Jeremiah Estrada is earning $809,500 in 2026 on a pre-arbitration contract with the San Diego Padres. His ERA is 4.66. Both of those numbers require context.
On Opening Day, March 27, Estrada entered against Detroit and recorded two outs. He allowed one hit, three walks, and four earned runs. He took the loss and a blown save. In two-thirds of an inning, his season line was set on fire before it had a chance to exist.
Since then, he has made eight appearances covering nine innings. He has allowed five hits, one earned run, one home run, and two walks while striking out 11. That is a 1.00 ERA across those eight outings. The Opening Day implosion accounts for four of his five earned runs on the season and three of his five walks.
Estrada's value to the Padres has never been about finesse. He throws three pitches — a four-seam fastball, a splitter, and a slider — and relies on swing-and-miss to get through innings. In 2024, his first full season in San Diego after being claimed off waivers from the Cubs, he set the Expansion Era record with 13 consecutive strikeouts across three appearances in late May. He struck out all five Yankees he faced on May 26 of that year: Judge, Verdugo, Stanton, Rizzo, and Torres. He finished 2024 with 62 appearances, a 2.95 ERA, a 1.07 WHIP, and 94 strikeouts in 61 innings.
In 2025, the workload increased. Estrada made a career-high 77 appearances — the most on the Padres and fourth-most in the majors — and threw 73 innings with 108 strikeouts. His ERA rose to 3.45, driven in part by a jump from four home runs allowed in 2024 to 12 in 2025. The strikeouts were still there. So was the traffic.
The 2026 season, once past Opening Day and an April elbow-tendinitis interruption, has looked more like the 2024 version. On May 2 against the White Sox, Estrada struck out three batters on 13 pitches in a perfect inning. On April 4 and 5 in Boston, he threw two consecutive scoreless innings on a combined 23 pitches. The outings have been short — mostly one inning at a time — but clean.
Estrada was drafted by the Cubs in the sixth round out of Palm Desert High School in 2017. He grew up in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley. He spent six years in the Cubs' minor league system, including time lost to a right elbow injury in 2021, before making his major league debut on August 30, 2022. San Diego claimed him off waivers in November 2023 and has used him as a high-leverage setup arm since.
Through four MLB seasons prior to 2026, Estrada compiled a 3.47 ERA and 223 strikeouts across 150.1 innings and 156 appearances. He has never started a major league game. His role is defined: get outs in the seventh and eighth, strike out as many as possible, and hand the ball to the closer.
At $809,500, Estrada occupies one of the cheapest slots on a Padres roster that includes Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, and Fernando Tatis Jr. He remains under club control beyond 2026. The Padres are not paying for his Opening Day. They are paying for the eight outings after it.
Nine innings and one earned run do not erase one bad outing from the season line. But they do explain why the Padres keep handing him the ball in the seventh inning of close games.