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The Padres are about to face one of the most important seasons in recent franchise history.
The team is for sale with a purchase pending, perhaps to Joe Lacob, the owner of the NBA’s
Golden State Warriors, the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries and San Francisco’s Chase Center.
Lacob has made a sizable offer, a spokesman for the Warriors confirmed. The franchise could bring a record for a Major League Baseball team – in excess of $3 billion. There are three other groups contending. The team was valued at $3.1 billion by two business outlets last week, 10th best in MLB and 34% higher than 2025.
All that is to say that big changes are coming while the 2026 team is still trying to achieve what no Padres club has since it was incorporated as a National League expansion team in 1969: winning the World Series.
They’ll have to do it with a starting rotation in shambles, but they’ve been there before.
“Every year we’re in a championship window,” A.J. Preller told Times of San Diego in an exclusive interview near the end of spring training in Peoria, Ariz. “Every year is important. It’s
a Major League season.”
Still, it’s tough to normalize this particular season. The Padres open on Thursday at Petco Park against the Detroit Tigers, the team that wiped them out in a five-game 1984 World Series.
The Padres won Game 2 that year at the old stadium in Mission Valley. It’s their only World Series victory. Add the sweep by the New York Yankees in the 1998 World Series and the Padres are 1-8 in Fall Classic games.
They haven’t been back since then. Though they’ve recently tasted the playoffs, they’ve still fallen painfully short.
“It’s been a very successful era,” Preller said. “We’ve been to the playoffs four times in the last six years. We just haven’t been able to take it over the top.”
That was the dream, particularly of late owner Peter Seidler, who tried to get the Padres to the finish line, but died in November 2023 after multiple battles with cancer. The ownership has been in chaos and litigation since then. His brother, John, took over as control person and is currently overseeing the sale as the Seidler family era nears an end .
The franchise is in debt and loses multi-millions of dollars a year despite having enjoyed the second highest home attendance in baseball last year, 3.4 million, and revenues in excess of $500 million.
They play in a destination ballpark in the East Village, east of downtown, that opened in 2004 at the cost of $474 million and has been improved constantly each season, which is not an anomaly. MLB teams are encouraged to invest in their own facilities and those investments are exempt from the team’s revenue sharing, which in baseball right now is 48% of all local revenue.
The city owns the ballpark and the team operates it. Their lease runs until 2033 or until San Diego’s bond issue to build the ballpark is paid. At that point, the Padres are free to leave. The city owes about $50 million, public documents show.
Preller was Peter Seidler’s favorite and has been protected by the organization with a recent unspecified multi-year contract. He may not maintain his position when new owners arrive and want to put in their own people, but he will be paid under any circumstances.
But wholesale change doesn’t always happen with a shift in ownership. When Tampa Bay changed hands last year, the new owners wiped out the business sidee, but left baseball operations – led by president Erik Nelander and manager Kevin Cash – intact.
How close was Preller with Peter Seidler? When once asked about the relationship, Preller’s eyes literally began to well up.
“Just personally, there’s not a day that goes by I don’t think about Peter,” Preller said when he regained his composure. “His vision and what we’re accomplishing. I think about it a lot.”
Preller and the Padres aren’t there yet, which makes this season so important.
The window is closing despite a player payroll, sixth in MLB, of $264.5 million for luxury tax purposes. The luxury tax threshold this season is $244 million, which means as of now the Padres would be assessed a $5.7 million tax, according to figures provided by Spotrac.
The Chargers left San Diego for Los Angeles in 2017 and this recent investment in the Padres product was all timed after their departure. The Padres have been one of baseball’s highest
payroll teams since then with big contracts paid out to Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Xander Bogaerts. They all extend through at least 2033.
“It was a business and baseball decision and the fans bought in,” Preller said. “They’ve given us their full support.”
But here’s the reality: The Padres have another new and untried manager in Craig Stammen, and a starting pitching rotation that’s highly questionable behind their first two starters. For
all the money spent, they have $42.8 million committed to the active rotation, $38.8 million of that to the top two starters, Michael King and Nick Pivetta.
King was one of the few players retained in the offseason, signed to a three-year contract worth $75 million despite making only 15 starts last season because of right shoulder and left knee injuries.
Gone from last year’s pitching staff are starter Dylan Cease, who signed with Toronto for an outrageous seven years and $210 million, and closer Robert Suarez, who went to Atlanta for three years and $45 million.
Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove will start the season on the injured list. Both underwent Tommy John ligament replacement surgery on their right elbows. Darvish may never pitch again.
Musgrove, now 17 months out from his surgery, has had a few setbacks, so is being slow-walked. He may not be available until May at the earliest, Preller admitted. He hasn’t
pitched since March 4.
That’s $38 million in dead money – $20 million for Musgrove and $18 million for Darvish.
Behind King and Pivetta, the Padres like Randy Vasquez, who will make $820,000 this season. Walker Buehler, a non-roster invitee to training camp, has survived two Tommy John surgeries. Nevertheless, Preller signed him to a $1.5 million, one-year deal that has enough incentives in it to get him to $2.5 million.
Buehler was pelted by the D-backs in his last outing, for seven runs on 11 hits and four homers in less than five innings. He hasn’t been told yet where he stands in the rotation.
“Just that I’m on the team,” said the right-hander who won the World Series twice with the Dodgers, but has since bounced from Boston to Philadelphia to the Padres.
German Marquez, signed for $1.75 million after finishing 3-16 with a 6.70 ERA last season in Colorado, should be the fifth starter, at least out of the gate.
It’s not what you want, as former Yankees manager Joe Girardi was fond of saying. But until the ownership change, there’s no more money for Preller to spend. And that’s the way one of their most important Padres seasons in recent memory will begin.
