 — exactly the amount of money the Padres received by dealing outfielder Oliver Carrillo to the Astros and pitcher Blake Dickerson to the Tigers.

Staff writer Jeff Sanders contributed to this report.