UCL surgically repaired last month<\/a>, the Padres\u2019 rotation currently projects to consist of Nick Pivetta, Joe Musgrove, Randy V\u00e1squez and JP Sears.<\/p>\nThey might get creative to add to that group.<\/p>\n
The Padres continue to mull turning one of their back-end relievers into a starter \u2014 a la Seth Lugo in 2023,\u00a0 King in \u201824 and Stephen Kolek last season.<\/p>\n
This time, it could be Jeremiah Estrada, Mason Miller or\u00a0Adrian Morej\u00f3n \u00a0that make the move.<\/p>\n
Such a move seems unlikely at this point, as closer Robert Suarez opted out of his contract and the Padres don\u2019t want to mess with what was by many measures MLB\u2019s top bullpen in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to make sure that we don\u2019t look up and have two mediocre units,\u201d Preller said.<\/p>\n
But the idea was briefly broached at the end of the season, and conversations with those pitchers will commence in earnest in the next week or so.<\/p>\n
Said Preller: \u201cIt\u2019s talking to the individual pitcher and seeing where his head is at how much he really wants to do that and make that transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
A more probable route is to bring in a couple pitchers from the outside.<\/p>\n
The Padres are likely not going to be shopping at the top of the free agent market. In fact, they are almost certainly moving on from two pitchers considered to be at the top of the market.<\/p>\n
Cease and King were both given qualifying offers, and both are expected to reject it rather than accept the one-year, $22.025 contract. That means the Padres will be in line to receive two draft picks to be exercised between the fourth and fifth rounds.<\/p>\n
There is talk that a trade or two might be the more likely route to find a mid-rotation pitcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had just very limited talks so far,\u201d Preller said. \u201cThat\u2019s what these meetings are for \u2026 to kind of get a little bit more sense of what is out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Padres are further along in their evaluation of the market than Preller\u2019s comments would signify, the GM meetings do serve as a launch for the offseason. The Padres and Yankees discussed trading Juan Soto during the 2023 season, but they reignited those talks at the GM meetings in 2024, and that is when they discussed King for the first time.<\/p>\n
What they\u2019re working with<\/p>\n
Any talk about payroll at this point in the offseason should be taken with a grain of salt, as teams have yet to establish their budgets for 2026 and such things are fluid for most clubs.<\/p>\n
Around the holidays is when the Padres\u2019 generally begin to define their spending power.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have a sense from ownership, keep having the conversation about where our payroll is going to be at,\u201d Preller said. \u201cWe use these meeting to gather information, come back, sit down with John (Seidler, Padres chairman) myself, Erik (Greupner, Padres CEO). We will then, at that point in time, put some strategy together, put some dollar figures together towards it and get a sense from there. So it just a lot of kind of information gathering this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, the Padres do seem to be tracking toward at least maintaining their payroll around the same level as it was in 2025.<\/p>\n
Their current commitments are around $200 million, including projected salaries for arbitration-eligible players and option buyouts.<\/p>\n
They were at approximately $211 million at the end of 2025, ninth in MLB. (After bonuses and the penalty for going over the Competitive Balance Tax threshold, the Padres\u2019 payroll obligations for 2025 topped $223 million, which was sixth highest in MLB.) It is not known how much more they might spend in \u201926, but Greupner on Monday reiterated ownership\u2019s commitment to investing in the on-field product.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of \u2026 determining our budget for next year, which informs where we can go on payroll,\u201d Greupner said. \u201cOur goal and outlook and perspective remains the same as it has been, really for the last five years, which is every last dollar we have we put in payroll. If we do that, we think we can be at a similar level to where we\u2019ve been in the top 10, and that allows us to be competitive and ultimately win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres make as little as any team in local television revenue, industry sources have said in recent years. But they rank in the top 10 in local non-media revenue, set an attendance record for the third consecutive season and raised season ticket prices for a fifth consecutive season.<\/p>\n
Niebla\u2019s added title<\/p>\n
The Padres are expected to give pitching coach Ruben Niebla the additional title of associate manager, sources said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
It is not known exactly what Niebla\u2019s expanded duties will entail, but the Padres want to lean on his broader understanding of the game and strategy beyond the pitching side.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, he\u2019s the guy I\u2019m going to rely on the most \u2014 his experience,\u201d Stammen said of Niebla on Monday at his introductory news conference. \u201cI think he\u2019s one of the best coaches in our entire sport, not just pitching coaches, but coaches overall. And we\u2019re going to put a lot on his plate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Niebla having a broader focus will mean an expanded role for bullpen coach Ben Fritz, who recently received a two-year contract extension.<\/p>\n
While most coaches from last year\u2019s staff are expected to remain, the Padres also intend to hire a bench coach, who a source said will be chosen by Stammen. Brian Esposito, who served as bench coach for Mike Shildt, is expected to be retained but be in a different role.<\/p>\n
The Padres also need a hitting coach and third base coach after the departure of hitting coach Victor Rodriguez to the Astros and third base coach Tim Leiper to the Mets.<\/p>\n
Salas update<\/p>\n
Catcher Ethan Salas, the Padres\u2019 top-ranked prospect, is back to baseball activity after being shut down early last season due to a stress reaction in his back..<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s swinging the bat and looking 100%,\u201d Preller said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re kind of weighing out the winter ball versus just kind of getting ready for next year and getting ready for spring training.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salas, who turned 19 in June,\u00a0 played just 10 games in Double-A last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Padres once again have baseball buzzing. In the hallways around The Cosmopolitan hotel on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":373025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-373024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115534642834613153","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}