The Padres face four contractual options after the season:
- Starting pitcher Chris Young has an $8.5MM club option. This year he made his April 6th debut start before hitting the disabled list with a strain of his surgically-repaired shoulder. This DL stint appears minor, but looking at the bigger picture the Padres will likely decline Young's option.
- Adrian Gonzalez's $5.5MM club option for 2011 is a mere formality.
- The Padres have a pair of mutual options in Jon Garland and Yorvit Torrealba. It's rare to see both sides exercise such an option.
Four more players are up for free agency: Kevin Correia, David Eckstein, Jerry Hairston Jr., and Matt Stairs. The four make a combined $7.425MM in 2010. Young, Garland, and Torrealba make $11.7MM, bringing the total freed up to $19.125MM (minus a million or so in buyouts). So, about $18MM will come off the books if everyone but Gonzalez leaves.
Gonzalez will get a $750K bump; that's it for players under contract. First-time arbitration-eligibles include Tony Gwynn Jr., Edward Mujica, and Tim Stauffer. Mike Adams will go for a second time, while Heath Bell and Scott Hairston go for a third. Regarding Bell, we may have overestimated his potential raise in suggesting earlier that he could double his $4MM salary. Think $6-7MM instead.
Even holding payroll at $38MM and retaining all arbitration-eligible players, the Padres would have over $10MM to spend in the winter of 2010-11. A few midseason trades, a handful of non-tenders, and a higher payroll would increase the spending money.
They should try to ink a reasonable extension for Correia before he hits free agency – he has been dependable. Assuming that Young leaves (no way the Pads exercise that option, altho they could bring him back on a cheaper deal), Correia could provide some semblance of veteran leadership to their young staff.
If Correia continues to pitch well he will probably be gone by august.
Not if the Padres continue to play the way they are playing right now (not probable, but possible).
Yeah, I would be surprised if Correia sticks around with another solid year on the mound.
That team is clearly stockpiling young talent and Correia is one of their most marketable players.
Not if the Padres keep playing like contenders (as of now). I know, not probable, but possible.
It’d be strange to see the Padres being buyers on next years market. Wonder if they’d spread it around or go for a big ticket free agent. It’s not likely that they’ll have enough to extend AGon, especially since Howard just set the market so high. If they deal Gonzalez this year they’ll have plenty of money to spend but a lot of needs as well.
Not as many needs as you’d think, in my opinion. If Adrian’s traded and Blanks gets shifted to 1B, Hoyer could make a big splash for Carl Crawford after the season. He’d be perfect in San Diego and could potentially slide into the same spot in the lineup (#3) that Adrian’s filling right now. And at 29, he’d be worth shelling out a big contract to.
Carl Crawford would be perfect for San Diego but I doubt we could sign him