Padres seem to be playing the waiting game

With pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training next month, the San Diego Padres are closing in on the deadline for filling out the major league roster. This is a World Baseball Classic year, and multiple top players will be leaving the team early in Spring Training to join their WBC team. It seems particularly important that the team be at full force for the brief time they will all be together before many important members leave for two weeks.

Although reporting dates are not released yet, most teams start earlier due to the WBC tournament. Most likely, pitchers and catchers will be reporting around Feb. 10-11 with position players four or five days later. Padres games begin Feb. 20 with the yearly charity game versus the Seattle Mariners. The WBC begins March 5, and it is normal for the teams to gather a week or so before the first game for practice and meetings.

In the best of circumstances, the Padres will have their team together for two weeks before Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Mason Miller, Xander Bogaerts and Yuki Matsui leave for their respective WBC teams.

The six-week Spring Training calendar has been universally acknowledged to be too long for the hitters but needed for the pitchers to have their proper evaluation and build up for the season. All this makes it clear that setting the full roster and having that roster at the start of Spring Training will be especially important this year.

Padres short on cash?

In a short blurb written this week in The Athletic (and quoted in MLB Trade Rumors), Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon reported that multiple player agents had shared that the Padres are looking for starting pitching but are not ready to pull the trigger at this point. Rosenthal and Sammon suggest the problem is payroll restrictions and money must be cleared in order to sign any more free agents.

The Padres payroll currently sits at about $220 million (per FanGraphs), very close to the $221 million payroll of 2025. In their announcement of pursuing a sale of the team, Padres chairman John Seidler stated a desire to keep payroll similar to last year and continue the pursuit of a World Series Championship.

The numbers above seem to give weight to the suggestion that payroll is an issue in signing any further free agents. This could suggest that a trade is the only way for the Padres to add to their roster. As stated by many media members and baseball pundits, the bullpen is the one area of strength for this team and would be the most logical place to draw trade bait from.

This, of course, goes against everything president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said during the MLB Winter Meetings about keeping the bullpen intact. If there is to be a trade, it is either the bullpen or prospects because any other move would weaken the roster. High-leverage reliever Jeremiah Estrada has been mentioned in multiple articles suggesting that he is a potential closer and has extended control for any team that might trade for him.

If there is a trade of a Padres regular, it will be because a team needs a Padres player so badly that they are willing to overpay to get him. If Preller could get back multiple valuable pieces in that trade, then it could be worth it.

Patience and frustration

The other option, and the one I’m beginning to lean toward, is that Preller is waiting for prices to drop or players to be willing to sign minor league or “prove it” contracts that will not significantly add payroll. There is still an amazing amount of talent, even upper level talent, still on the market. This offseason has been slow moving with many upper-level players still unsigned and a lot of mid- and lower-tier players probably getting nervous.

When Preller surveys the list of unsigned free agents, he should not feel any sense of panic about filling out the rest of the 2026 roster. The Padres need a back-end starter(s), a 1B/DH that has some power and a bit more bench depth (catcher). Those three or four players can be signed late in the offseason when guys decide they would rather sign and play than sit at home during Spring Training.

The Padres are an attractive team to play for with their ballpark, fan base and recent history of success. Despite the frustration and impatience we are all feeling as the month of February approaches, it is wise to remember that Nick Pivetta signed immediately before the start of Spring Training last season. That worked out pretty well.

It is possible that signing Michael King spent the bulk of Preller’s free agent budget. We won’t know until we see what happens over the next month. But if that is the case, panic should be held in check and fans need to watch and see who ends up reporting to Peoria in early February.