2:25pm: Major League Baseball formally announced that Seidler has been approved as the new control person in San Diego.
2:00pm: Ron Fowler has stepped down as executive chairman of the Padres and sold a majority stake of the team to general partner Peter Seidler, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Seidler, who was already part of the organization’s ownership group, has already been approved by the other 29 owners as the Padres’ new control person, according to Acee.
The 77-year-old Fowler will remain involved with the Padres as a minority shareholder and as an advisor. More notably, he’ll still have a voice in next year’s collective bargaining talks, per the report. Fowler previously served as the chairman of MLB’s labor committee in the last wave of collective bargaining talks in 2015. He figures to again be an influential voice in a contentious set of negotiations after years of frustration from players, culminating in this spring’s three-month return-to-play staredown against ownership.
Fowler has been a relatively vocal owner in recent years, weighing in with thoughts on his club’s struggles on multiple occasions and also going into a perhaps unexpected level of detail on some free-agent pursuits — Eric Hosmer most notable among them. More recently, Fowler promised that “heads will roll, beginning with my own,” barring improvement from the club in the 2020 season.
The Padres, of course, did improve substantially in 2020 — not only posting a 37-23 record in this year’s truncated slate of games but riding a second-place finish to their first postseason berth since 2006. Fowler’s Padres toppled the Cardinals in the Wild Card round of this year’s expanded playoff format, but the absence of top starters Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet loomed large as they fell to the eventual World Series Champion Dodgers in the National League Division Series.
Fowler perhaps foreshadowed some change earlier this summer when he spoke about financial uncertainties regarding the 2021 season due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and questions about what level of attendance will be possible next year.
I don’t follow the Padres super close, but I want to know… How big is this move?
I “do” follow them closely and to be honest it’s not that big a deal IMO
It’s more about dollars.
If Fowler is still a minority owner as it states I doubt much will change
It’s not like Seidler doesn’t want to win or will drastically reduce payroll.
At least not any more than they were going too anyway due to Covid.
There was no plan to reduce payroll at all. In his last presser, Fowler said it would remain essentially the same as 2020 which was $155 million.
Nothing should change at this point. The Padres will have a $71.25 million increase in guaranteed national TV revenue in 2021 and a bump in their local TV deal. They have the money to spend and a god core of young players. They will be players in both the FA and trade markets. Seidler wants to win and they are in their window of opportunity.
I really like Ron Fowler and I’m very sad that he is stepping down. The Padres have recently committed to winning in a way that they have never done in the history of the franchise. Hopefully Seidler wants to win and continues to spend money.
From everything I know about Siedler, he’s just as eager to bring a championship to San Diego as Ron Fowler is. I doubt that much will change.
Fowler is 77 and probably wants to slow down a bit.
They bought the team as a partnership and there’s a chance Ron still has the business that made him capable of buying this team, alcohol distribution company, in so cal operating under coronavirus pressures.. I mean restaurants are struggling to sell alcohol my bet is if what I’m saying is correct he probably has to give control to Seidler, who’s team ownership contribution comes from his family selling the dodgers years ago, and probably has more time to watch over the business. Sad to see Fowler step back because this seems like his dream job and to win a World Series but at least he’s still in the fold.
He is not really gone. He just doesn’t have the public voice nor final say in matters
Actually it is pretty significant. Fowler was the driving force behind the worst move of recent years, signing Hosmer to an absurd contract. He also has the charming habit of publicly badmouthing his players. He was, if you can believe this, unaware that Petco Park needed to have a budget for regular structural maintenance and gave an interview where he cited these costs as the reason the team could not afford to spend more money. Public ridicule helped change his mind. The guy is a buffoon and will not be missed.
Proof that Fowler was the driving force behind the Hosmer signing?
He’s a buffoon got that right
One of Fowler’s tantrums produced the Tatis trade. He publicly ranted after a James Shield performance which infuriated the players and forced the trade with the White Sox. They had to eat much of his contract. It has to be the luckiest trade in modern baseball history. I suspect that Fowler was behind the early “fix immediately” strategy that failed horribly. He was clearly not a baseball guy who thought he was. By all accounts Siedler is very intelligent and comes from a baseball tradition.
Paging Theo. Come back to the Padres!
Impossible? Absurd? Out of left field?
Theo got his start here in SD with the Padres under Larry Lucchino.
He has unfinished business and loves a challenge(Sox 86yrs/Cubs 100yrs).
Gettting SD it’s first professional championship is maybe one of the most challenging ventures in professional sports.
Theo would only add to his legacy if he was apart of bringing the Padres their first WS title.
The club has a G.M. and they just went to the playoffs, they don’t need Theo. You can go back to hitting the meth pipe now.
Yeah I get it. Preller and all but Epstein wants isn’t interested in the GM position and if anything it wouldn’t affect Preller for the time being. He’d more than likely aim for the President/CEO position. He’d use his wealth of experience to further develop and establish a system similar to the Sox and Cubs.
Theo has not been a GM in 9 years and will never be a GM again. He was President of baseball operations and GM is a step down.
They aren’t paying Theo what it takes to get him. Padres rather pay nothing to misfit GM Preller and watch him waste millions.
“Gettting SD it’s first professional championship is maybe one of the most challenging ventures in professional sports.“
Yeah because San Diego is such a small, undeveloped city that no one would ever visit. Wait
Congrats, you guys have an owner who cares about a professional team winning for once. But it’s hardly a “challenging sports venture” to win once an owner cares in a big city that is beautiful year round. What free agent would ever want to be in SD? S/
It’s called high taxes that’s why
California is not even top ten in tax burden. Only poor people worry about a tax rate they don’t pay. Wealthy people simply don’t pay the tax rate because they are smart enough to get wealthy and hire people to protect that wealth.
I saw this in a Bob Nightengale tweet and I’m super confused by it.
I did also see it get mentioned in an article somewhere that after Theo takes 2021 off his next move might be trying to get into ownership. That being said, I don’t know how this switch in roles would open up a spot for that. All they’re doing here is switching from Fowler being majority shareholder to Seidler becoming the majority shareholder and the control person. Fowler is still an owner and staying on in a reduced role.
Unless the Seidlers/O’Malleys want to sell the team or Fowler wants 100% out, I don’t know how this opens up the door for Theo, but maybe I’m missing something?
I think Fowler stepping down may be due to his age and the stress of his position.
The fact this comes on the heels of Theo leaving the Cubs leaves on to speculate that there may be traction between the Padres and Theo.
It could just be a coincidence that this happened a day apart but Theo could slide into the role vacated by Fowler.
I don’t think the Seidlers are leaving which is a good thing but again speculation, they were comfortable with Fowler being the vocal leadership for the organization.
Theo never ruled out being in baseball in 2021. He did hint that in his next position he wanted a stake in the team. Fowler can “sell” him a small stake and he can work for a reduced salary like Beane and Jeter do.
I guess he didn’t technically rule it out, whatever that means, but Morosi and Passan both reported that he was planning to take 2021 off. Passan even had a quote from him that was “Next summer will be my first in 30 years not clocking into work every day at a major league ballpark… I do plan on having a third chapter leading a baseball organization someday, though I do not expect it to be next year.” I got the impression that he wants a year off.
Not saying that its not going to happen, but The Athletic had an article about Fowler stepping down and their sources said, “Even with Fowler receding from the spotlight, the Padres do not have a newly created opening in their ownership group for Theo Epstein”. When asked about it directly Seidler said that that composition of the ownership group was all set. I guess its technically possible in the future, but it doesn’t seem like something they’re really pursuing or interested in.
Theo was asked follow up questions in his presser and said he would not rule out coming back. That he would always “take the call”.
Fowler only sold enough of his stake in the team to give the Seidler bloc 51%. He still holds a substantial stake in the Padres and reserved the right to sell it to individuals outside the current ownership group. That last part is huge.
Jeter has a 4% stake in the Marlins for his $25 million investment.
Beane has a 2% stake in the A’s for no direct investment.
Both are making substantially less salary than the $10 million Theo gave up for his final season with the Cubs.
Not saying that its going to happen, just that there is a possibility.
Why would we want him back? I like how things are going. We are on the up
I don’t want to be rude, but if he is 77 years old, what is he doing still involved in baseball. He may as well just stay until he dies at some point.
@dave, your comment could just as easily apply to LaRussa.
By the looks of most managers, that could apply to a lot of different people.
Not too many 77 year old managers floating around.
Now do Jerry Reinsdorf
Nice for Peter Seidler to keep one of the best baseball ownership families in the game, especially as majority partner.
I think his cousins, the grandchildren of Walter O’Malley, have been minority owners of the Padres for a while, so the family has been a big part of this ownership group since they took over. It looks like Fowler is just handing off being the point person to Seidler.
Cano apparently is being suspended for the entire 2021 season as a repeat PED violator. Wow!
Fowler was supposed to pass the lead to Seidler several years ago. He’s come back from lymphoma twice,so maybe that’s it. Or maybe they wanted to see Fowler/Preller through to a good season.
So how come this got approved in 2 minutes and the Cohen situation took almost 2 months.
Because these guys have co-owned the team for like 8 years and they’re just switching which one is the “control person” and majority owner.
The Cohen situation is completely different because he was purchasing the team from the outside, he didn’t previously own a large chunk of it.
Does this mean a big sell-off? What happens to the big cut in payroll in 2021 due to no fans in the in 2020.
Fowler had planned to step down as Chairman and point man with MLB after 2020 and had said so publicly many times, so this is not a surprise. The only surprise is that he sold so little of his interest in the team, he only sold enough to give Seidler’s bloc 51%, and that he reserved the right to sell an additional stake at “market value” outside of the current ownership group.
Prior to COVID the Padres were projected to have $299 million in revenue. They will be getting nearly $90 million increase in revenue in 2021. $71 million from new national TV deals and a scheduled increase in their local TV contract. Revenue of $360+ million means a player payroll of $180 million is reasonable.
There will be no sell-off of players. If anything there will be a slight increase in payroll from the $155 million it was in 2020 prior to COVID.
After the non-tender of Pham and Perdomo, the Padres payroll will stand around $120-122 million depending on the Arb cases. That includes Myers raise. It gives them $35-40 million to spend to replace Yates, Rosenthal, and Profar and add another starter now that Clevinger is out for 2021.
They are in a really good place.
Yates and Rosenthal lol
I would sign both
Probably get both of them for $12-13 million for 2021. Probably take a 2 year deal to get Rosenthal and MLBTR is projecting him to make just $7 million AAV.
Rosenthal – 0.00 ERA as a Padre.
Yates – 2.55 ERA as a Padre.
Those two being FA creates a huge hole in the Padres bullpen.
They are hundred years old not happening
@padreforlife Rosenthal is 30 and was pumping 100mph last year, I don’t think he’s in the category where you can say his career is about to decline due to age.
If you’re concerned about signing a 30 year old to a 2 year contract because he’s too old, I hate to inform you but there’s only a handful of FA this year that are under 30. Looks like SD is just going to have to sign all the 29 year olds to one year deals and then throw them out when they turn 30.
Pumping 90. Closers can be had at deadline if Padres are in contention at deadline then all the Yates and Rosenthals of the world can be had
He AVERAGED 98.0 mph. fangraphs.com/players/trevor-rosenthal/10745/stats…
The old non-tender Tommy Pham tell.
Ron Fowler was always straight-up with fans and in sharing his direction and opinions. He took the time to meet with season ticket holders and to truly listen to what he was hearing back. Many thanks to Ron for getting the Padres to where they are today.
He won nothing but this year in 60 game season made WC big deal over 1/2 teams made it. Beat .500 Cardinals team that stunk then got swept by Dodgers
Most every expert agrees that the Padres pool of young talent has them poised to be real good for a long time. chances are all your sour posts are gonna have you eating crow.
Every expert ok been saying that for 7 years only to have WC win Petco against weak Cardinals team to show for it. It’s Padre fan favorite line “we have prospects”
Preller won’t be serving crow that’s for sure
Cardinals are the toughest team in baseball when it comes to baseball.
Padreforlife, you are the most negative person on this board. You need medication.
Please seek help.
Cardinals are the “toughest team in baseball when it comes to baseball” ok
The day after the embarrassing Tommy John news comes down no accident
Ready. Fire. Aim. A lot of people do that here. I live in SD. I know Ron Fowler. He is not a buffoon. He is a great guy and does lots for this community. Ask SDSU. Ask USD. He is a business man and expects ROI on investments. The Padres value is rising due to this year performance and optimism about the future. Buy low. Sell high. Get it? He is also 77. Respect his decision. I won’t try to buy a stake in the Padres. Governor Nuisance will likely make CA the last state to allow fan attendance. Without that revenue stream….no ROI on that investment.
Great guy who’s won nothing