Questions for the boys of summer

Opening Day for the San Diego Padres 2026 season brings both excitement and question marks to downtown’s Petco Park.

The home opener is earlier than usual this year, with the first pitch coming at 1:10 p.m. on Thursday. On paper, the Padres seem ready to compete for the postseason with healthy high-profile starters Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts.

Unfortunately, pitcher Yu Darvish is scheduled to sit out the season again, and hometown hurler Joe Mosgrove will begin the year on the injured list.

The major onfield question mark for the team is new manager Craig Stammen. A former Padres pitcher, he’s never managed at the major league level.

Eyeing the front office, fans are curious who will become the team’s new owner. Late owner Peter Seidler passed away in 2023. After a contentious public squabble, Sielder’s brother took over and began exploring a sale of the team. Several deep-pocketed individuals and groups have been interviewed. It’s expected the team will sell for more than $3 billion. 

A decision on new ownership is expected very early in the season. While the team leaving San Diego under a new owner is highly unlikely, it’s apparently not going to be contractually impossible.

Outside Petco Park, fans will need to decide how much they’re willing to pay to park on game days. As the 2025 season wound down, the city of San Diego instituted surge pricing. That entails charging $10 per hour at parking meters within a half a mile of Petco. That fee lasts six hours, beginning two hours before the start of all 81 home games.

Some perspective: The Padres sold out 72 home games last year, drawing a record attendance of 3,437,201. The only team that drew more fans in 2025 was the despised World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, a team whose question marks are usually outnumbered by payroll dollar signs.