The early start to yet another unconventional spring training is good news for Cactus League fans hoping to get their money’s worth in Thursday’s opener: Joe Musgrove will start and Michael King will follow.

While Padres manager Mike Shildt invited reporters to speculate all they want about what that might mean for the March 20 opener in South Korea, an earlier Cactus League unveiling is simply a matter of where Musgrove is on his schedule and a reflection of the need to ramp up guys’ workload earlier in yet another abbreviated spring training.

“Is there a traditional spring training anymore?” Shildt quipped in a nod toward last year’s World Baseball Classic-interrupted spring, the lockout eating into the 2022 schedule and the camps affected by COVID-19 the previous two years. “There hasn’t been, but this is yet another non-traditional. So we go and compete. So it really just landed on (Musgrove’s) day to pitch and that’s what he’ll do. It’ll be great.”

Musgrove threw roughly 30 pitches in Saturday’s live bullpen session. That he’s ready to go from the jump after a stop-and-go trek through 2023 ended with him on the injured list with shoulder inflammation is a victory in and of itself.

Musgrove threw 181 innings each of the two previous season before an injury-plagued 2023 season limited him to 97 1/3 innings, his fewest over a full season since becoming a big-league regular in 2017.

“Actions speak louder than words,” Shildt said. “The good news is we’ve been able to say some really positive things about his offseason, but most importantly he’s been able to live through a really good rehab process where I give him a lot of credit of taking it very seriously, as you would expect from Joe and all our players, quite frankly. But he’s had a very productive offseason and he’s healthy, his throwing his ‘lives,’ he feels great and he’s going to pitch on Thursday.

“It’s fantastic.”

With a steady Japanese media presence in camp, the conversation quickly turned to Yu Darvish. He last threw a live batting practice on Friday and is expected to throw another before getting into games.

Shildt was not quite ready to reveal who will start Friday’s game in Glendale.

As for the Dodgers, their starter for Thursday’s opener had not been announced as of Sunday morning. Yoshinobu Yamamoto last threw a live on Saturday, the same day as Musgrove.

Marcano update

Everyone in Padres camp has been active in team workouts except for Tucupita Marcano.

Claimed off waivers from the Pirates in November, Marcano wrecked his right knee on a play at third base at Petco Park as a visiting player in August and underwent season-ending anterior cruciate ligament surgery. Marcano, a former Padres prospect sent to the Pirates in the Adam Frazier trade, told the Union-Tribune he is running and doing baseball activity but is not yet at 100 percent.

Shildt added Sunday that Marcano is “clearly going to be another week or two to start to ramp up baseball activity. So it’s really kind of early to give you a timeline on when he gets back to competition relative to playing in a game. He’s got some baseball progression ahead of him.”

The left-handed hitting Marcano has one option left. He is an infielder by trade but could mix into the outfield competition. He began playing the corner outfield spots with the Padres in 2021.