SAN DIEGO — Nineteen months after he underwent Tommy John surgery, and more than two months after he experienced a setback in his recovery, Joe Musgrove will resume a throwing progression this week. The plan is to start slowly, with the veteran right-hander tossing plyo balls.It’s the latest step in a process Musgrove and the San Diego Padres hope results in a return to major-league competition this summer.“Realistically, when you look at the time it’ll take for me to build up, probably right after the All-Star break,” Musgrove said Monday. “I’d love to get back sooner, but I don’t think innings-wise and time-wise there’s enough time there. I mean, I could come back in a relief role, I think, but they want me to start here, so I’m going to try to get everything where I can get built up to start in the second half.”Once the most reliable starter in a now-suspect rotation, Musgrove had his right elbow repaired in October 2024. He retook the mound March 4 in a spring training exhibition against Great Britain’s World Baseball Classic team, but he did not recover well, leading to what has become a roughly 11-week shutdown from throwing. That hiatus, Musgrove said, is unrelated to the graft that replaced a torn ligament.“It’s more bone-related than it is ligament- or tissue-related, which is why it’s taken so long,” Musgrove said. “There’s medicine I’m taking, like injections that are helping calcify the bone a little bit, but a lot of it’s just time for the bone to heal, time without impact.”Musgrove, who has undergone imaging and other tests in recent months, added that doctors also believe his discomfort was not caused by a bone spur that has formed since his surgery — which included shaving pre-existing bone spurs.“The position of (the new bone spur), they don’t think that’s what’s causing the ache and the pain,” Musgrove said. “It’s more of the olecranon, like a stress reaction on the actual bone itself. Obviously, it’s a doctor’s take. You look at the film from the MRI, and you take past experience like the doctors have, but nothing is 100 percent guaranteed.“They’re just kind of making the best educated guess based on what they see and what my symptoms are. But I feel confident we’ve done every exam to make sure we’re treating the right thing and that we’re not missing anything.”A former All-Star and the author of the Padres’ first no-hitter, Musgrove has been limited to 197 regular-season innings since he began a five-year, $100 million contract in 2023. That year, he dealt with toe, elbow and shoulder injuries. In 2024, he pitched through persistent inflammation until his elbow gave out.His history, along with the uncertainty of Tommy John recovery, helped explain why the Padres anticipated some bumps this year. Still, Musgrove’s absence has clouded the outlook for a pitching staff also missing Opening Day starter Nick Pivetta, who has not resumed throwing since he suffered an elbow flexor strain in April. Like Musgrove, Pivetta hopes to return in the second half.“I’m not holding myself to a deadline. The training staff’s not holding me to a deadline,” Musgrove said. “It’s not like we’re going to speed the process up to make a certain date. But if everything goes smoothly, we have those windows in mind. So, it’s about trying to stay on track, and if we need a day or if we need to pull back a little, we will. But hopefully, we’re not going to do that.”In an attempt to diagnose delivery inefficiencies and maintain future health, Musgrove has paid recent visits to the Padres’ biomechanics lab to study past video of himself. Given the bone spur in his elbow, he also took note this month when Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal and former teammate Blake Snell each underwent a NanoScope procedure to remove loose bodies from their throwing elbows.“I think it’s a better option than going in and getting a normal surgery to get the bone spurs removed,” Musgrove said. “It’s much quicker. I mean, Skubal’s already throwing bullpens and building back up. I don’t think I’m necessarily a candidate for that right now. If it gets to the point where that spur becomes an issue, that would be something we look at, for sure.”May 25, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms