Matt and Sheel present very different perspectives about how things have proceeded in recent years. Matt’s response states that Peter amended his trust seven times and did not name Sheel a trustee in any of those changes, whereas Peter’s brothers Robert, Matt and John Seidler are designated as trustees, with the trustees to name the control person. In December, it was reported that John would be named the club’s new control person.

“In fact,” the response reads, “… the Trust Agreement precludes Sheel from ever serving as a successor Trustee under any circumstance. Conversely, Peter provided that, after Sheel’s death, each of his Children would have the right to become cotrustees of their own trusts once they reached the age of (40).” The response goes on to say that the transactions Sheel identified as fraud actually benefited the trust at a rate twice as much as expected, with Sheel and her children beneficiaries of said trust.

Matt’s response also alleges the trust has made multiple transactions to benefit Sheel, including transferring ownership of a $30MM Texas ranch to her name, the purchase of an $8.5MM home in Coronado, California, as well as cash disbursements totaling more than $4.5MM. Matt’s response alleges that Sheel requested to be the club’s control person, which Matt denied, at which point she demanded $20MM and a promise of annual payments in that same amount. Matt also alleges that Sheel used power of attorney to take $2.5MM from one of Peter’s accounts while he was in the ICU. The filing also states that “Sheel’s goal is to manufacture claims against the Trustees in pursuit of the control that Peter intentionally chose not to give her” and that the lawsuit was a public relations move which “sought to prejudice the Padres fanbase against Matt, Bob, and John.”

Whether the ownership battle has any on-field impact is something that can be debated, but Matt’s filing insinuates that Sheel’s suggestion that the club might leave San Diego impacted discussions with right-hander Roki Sasaki. The Dodgers were long considered the most likely landing spot for Sasaki with the Padres considered a dark-horse threat. The Padres and Dodgers were two of the three finalists, alongside the Blue Jays, though Sasaki did eventually pick the Dodgers.

Longtime Padre Jurickson Profar recently signed with Atlanta and was asked about not returning to San Diego. In video relayed by Jim Russell of Jon & Jim, Profar alluded to the “issues with ownership” that the Padres have.

Perhaps that was a reference to this legal battle or simply the club’s well-documented financial issues in recent years. Even before Peter died in November of 2023, it was reported in September of that year that the club would have to cut back its spending habits because they were deemed to be “out of compliance with MLB regulations regarding their debt service ratio.” The current offseason and last winter’s have been largely defined by the club dealing with payroll constraints, which led to last winter’s Juan Soto trade. The club has been less active this offseason but players like Dylan Cease, Michael King, Luis Arráez, Robert Suarez and others have been in trade rumors.

Dane Butswinkas, an attorney representing Sheel, provided Acee with a statement in response to Matt’s filing: “The response, for all of its bravado, is especially thin in responding to the very specific and serious allegations of Matt and Robert Seidler’s breaches of fiduciary duty. It’s ironic that they accuse Sheel — Peter’s wife of two decades and the mother of his three children — of misusing his assets, while at the same time they have reaped the benefits of Peter’s generosity for decades. The fact is, we will win in court because the defendants have shown they have no case. In short, their response is a total strike out.”

It’s unclear what the next steps of the legal process will be or what the expected timelines are. Per Lin, the MLB owners are scheduled to vote on John as the club’s control person next week. Many clubs are owned by multiple people but each team gets one control person who is a point of contact for the league and who votes on league matters.

Complicated ownership disputes are not unprecedented in Major League Baseball. Various members of the Angelos family, which previously owned the Orioles, filed lawsuits against each other after Peter Angelos fell ill. Those lawsuits were dropped in February of 2023 and the club was sold to a group headed by David Rubenstein in 2023.

The Trust did not directly address Sheel Seidler’s claims that Matt Seidler could pursue a sale and relocation. However, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that sources around the league consider the idea of the Padres leaving to be “extremely far-fetched.”

2:31pm: Last month, it was reported that the Padres would be appointing John Seidler to take over as the club’s new control person, but that was still pending league approval and there are new developments in that story. A report from Eben Novy-Williams and Daniel Libit at Sportico has details of a lawsuit filed by Sheel Seidler, Peter’s widow, trying to gain control of the team. Sheel later released a statement in relation to the story.

At issue is how things have proceeded in the wake of Peter Seidler’s death, which was just over a year ago. Peter was part of a group that purchased the Padres in 2012. Ron Fowler acted as the club’s control person until Peter took over after the 2020 season. MLB teams are often owned by multiple people but each team has one designated control person who is a point of contact for the league and votes on key matters.

During Peter’s ownership tenure, the club became known for being highly aggressive, despite being in a relatively smaller market. As shown in the data at Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Padres had been one of the lower-spending clubs for much of the century, until recently. They had one of the top ten payrolls in 2021, then got into the top five in 2022 and the top three a year after that.

That led to a huge increase in terms of fan engagement and also results, with the club having now made the postseason in three of the past five seasons. However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. In September of 2023, it was reported that the club’s wild spending had put it “out of compliance with MLB regulations regarding their debt service ratio,” which was going to lead to a payroll crunch. Peter, who had a number of ongoing health problems, died less than two months later.

Shortly after Peter’s death, it was reported that a new control person had been decided upon. Eric Kutsenda, one of the co-founders of Seidler Equity Partners, was given the title on an interim basis. Just over a year later, the aforementioned reporting from last month indicated that Peter’s brother John would be taking over as control person. The report from Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune included a statement that mentioned two of Peter’s brothers: “Peter’s youngest brother Matt, as trustee of Peter’s trust, is pleased to announce that John Seidler, Peter’s oldest sibling, an accomplished entrepreneur and business executive, will be the Padres’ next control person, pending approval by Major League Baseball.” Acee added that the Seidler family owns “what is believed to be a 45% stake in the team.” That includes Peter’s brothers, widow, mother and others.

Today’s lawsuit suggests that segment of the ownership group is not aligned in their thinking. According to Sportico’s report, Sheel’s lawsuit alleges that two of Peter’s brothers, Matt and Bob, breached their fiduciary duties as trustees of the Seidler Trust. The suit claims they conspired to sell trust assets to themselves at “far-below-market prices,” as they “schemed to solidify their control of the Padres.”

The suit also suggests that the brothers had racial and sexist motivations for keeping the club out of Sheel’s hands, saying that Bob’s wife made multiple “racist, profane and hateful communications directed at Sheel—a woman of Indian descent—in communications.” Sheel claims that Peter wanted to eventually pass the club to his kids and wanted her to act as control person in the interim, with the brothers now trying to “falsely cast themselves as Peter’s true heirs.” Evan Drellich of The Athletic relays one section of the suit which suggests Matt wants to “sell, and perhaps relocate, the team, over Sheel’s strident objections.”

Sheel is seeking damages, that the defendants be denied compensation from the Seidler Trusts, to void any of their previous actions relating to advancing the Padres’ control person and also that Matt be removed as the trustee, with a receivership taking control of the trust.

“Earlier today,” Sheel’s statement reads, “I filed a complaint against Matthew Seidler and Robert Seidler to protect my family and to continue to carry out Peter’s legacy.” She goes on to talk about how much the club meant to the family and her desire to be named control person. “The complaint alleges claims against Matthew and Robert for breaches of fiduciary duty and fraud. I would urge anyone who is interested in the details to read the full complaint. This was not a decision I made lightly. During this difficult period, I have done everything in my power to avoid unwanted distractions and resolve the matter privately. I have focused on supporting the work of the many dedicated professionals within the Padres organization, as well as the incredible players we have the privilege of watching nearly every day throughout the season. I made this decision as a very last resort, but I am confident it is the right one, and the best way to protect the Padres franchise and ensure the vision that Peter and I shared for the team will continue.” She goes on to state her desire that the team will one day be left to hers and Peter’s children while hoping for a quick resolution to this dispute.

Legal disputes over a baseball club are not unprecedented. Most recently, Orioles owner Peter Angelos fell into ill health, which led to his family members filing multiple lawsuits against each other for control of the club. Those suits were eventually dropped and the club was sold to David Rubenstein.

Seidler, 65, is the brother of the Padres’ previous owner and is among the members of the Seidler family who collectively hold what Acee notes is believed to be a 45% stake in the team. Previous reports have indicated that Peter Seidler intended for his family to maintain ownership of the Padres for generations to come and that the club intended to proceed with that plan following his death. John Seidler taking the reins of the organization appears to be the latest move toward making that plan a reality, and Acee added that a source familiar with the family’s plans confirmed to him that the Seidler family intends to own the Padres for “a long time.”

“Since Peter’s passing, Eric Kutsenda has served as our interim control person,” the Padres said in a statement provided to Acee. “Peter’s youngest brother Matt, as trustee of Peter’s trust, is pleased to announce that John Seidler, Peter’s oldest sibling, an accomplished entrepreneur and business executive, will be the Padres’ next control person, pending approval by Major League Baseball.

Peter never viewed the Padres as ‘his’ team. Instead, he saw the team as an asset of the community of which he was a faithful steward. John shares Peter’s vision and will continue to strengthen and nurture this great franchise, its players, fans and employees, and the entire San Diego community.”

Importantly, Acee notes that the upcoming changing of the guard at the top of the Padres organization is not expected to impact the club’s plans on the field in terms of payroll. In its final years under Peter Seidler, the Padres organization had operated hefty payrolls in hopes of speeding up the club’s timeline for contention, but starting last offseason began to lower payroll to something closer to the middle of the pack. Acee adds that the Padres believe that their current model for payroll is “more sustainable” and that it figures to continue going forward with John Seidler now at the helm.

For the 2025 season, that likely means the club’s payroll will need to come down as compared to current projections. RosterResource projects a $210MM payroll for the club next season as things stand, which is $41MM higher than last year’s $169MM figure. While previous reporting has indicated that the club has room to increase the budget beyond its 2024 level, that increase is expected to be marginal and leave the club to ponder trading pricey arbitration-level players such as Dylan Cease and Luis Arráez.

However, some attempts were made to keep Soto in SoCal via a long-term extension.  Agent Scott Boras told Jon Heyman of the New York Post that former Padres owner Peter Seidler had started to explore a multi-year deal last summer.  “Peter called about wanting to pursue [Soto], and there were discussions about wanting to keep him.  And unfortunately, it did not work out because of [Seidler’s] health,” Boras said.

Seidler passed away in November at age 63, leaving behind a huge legacy during his three-plus years as the Padres’ majority shareholder.  Eager to bring San Diego its first World Series championship, Seidler turned the Padres into one of baseball’s biggest spenders.  Players like Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, and Jake Cronenworth were all signed to pricey extensions, while Xander Bogaerts was signed to an 11-year, $280MM free agent contract.

Extending Soto would’ve required the biggest expenditure of them all, considering Soto’s youth and contractual situation.  The three-time All-Star is set to hit free agency this upcoming winter (just after his 26th birthday), and has already posted numbers during his seven MLB seasons that indicate a future spot in Cooperstown.  Soto already turned down a 15-year, $440MM extension offer from the Nationals in 2022 before Washington traded him to San Diego, and a big 2024 campaign in the Bronx will surely move his asking price even further into the stratosphere.  Boras is sure to seek far beyond the deferral-influenced $460MM present value of Shohei Ohtani’s contract, and seek a new record guarantee in Soto’s next contract.

Ohtani’s deal with the Dodgers wasn’t yet a reality when Seidler and Soto’s camp talked last summer, though it wouldn’t have been surprising if a mega-deal had been reached.  As Heyman puts it, “Seidler did everything to win without regard to payroll or tax,” and “some connected to the team say they believe a Soto deal in San Diego would have gotten done had Seidler lived.”  There is also the interesting detail that the early discussions might’ve been limited to Seidler himself, as Heyman writes that “the talks were kept quiet at the time (even to folks around the team).”

Negotiating directly with owners has been a common move for Boras over the years in finding big contracts for his clients, and the agent has explained the tactic by simply noting that since the owners are the ones ultimately signing off on the huge deals, why not talk directly to the person signing the checks?  Unsurprisingly, front office executives and even rival owners haven’t always been impressed with this strategy, as it can be seen as an agent bypassing the usual methods of negotiating with a GM or president of baseball operations (who might have qualms about signing a Boras client for various reasons).  It isn’t known if Padres president of baseball ops A.J. Preller knew about Seidler’s talks with Boras, or even if Preller would’ve had any objections — Preller is a famously aggressive exec in his own right, and surely would’ve welcomed having Soto remain a Padre for years to come.

Extending Soto would’ve added yet another big contract to the Padres’ books, and complicated the plans to reduce payroll that were reportedly in the works well before Seidler’s passing.  The Padres ended up cutting payroll rather drastically in going from $254.5MM in 2023 to around $167.2MM at the start of the 2024 season (all figures via RosterResource), plus San Diego has now gotten under the luxury tax threshold after surpassing the tax line in each of the previous three years.

MLB clubs are often owned by multiple people, families or sometimes corporations, but the league recognizes one person per team as a control person. This individual represents the team in league matters and is a point of contact when the league needs to engage with the club. This person is often the principal owner but this unique situation may be temporary.

Drellich adds that Seidler’s stake in the team is currently in a trust. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported earlier this week that Seidler intended for the club to remain in his family for generations after he died and that the club intends to proceed with that plan. Seidler is survived by his wife and three children, so it’s possible that one of them will be named control person after succession plans are sorted out. That’s speculative but the interim tag suggests Kutsenda may just be a placeholder.

Seidler Equity Partners was co-founded by Seidler and Kutsenda, according to their respective bios on the SEP website.

“The Padres organization mourns the passing of our beloved Chairman and owner, Peter Seidler,” said Padres CEO Erik Greupner. “Today, our love and prayers encircle Peter’s family as they grieve the loss of an extraordinary husband, father, son, brother, uncle, and friend. Peter was a kind and generous man who was devoted to his wife, children, and extended family. He also consistently exhibited heartfelt compassion for others, especially those less fortunate. His impact on the city of San Diego and the baseball world will be felt for generations. His generous spirit is now firmly embedded in the fabric of the Padres. Although he was our Chairman and owner, Peter was at his core a Padres fan. He will be dearly missed.”

The club also announced that they will open the Home Plate Gate at Petco Park beginning this afternoon for those who wish to gather to pay their respects. Free parking will be available at Tailgate Lot. Seidler has been battling an illness for months but his family has requested that the cause of death remain private at this time, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Seidler bought a majority stake of the Padres in November of 2020. He was already part of the ownership group but was approved at that time by the 29 other owners to be the control person in San Diego. By doing so, he was following in the footsteps of his grandfather Walter O’Malley, who owned the Dodgers from 1950 to 1979 and moved them from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

Once he took control of the Padres, Seidler quickly earned a reputation as one of the boldest and most aggressive owners in the sport. Per the calculations of Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Padres spent much of the first 20 years of this century with payrolls near the bottom of the league and never higher than the middle. But they have been in the top 10 in each of the past three seasons, getting as high as third in 2023. That period has seen them five nine-figure deals to star players like Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Joe Musgrove while also making headline-grabbing trades for Juan Soto and Yu Darvish.

The on-field results have been mixed. After making the postseason in 2020, the Friars had high hopes for 2021 but disappointed with a 79-83 record. They finally broke through in 2022, going 89-73 and making the playoffs in a full season for the first time since 2006. They knocked off the Mets and the Dodgers in the postseason before getting eliminated by the Phillies in the NLCS.

2023 was another disappointment, as the club slid to 82-80 and just missed the playoffs. But on the heels of the 2022 campaign and more spending coming into the year, excitement in San Diego was clearly at a high. 2023 saw the club set a franchise record for attendance, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic. However, it appears that the club’s momentum was fading as the 2023-2024 offseason approached.

The ongoing bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group, which operates Bally Sports regional networks, led to Major League Baseball taking over the club’s broadcasts in May. The club reportedly took out a $50MM loan to cover payroll during the season and were reportedly planning to reduce spending this winter. That has led to widespread speculation that the club would consider trading a star like Soto as a cost-cutting move.

It was reported by multiple outlets in September, including the Associated Press, that Seidler was a two-time cancer survivor and he underwent an unspecified medical procedure at that time. It’s unknown if the internal structure of the club changed in recent months with Seidler’s ongoing health situation, but regardless, questions will eventually have to be answered about who is now calling the shots and what the club’s path forward is.

Those questions can be left for another day. Today, the baseball world is mourning an owner who seemed beloved in all corners of the sport. In a few short years, he turned the Padres from a basement-dwelling afterthought into a star-laden club that gave the residents of San Diego pride and excitement. We at MLB Trade Rumors join the rest of the baseball world in sending our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.

“We entered 2023 with expectations that we would build on last year’s NLCS appearance and contend for a World Series Championship. We fell short of that goal,” the statement reads, “The Padres organization will learn from this season and emerge in 2024 with the pieces in place to compete for San Diego’s first World Series title. Our current leadership team has my full support, and I have asked them to perform a thorough assessment of our organization, beginning today. We will make the changes necessary to play championship-caliber baseball for our extraordinary fans in 2024.”

The statement largely tracks with previous reporting, which indicated not only Seidler’s preference to retain both Melvin and Preller in 2024, but also that the club would be undergoing an internal review. Importantly, despite the seeming vote of confidence for the duo, the statement does not guarantee their return for the 2024 season, instead noting that the club plans to “make the changes necessary” to return to the postseason next year. After all, reports of philosophical differences that lead to the personal relationship between the Padres’ manager and GM fraying are well documented. Melvin is under contract through the end of the 2024 season, while Preller is signed through the end of the 2026 season.

Whoever is at the helm of the Padres next season, they’ll have a difficult task set before them as they look to improve the club’s roster following an 82-80 season. Shutdown closer Josh Hader and NL Cy Young award candidate Blake Snell are both poised to depart the club for free agency this offseason, and the club is reportedly looking to trim payroll down to $200MM for next season. While RosterResource indicates the club’s payroll in 2024 stands at just over $128MM at this point, that figure doesn’t include arbitration-level contracts for players like Juan Soto, Scott Barlow, and Trent Grisham, among others.

Those arbitration-level contracts could approach $50MM or more this offseason, with Soto alone expected to get a significant raise on his $23MM salary in 2023. That leaves the club with minimal space to take on additional financial commitments despite significant holes to fill in the rotation and bullpen, not to mention the need to deepen a position player group that suffered from an extremely thin bench throughout the season.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss:

• Free Agent Power Rankings: June Edition (1:30)
• Upcoming list of top trade candidates (18:20)
• Royals trade Aroldis Chapman to the Rangers (19:15)
• Padres Chairman Peter Seidler on deadline approach (22:25)
• Brewers GM Matt Arnold on deadline approach (25:35)

Check out our past episodes!

• The Angels Trade for Infielders, Indecisive NL Central Teams and Aaron Judge’s Toe – listen here
• Exciting Youth Movements in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, Bad Central Divisions and the Dodgers Want Pitching – listen here
• Marcus Stroman Lobbies for Extension, Mets’ Woes and Astros Seeking Bats – listen here

It’s a very surprising dropoff for a club that reached the NLCS last season, and has been spending to franchise-record levels to continue that success.  The Padres exceeded the luxury tax threshold in each of the last two seasons and are easily on pace for a third, with a $250MM payroll and a projected $275.8MM tax number (as per Roster Resource).  Getting to the NLCS only made the Padres hungry for more, but a busy offseason that included signing Xander Bogaerts and extending Manny Machado and Yu Darvish has thus far yielded mediocre results.

The struggles of the Padres’ first three months haven’t dampened the overall view of team chairman Peter Seidler, who first of all hasn’t written off the Friars’ chances for 2023.  “We have half the season to play.  I mean, much, much stranger things have happened….So there’s a lot of catching up for us to do. I’m on the train that says we’re gonna catch up,” Seidler told Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.  Just because the Padres’ plan for 2023 “hasn’t worked yet….it doesn’t make me lose sleep at night or lack confidence in what we’re doing.”

“I know we’re going to be good.  We’re gonna have every chance to be in the mix for the World Series every single year.  And so that gives me some kind of serious long-term comfort.  We’re not going to reverse course.  We’re always gonna adjust….All my focus now is on this year, because I’m as solid as I can be on the year after and two years after and three and the next decade.”

While Seidler naturally isn’t pleased with how the Padres have performed to date, he pointed to the trade deadline as an opportunity for improvement, saying “You know we’re always open for business.”  While naturally much can still change between now and the August 1 deadline, Seidler’s comment would suggest that the Padres are looking to be buyers, rather than sellers.  Of course, the team might take a middle ground and pursue both routes, perhaps trading some shorter-term assets for players who can help the Padres either in the rest of 2023 or in 2024 and beyond.

As to who could be making these calls on deadline day, Seidler expressed his total support in club CEO Erik Greupner and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller.

“I’m not afraid to make changes.  I never have been.  But I really value stability,” Seidler said.  “And when I know the person as well and the skillset as well as I know A.J. and Erik, they’re not going anywhere.  Period….I believe in stability.  It is something that is undervalued, generally speaking, in organizations and maybe particularly in sports franchises.  But I’m not for mediocre stability.  I’m for excellence.  And to me, A.J. is excellence.”

“That’s the very interesting thing about professional sports.  You have a couple of bad months and fans or the media say, ’You’ve got to fire this guy.’  It’s crazy to me.  Absolutely crazy.”

Preller is one of the longer-tenured front office bosses in baseball, running the Padres’ baseball ops department since August 2014.  It hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride, as Preller’s tenure has included only two winning records in his eight full seasons, though he did oversee a substantial rebuild (albeit in the wake of an ill-fated attempt to load up on big-name talent early in his stint as general manager).  Even as recently as 2021, the Padres seemed to be stumbling both on and off the field, but the hiring of Bob Melvin as manager seemed to calm things, and San Diego went 89-73 in 2022 before making their postseason run.  Preller received a contract extension following the Padres’ playoff berth in 2020, and his current deal runs through the 2026 campaign.

Seidler endorsed Melvin as well, though as Acee noted, Seidler (like Preller in recent comments) didn’t give a full guarantee about Melvin’s future as the Friars’ manager.  Melvin’s deal with the team is up after the 2024 season, and if the Padres’ struggles were continue, a managerial change might be one logical route of shaking things up, if a larger-scale front office change isn’t happening.

That said, Seidler seemed to disagree with the premise of a true guarantee of Melvin’s job security, asking “What’s the point in saying that?  Bob is one of the great managers in our game.  I’ll leave it there.  As well as being a great guy and as trusted a human being as you’ll ever find.  But we’re talking about a job here.”

Soto recently spoke with Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated and was quite candid about how he actually didn’t enjoy the process as much as he expected. The firestorm kicked off when it was reported in mid-July that Soto had rejected a $440MM extension offer from the Nationals, which is what led to him being available in trades. It seems the outfielder wasn’t happy that those extension talks got leaked. “I wanted to do it with the Nationals, but they just made it public,” he says. “I didn’t like that at all. I hated it. I told them we weren’t speaking anymore, because they just threw everything out there.”

Although a trade seemed inevitable at that time and Soto prepared himself for it, he admitted that it hurt him more than he expected when it finally became real. Nelson Cruz, then his teammate in Washington and now again in San Diego, had to console a tearful Soto and remind him he was going to a better situation. He says that his anxiety finally abated when he returned to Washington and got a standing ovation in Nationals Park. “I really felt relieved,” he says. “I could leave that in the past and focus on Cali.” The Friars ultimately qualified for the postseason, their first playoff appearance in a full season since 2006. They knocked off the Mets and the Dodgers before falling to the Phillies in the NLCS.

Another part of the Padres’ aggressiveness has been extending their incumbent players, with Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Joe Musgrove all getting notable deals recently. It’s fair to assume they’d like to do the same with Soto, though we might not hear much about it, given his preferences. “If [the Padres can keep negotiations private], I can do it any time. I have no problem with it,” he says.

The news of him leaving nearly half a billion dollars on the table also caused a lot of stress in his inner circle, with Soto saying it put “all the fans, all the Dominicans, even my family against me.” It seemingly crept into the locker room as well. “A lot of teammates were like, ‘We respect your thinking, but that’s a lot of money,’” he says. “I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m trying to do what’s best for me and what’s best for my family.’ And you gotta go out there and perform. And you try to perform for guys that doubt you. And that’s one of the things I hated.”

The concern from those family members and teammates is presumably that Soto is taking a risk by leaving that kind of money on the table. There’s always a risk in any athlete turning down significant money, as an unexpected injury could then diminish their earning power. But Soto still has plenty of things working in his favor to get a huge payday. Since he rocketed to the majors at such a young age, he’s still only 24, younger than many top prospects who have yet to even debut. He’s slated for free agency after 2024, when he will have just turned 26 years old. This past offseason saw superstar players like Aaron Judge and Trea Turner get to $300MM and beyond, even though they were going into their age-31 and age-30 seasons, respectively. Soto is already getting $23MM this year and will get another raise via arbitration for 2024 before hitting the open market at an exceptionally young age. It’s seems well within the realm of possibility that he ends up getting more than what he walked away from.

Some Padre fans have expressed concern that Soto isn’t living up to the hype so far, as his production was a bit diminished after the trade and he’s off to a slow start here in 2023. However, the underlying numbers suggest he’s due for some positive regression. He still walked more than he struck out after coming to San Diego and the same is true again here this year. His Statcast page is still bright red, meaning there’s no reason to suspect his .185 batting average on balls in play so far this year will stay more than 100 points below his career BABIP of .306. Even with that terrible luck so far, his .175/.366/.365 batting line amounts to an above-average 106 wRC+. Once the baseball gods start smiling on him again, he should move closer to his career batting line of .283/.422/.521 and 152 wRC+.

Despite all the attention and the doubters, Soto maintains he’s in a good place. “I feel great right now,” he tells Apstein. “Forget about all this stuff. Now I’m focused on the San Diego Padres.” The club is out to a slow start, currently at 8-11, but once Soto’s fortunes change for the better, that should apply to the club as well.

Turning to other parts of the roster, the club will also be getting a boost to its rotation soon as Joe Musgrove is set to make his season debut on Saturday, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic. The righty suffered a fractured toe in a freak weight room accident back in February and has been working his way back to health since. He’s coming off arguably his best season yet, as he posted a 2.93 ERA over 30 starts last year, as well as a 2.89 ERA in three postseason starts. The club has been employing a six-man rotation recently and will have to decide who gets bumped to make room for Musgrove. Yu Darvish and Blake Snell are locks to stick, with one of Michael Wacha, Ryan Weathers, Seth Lugo or Nick Martinez in line for a move to the bullpen or the farm. Weathers is the only one of that group that can be optioned to the minors, though he also has a 2.81 ERA in the early going while Martinez and Wacha are at 5.60 and 6.06, respectively.

The bullpen could also be in line for a reinforcement in the near future, as lefty Drew Pomeranz started a rehab assignment last night. He tossed one inning for the Single-A Lake Elsinore Storm, getting a flyout, a groundout and a strikeout. Signed to a four-year, $34MM deal going into 2020, he posted a 1.45 ERA in the first year of the deal and a 1.75 in the second, striking out more than a third of batters faced in that time. Unfortunately, he required flexor tendon surgery in August of 2021 and hasn’t been on a big league mound since. Starting a rehab assignment now doesn’t necessarily mean a return is imminent, as he started a similar rehab stint in August of last year but renewed soreness shut him down. A full offseason didn’t even get him to 100%, as he dealt with inflammation during Spring Training and is only now properly ramping up. It’s hard to know what to expect from him at this point, but getting anywhere close to his excellent results from a few years ago would be most welcome.

And turning quickly to ownership, the club’s recent change in organizational attitude coincided with Peter Seidler purchasing a majority stake in the club in late 2020. It seems he plans on sticking around for a long time while continuing to run out a competitive roster. “There will never be another fire sale in San Diego, and I expect my family to own the franchise for another 50, 75 years,” he said at an event yesterday, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic. “Hopefully go for more, I’ll talk from the grave.”

That Preller is likely to continue leading the team for the long term hardly qualifies as a surprise.  It was just eight months ago that the club extended Preller’s contract through the 2026 season and added the PBO designation to his title.

The Padres, of course, are looking for a new manager after firing second-year helmer Jayce Tingler yesterday.  Last year, Tingler led San Diego to their first playoff appearance since 2006 and first postseason series win since 1998.  But the club’s second-half collapse in 2021, along with reports of tensions in the clubhouse, led to his dismissal.  Tingler was offered the opportunity to remain with the team in an as-yet-undetermined capacity, and Seidler said he hopes Tingler decides to stay. He added that the rest of the coaching staff has been given permission to look for opportunities elsewhere.

Seidler also told Lin that Preller alone will decide who the club’s next manager will be.  He said that while he and Preller recognize the value of major league managing experience, that won’t be a prerequisite for the new hire. “As we did when we hired Jayce, we put a premium on people with experience,” Seidler said. “But I would rather get the right 34-year-old than the wrong 64-year-old.”

Seidler’s comment regarding a new manager not needing prior big league managing experience is sure to raise eyebrows among at least some Padres fans.  Since being hired as GM in 2014, Preller has tabbed two permanent managers, Tingler and his predecessor Andy Green.  Neither had managed an MLB club prior to joining the Padres. There’s been plenty of speculation the Padres could zero in on a more veteran skipper this time around, but it doesn’t sound as if ownership or Preller consider that an absolute necessity.

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.