The San Diego Padres recalled left-hander Kyle Hart from the Arizona Complex League on Thursday, according to the MiLB transaction log, a bookkeeping move that arrived the day after the club’s season ended.
For the Padres, that elimination came Wednesday night at Petco Park, where the Milwaukee Brewers closed out the National League Division Series.
Hart was not on the roster that went home. On September 26, the Padres optioned him to the ACL to clear a spot for Gavin Sheets, who was coming off the injured list with a foot injury.
Reporting at the time noted that the move left Hart ineligible for the Wild Card Series unless he returned as an injury replacement. He did not.
San Diego’s 26-man Wild Card roster carried three left-handers — Yuki Matsui, Adrian Morejon, and Robbie Ray — and Hart stayed off the list as the Padres beat the Chicago Cubs and then lost to Milwaukee.
The recall does not rewrite that. It returns a 33-year-old who spent the year shuttling between San Diego and the minors to the big-league side of the ledger after the games were over.
Hart’s 2026 line was serviceable without ever becoming essential. In 46 appearances, four of them starts, he went 1-3 with a 4.92 ERA over 64 innings, with 59 strikeouts, 26 walks, and a 1.20 WHIP.
Underlying numbers were kinder than the ERA: FanGraphs had his FIP at 3.63. He worked mostly in relief, with occasional bulk or opener turns, and was optioned to Triple-A El Paso on May 5 after an uneven start, then recalled on June 15 while Mason Miller was away on bereavement leave.
Late in the year, the club parked him in the complex league rather than carry him into October.
The path to that role was long. Hart, a Cincinnati native and Indiana product, was a 19th-round pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2016 and debuted in the majors in 2020.
After time in Korea, he signed with San Diego, posted a 5.86 ERA in 43 innings in 2025, and returned for 2026 on a one-year deal in the neighborhood of $1 million to $1.2 million, with a club option for 2027.
At 6-foot-5, he has the frame of a starter and the recent usage of a spare lefty.
Thursday’s transaction does not say whether that option will be exercised, or whether Hart is back in the plans at all. It only says he is no longer assigned to the ACL Padres.
For a pitcher who spent September waiting on a call that never came, the recall is the last line of a season that ended somewhere else.
