The Padres are losing two of the most sought-after starting pitchers in this year\u2019s free agent class.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s return will come in July when they exercise two additional picks immediately between the fourth and fifth round of the amateur draft.<\/p>\n
As expected, Dylan Cease and Michal King both rejected the qualifying off the Padres made to them on Nov. 6.<\/p>\n
Accepting the offer would have guaranteed them $22.025 million in 2026.<\/p>\n
Instead, they will seek multi-year contracts.<\/p>\n
Cease is expected to command between $25 million to $30 million a year. Industry estimates estimate the average salary for King between $20 million and $23 million.<\/p>\n
Both could return to San Diego, where they played the past two seasons, but it is likely they will end up elsewhere. The team that signs them will lose at least one draft pick, depending on whether they were a Competitive Balance Tax payor, revenue sharing recipient or neither. As a CBT payor, the Padres will receive a pick after the fourth round is completed for each player it lost.<\/p>\n
They go forward in the offseason with starting pitching as their biggest need.<\/p>\n
Nick Pivetta (2.78 ERA in 31 starts) and Randy V\u00e1squez (3.70 ERA in 26 starts) are the only returning significant contributors from last year\u2019s rotation. JP Sears, who had a 5.47 ERA in five starts after being acquired from the Athletics at the trade deadline, remains as well.<\/p>\n
Joe Musgrove, who 3.23 ERA in 97 starts for the Padres from 2021 through \u201824, returns after missing last season while rehabilitating from Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n
Kyle Hart re-signed for $1 million (plus a $2.5 million club option) after making 20 appearances (six starts, 6.66 ERA) for the Padres in 2025. The team also has Matt Waldron, one of the staples of their 2024 rotation who made just one start for them in \u201825, and is considering converting at least one of their relievers into a starter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres are losing two of the most sought-after starting pitchers in this year\u2019s free agent class. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":388391,"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-388390","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\/115572753641082967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388390","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=388390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}