As MLB’s offseason continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Could the Orioles reach a lease agreement today?
Earlier this year, the Orioles and Maryland governor Wes Moore initially reported that they had reached an agreement that would keep the Orioles in Baltimore for at least 30 years. That deal was later revealed to be a non-binding “memorandum of understanding,” and no deal has come together in the months since. That could change today according to an announcement late last week from Moore’s office that a long-term lease agreement between the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority will be voted on by Maryland state officials today. The agreement is expected to go before both the stadium authority and the state’s Board of Public Works this afternoon. Time is running out on an agreement, as the club’s lease at Camden Yards expires at the end of the calendar year.
2. Is the outfield market heating up?
The positional market has lagged behind the pitching market for the most part this offseason, and while infielder Jeimer Candelario and DH Shohei Ohtani have both signed in recent weeks, the outfield market was falling even further behind in free agency with a focus on trades of players like Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, Tyler O’Neill, and Jarred Kelenic. Fortunately, the outfield market has begun to heat up over the past week as KBO star Jung Hoo Lee landed in San Francisco on a six-year deal.
Since then, the rest of the outfield market has begun to catch up as Hunter Renfroe reached an agreement on a two-year pact with the Royals. Just yesterday, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and the Diamondbacks came together on a multi-year contract that will keep the reigning NL championship club’s left fielder in town for the next two to four seasons. It’s possible that the recent movement on the outfield market could spur movement involving a corner outfield class led by Teoscar Hernandez that also features noteworthy names such as Tommy Pham, Joc Pederson, and Jorge Soler.
3. What’s next for the Padres?
The Padres kicked off their offseason earlier this month by trading away Soto and center fielder Trent Grisham to the Yankees in exchange for a package of five players headlined by right-hander Michael King and top pitching prospect Drew Thorpe. While the club was initially believed to be motivated to move Soto by a desire to open up budget space to repair a pitching staff that had lost four starting pitchers (including reigning NL Cy Young award winner Blake Snell) and star closer Josh Hader to free agency, reporting from this past weekend indicates that San Diego may have less room in the budget to work with than initially believed even after dealing away Soto.
The Padres are reportedly considering attempting to duck under the luxury tax threshold this offseason, a strategy that could leave them with just $30MM to spend as they look to add multiple arms to both the rotation and bullpen while also filling out their recently-vacated outfield alongside franchise cornerstone Fernando Tatis Jr. Given the club’s complicated financial situation and the number of holes left on the roster, the club’s path back into contention seems likely to remain unclear until president of baseball operations A.J. Preller and his front office make their next move.
Crazy how the White Sox were predicted so widely to get Yamato, ohtani, Belli and Soto but now it looks like they wont get any of them
Need a thumbs down option.
Lol watch Trout have an 1100 ops this year
He wont, and if he does, he will miss a huge amount of time anyway. 2-4 war, that’s it
Go ahead and link all these White Sox predictions.
Blum, Verducci, Axsia, etc.
Jerry Reinsdorf is still working out his ‘rumored’ signing of Barry Bonds. Wow, I fully expected that to come to a done deal by now. Jerry is probably just waiting for the price to drop a little more.
literally no one predicted that.
Rome, Stark, Rosenthal.
Getz is screwing up royally. Especially with him overplaying his hand w/ 4.8 ERA Cease. Glasnow already off the board, Burnes/Bieber available as comparable fallback trade options…now the Marlins and Astros potentially making good starters available…not even counting the free agent options still available…
Jags, Jags, Jags. Have you not already learned the White Sox strategy? No one making over $3m. That leaves/left out Glasnow, Burnes, Bieber and any other top pitcher. Cease is gone sometimes soon, leaving the Sox with a rotation of Scholtens (who will be the ace), and, uh, well…Getz is waiting for other teams to dfa players who he will scoop up and pretend they are at the heart of the “retooling.” Remember the Sox motto: Money Over Talent.
You’re leading us nowhere, just leading us on. If you have data to support what you’re saying, show it.
No team was predicted to get Yamamoto, Ohtani, Bellinger, and Soto, and certainly not the White Sox.
Trout: I think you’re mistaking the White Sox with the cubs, who have been linked to every top player available. Every time I heard or read that the cubs were in the running for Ohtani, I couldn’t help laugh. Same with Soto. And for you cubs fans – especially the local media – who as usual think their team will land Yamamoto, Snell or Hader, congratulate yourself. You are true cubs fans, mores the pity.
Lupica, Plaschke, Gammons.
Links? Links? Links?
‘You can lead a horse to water…’
1. Hopefully they don’t reach an agreement and are moved to New York and renamed the New York Highlanders.
Keep dreaming.
0.0% chance of a move happening.
Old York: If the Yankees again become the Highlanders, Cleveland has to dump their ridiculous name as the Guardians and become the Spiders once more. That’s what the fans voted for. I think the owner is afraid of spiders.
That is so 1903.
One of my all-time favorite teams are the 1895-88 Baltimore Orioles, considered the dirtiest team in the history of baseball. That team disbanded and have nothing to do with current Baltimore franchise.
As an Os fan, the owner is embarrassing.
Only if they go to Manhattan.
Yankees will then move to Yonkers. Come on its only fitting. The Yonkers Yankees.
Just call them the Yonkees.
That is how the great Bob Shepard used to pronounce it
Or the Yankers
After spending 12 years in the Cardinals organization Pham has played with the:
Rays
Padres
Reds
Red Sox
Mets
Diamondbacks
I thought it was a few more. 2024 will be Pham’s age 36 season. Last year he had a decent offensive year, especially with the Mets and then a noticeable dip with the D-backs. There’s a lot of red on his baseball savant page. He’s far from exceptional in the field, but can still be more than a DH. I’m guessing Pham will get signed by a likely non-playoff team and get moved again at the trade deadline.
DickDollars: I’d like to see the DBacks keep the players that got them to the WS last year. I didn’t think they would re-sign Gurriel, but they did. Pham had some big hits in the PO. Can he do that for an entire season? Probably not, but I’d still like to see him back.
Did I miss something? Isn’t the remaining outfield class led by Cody Bellinger? Is Teoscar projected to get over 200 mil?
Belli and Snell probably sign in Spring Training when Boras gets the last teams with payroll space to bid against themselves.
Yeah, looks like they missed that one. Maybe they’re seeing Bellinger as a 1B/OF hybrid now? I’ve seen projections for Teoscar at something like $15M AAV, about $10M per year less than Bellinger.
D.Dollars;
IMO, T. Hernandez would fit in left field nicely for the Dodgers! Not sure why Friedman hasn’t made this move already.
“… involving a CORNER outfield class led by Teoscar Hernandez”.
The article has been edited. Most likely because of my comment. It didn’t say CORNER outfield earlier
Good catch Canuckle. No matter how much something is proofread mistakes happen. This is why the writers should always read comments, however painful.
I believe the article was saying the corner outfield market, specifically, may be heating up. Belli is CF/1B.
Belli is the best OFer left on the board. Sure looks like a gamble, though, with his 2021 and 2022 performances!
Canuckleball: Since he played a lot of 1b this season because of an injury, some people think that’s his position. But I agree with you. He’s an OF.
The Padres situation is rough. I know it is tough to understand for fans when they see a usually packed park and half of SD seems to be wearing Padres gear and there iS a general air of passion and enthusiasm regarding the team, but even in their very best seasons, the team has always been in the red, Local TV money has always been very low and now with the bankruptcy situation and no one rushing in to pick up the broadcasts, it’s downright scary. And, frankly, local TV money is how teams meet payroll. Peter Seidler clearly gave Preller a mandate to go big with Machado, Bogaerts, Tatis, and Soto but for a team already losing money, those deals were just not sustainable. The reality is that this is a club that has resorted to borrowing money to meet payroll, sadly has a change in leadership in the owner’s box, and has little hope of a local TV deal that will help to get get them into the black. There were some dumb deals to be sure (the Cronenworth extension is mystifying) but the real problem is that the revenue is just not there to support three superstar, long-term contracts (let alone four) if they had kept Soto), and that’s what they are hamstrung and will be for the better part of a decade.
Serious question. Possible SD is on the move in the next 10-15 years like the Chargers?
Tough to tell. They are usually top half of the league in attendance(past few year been near the top). Very small TV market though. Somewhere around 30th largest in America….which is pretty far down the list compared to almost every other team market.
I think Chargers was at least substantially driven by a stadium need.
Petco being one of the highest rated parks in MLB makes me think a Padres move isn’t likely in 10-15 years anyway.
When I lived there I always heard how the population didn’t support its sports teams because there “was so much other stuff to do”.
I’m not sure I bought that but now, with only 1 team left and it having an elite facility and a high amount of sellouts, I think SD Padres will stay put.
Things can move quickly though. I know I’m not alone when I was thinking how odd it was to watch the LV Raiders playing the LA Chargers last week!
Chargers let because they wanted a new stadium. Padres have a great stadium and have a rev number above 400m. They aren’t a broke franchise. They just can’t run a payroll of 255m every year.
Yes, even probable! I think it would be easier for baseball if the Seidlers just sold the team to the Music City Baseball, LLC. Few MLB Execs actually want a professional team in that city which has lost 3 basketball teams and a football team in less than 50 years, and it would be easier for the dodgers, angels, diamondbacks, giants, and athletics to get more fans since there are a glut of teams in the area. Right now is the best time to let someone with real experience lead the team rather than ownership that should take care of family first. I’m sorry for their loss, but it isn’t the time for them to think of superfluous dealings. The Tennessee market is larger than 1/2 the san diego market so it is a win for baseball and now is the right time. There will be many TV deals to be had compared to being the first team dropped by Bally. Manfred should force the sale now and let major league baseball come to Nashville. I hear the lease expires in less than 10 years time. San Diego’s days are numbered
BaseballTN, no, they’re not moving from San Diego. Their biggest issue is the TV deal, and that affects many teams, and is lose to being fixed. Stop your pipe dream of a team in Tennessee, as least one that involves the Padres moving.
There are smarter people than me on these threads, but with teams like the A’s, Rays, and Marlins still doing business, it would be a crime to move the Padres from San Diego.
Dean Spanos tanked the Chargers so that the stadium initiative would fail. The Chargers didn’t own the stadium or even their practice facility. They put very little money into either. The Padres have put and continue to put lots of money into Petco. Chargers used to own the sports market in SD. It didn’t matter what else was happening radio shows (most had former Chargers) talked nothing but Chargers. The stadium was empty because it was a dump and Spanos hated SD. Sure there is lots to do in SD but the Padres proved you can still sell tickets. Having super stars and going to the NLCS also help.
Remember Petco Park is already 20 years old, and the padres were very nearly shipped off twice already in their history. The only thing that can save the franchise is a WS win because if they have a string of losing seasons like the 80s and 90s, squandering more superstar players’ primes of their careers, the throngs of fans will drop off. My SD friends said the dearth years of the 2010s were precarious until Seidler came in. So beware as the mood can sour in a relatively short amount of time and public sentiment and favor can be withdrawn. and that’s the time Music City Baseball LLC will strike…
lol
I Lived in San Diego when in 1969 the Padres were born, they drew the first few years being an expansion team, but when the owner then decided to really keep payroll almost non-existent by selling off players for a little of nothing or trading players for a scrub or veteran that was on his last legs. It made “Money Ball” look like big spenders. This team was saved the last minute from moving to DC. in 1979 by Ray Kroc the McDonalds Owner he spent big bucks right away, in 1984 he brought in Garvey, Nettles, Gossage had Dick Williams as Manager, put butts in the seats, well he passes away, his family ended of selling the team. then the next owner Moore wanted to build a new ballpark, they found a spot downtown and got the city to go along with it, and here came the lawsuits that held up building for about 3 or 4 years with nothing but a hole in the ground to show for it, stopped work completely. Finally received a court decision so the stadium could be built, then Moore sold the team to I think the present ownership and you finally have SD SportsFan supporting the only professional team left. Their never will be a NFL, or NBA, or NHL in San Diego unless the owners of those franchises build their own place to play because it is fact the taxpayers will not back using taxpayer dollars to build any professional facilities for billion-dollar owners. That is why the Chargers left.
Padres = Last place
should probably stop smoking your own supply there buddy
Relax they are talking about being below the tax. You know like the vast majority of the league.
Tax number is 237m, can we stop acting like that nothing.
Impossible to sustain a payroll like that if you aren’t consistenly winning or have insane revenue like the Dodgers or Yankees. Guess I applaud them for trying, but the Boegarts deal was never necessary, and Croenworth isn’t looking good, along with the needless Darvish extension until he’s a fossil, gotta be a bit smarter than that with your team building.
CBT payroll is actually a tiny bit over $216M for the 26 man roster.
The Padres have 8 players guaranteed to $140M.
That leaves $76M for 18 players to stay under CBT and $39M to stay under $200M.
That is called signing players with dream money from a television contract that went sideway. into bankruptcy.
You assume the padres are losing money based on what?
You clearly don’t know much about these teams and how they operate.
SD is what happens when you overload the top of your payroll. They spent irresponsible money and now they will suffer. Extremely flawed roster
Champions are determined by the best 40-50 players in an organization (ATL, LAD, HOU)
The team with the best 5 players never wins it all
It’s a good thing then that they have one of the highest ranked farms in MLB eh?
Maybe, but what he’s saying is 5-30 is probably weakest in the league.
They have $52M freed up and 10 open roster spots to fill in next 2.5 months, way to early to rank rosters until season starts. Clown comment,
Then what’s your explanation for 82-80, while having a handful of superstars?
I was talking about last season obviously…
Payroll is at 155 mm but Tax though is at 205mm and they want to stay under the 237 mark. so they actually have around 32 mm so they don’t have much room to fill the holes also leave room for in season moves .
The 82-80 wasn’t just about Cronenworth, Carpenter, Cruz and Grisham not hitting, though that was a factor as well. It was also about Manny and Bogaerts being hurt, Tatis finding his way back – all three performed below their career norms. It was about a remarkable lack of hitting with RISP, and truly bad late game bullpen coaching decisions. They should have won more games with a roster that was loaded with SPs/RPs/position players that would have been starters on 95% of other teams. Depth, as one builds a roster, wasn’t as big an issue last year as people are making it out to be. This year they have more guys ready from the minors, so it will likely be even less and issue, but losing Soto and Snell will be tough. Let’s see what they do to fill out the roster now that they’ve cleared salary space.
Their inability to win one run (7-22) and extra innings (1-12) is why they ended up with such a mediocre record and missing the playoffs. The extra innings record is historic meaning the worst in MLB history. Winning 2 of these games and the Padres are in the playoffs. Basically luck didn’t come our except for the bad kind which we got in spades.
… and no one will say this, but 82-80 was also Soto playing ball for Soto’s free agency payoff, and no one or nothing else. I’m not saying he dogged it on the field. However, one sports analyst has mentioned many times when Soto was taking walks to boost his stats, he should have been swinging his bat to increase TEAM RBI’s, and wins. I haven’t heard a really good explanation of “what went wrong” in 2023 with the Padres, not convincing to me, anyhow. A lot of the Padres ’23 season was just “that’s baseball”, which is kinda weak sauce. However, timing of injuries, hot streaks, managerial weakness or inattention, and … maybe a whole lotta ego, might be contributors. Looking at the performance of Soto and Hader in particular, you see “team win contributor” NO WHERE in their attitudes. There were a lot of highly paid mercenaries on the Padres in 2023. Why, I’m not sure, ’cause they all seemed like good people, some great players, great stats, etc..
It’s just the probabilities involved with the sport. Yeah, Preller and the Pads deserve criticism – all teams and ballplayers are under the same looking glass, the same standards, should be the same accountability. But honestly, a lot of the Preller/Padre bashing is unjustified. They went for it. The owner’s reached for the stars. Didn’t work out. Now it’s time to turn the rudder, and go in a new direction. In fact, with the improved farm system, they are already moving that direction, which is all the owners and GM ever promised anyhow. No firesales, no rebuilds, continually competitive teams. The 2024 Padres will win a lot of games, and be some exciting baseball. That’s the bottom line.
Agree with everything, good stuff
No major publications currently have SD as a top 10 farm system. They have traded away young talent to acquire Soto and others
Ms – 6 top 100 with 2 on top 10. #1 intl prospect set to sign after new year and the #13 prospect was AFL MVP.
Wait for the new rankings to hit (with some guys maturing off the lists at the top, etc.).
MS. Another clown comment – you’re just wrong man. In the last Pipeline they were ranked 9th., that was last August. They’ve added 2 guys to the top 100 since then. Would not surprise me if they are in top 5 next Pipeline report.
mlb.com/news/mlb-pipeline-2023-midseason-system-ra…
Calling people names helps nothing. All we can do is discuss the teams as they currently sit. There is no prophecy or destiny. Compare the current 40 man rosters
Loading up the top of your payroll does not work. It has been proven over and over
sorry for the clown comment. The Pads had/have a lot of guys who played at mid-range salaries last year ($5M – $ 10 M), it wasn’t as top heavy as you might think compared to other teams. See Wacha, Martinez, Lugo, Kim, Cronenworth, etc… The narrative with Padres gets old, perhaps because they didn’t used to have a high payroll so they are seen as some sort of aberrant experiment gone wrong. But the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, Angels, Phillies, Astros, Blue Jays, Rangers, etc…were/are great examples of rosters with very high paid players at the top, but seem to escape the narrative. Sometimes teams with high payrolls fail to win, but 15 of the last 16 WS have been won by teams top 8 in payroll. So there is a strong association.
Top payrolls succeed. You are correct
My comments are not about high payroll. My comments are about distributing too much to the top 3-4 players
This thread was about SD but you are also correct in your statement about other teams with top heavy payrolls
Okay, well let’s look at this.
Heading into 2024 the Dodgers top 4 players total $130M against the lux tax. Yankees top 4 guys are at $132M. Rangers $113M. Mets top 4 = $94M. Phillies = $100M. Red Sox = $97M. Angels $92M. Toronto = $88M
The Padres top 4 players total $99M against the lux tax.
Teams with high payrolls are typically have high payrolls because they have well-paid stars. The Astros, Giants and Braves seem to be the two high payroll teams that have the most distributed $ across the top 10 players on the team..
Cards top 4 = $95M
Still a lot of talent on that team. Friars line up well with the Crew on a trade for cheap outfielders, so it depends on what the Padres want to offer, whether it be some kind of Cronenworth trade with money or near ready talent. We’ll wait and see.
Yeah the dodgers have spent 400m more than any other team has the last 10 years. Yet they haven’t won a championship in a full season in 34 years.
wow, look at the big brain on Simm! No one knew that, yet here you are.
More non-news about the Padres. I don’t get what compels mlbtr.
Thank you! MLBTR sure does seem to have something against the Padres, its been ridiculously apparent the last year. Losing journalistic integrity for me.
It is unfortunate the Padres are not or “can not” spend any money.
They’d be right back in the thick of it if they signed Bellinger, traded for Burnes/Cease, and then signed Rosario.
Typically, you wouldnt think adding roughly 50mil to their payroll this season shouldn’t be THAT big of a deal, especially considering they just traded away 35mil or so.
It’s a shame whats going on in SD right now. They have a solid core, but it is what it is…
A shame? Odd thing to say. Most teams are probably envious of a team with 2nd highest attendance in MLB and a $200M annual payroll. 2024 games are already sold out. They have $52M free to spend if they wish, wait until season starts before feeling pity.
Padres will be fine. By the time the season starts they will have Avery competitive roster.
No it’s not. Fantastic owner who sadly passed away gave an overrated GM free reign to do whatever he wanted. Not gonna shed tears though about a huge budget team not being able to spend their way out of more mistakes.
The gall of people who read headlines on this site and pretend they have any inclination of the inner workings of a billion dollar franchise.
outsiders buy into the narrative (fueled by mlbtr frankly) that the Padres are spiraling into bankruptcy or something. It’s laughable.
I’ve posted previously about the Padres ACTUAL financial situation, but as you said, few “experts” on the forum read/hear more than the headlines of a few top sports analysts or talking heads. Yeah, the Padres are cutting back payroll. It was planned before 2023 ever began. Yeah, they dumped Soto early, which I ~~ believe ~~ was a planned continguency of they couldn’t extend him. Prospects are suspects, and though Preller traded a boatload of ’em for Soto, he did his job and used the assets at his command to improve the team.
The Padres cash problems are temporary. I have NO worries, none whatsoever, that the Pads will fail to raise the $50M or so annually that used to come via the Bally contract, through other broadcast avenues. In fact, that contract was depreciated. The annual returns at the beginning where high, but a decade later, were pretty small for the franchise and product on the field. (In fact, Moore and Morrad skimmed the top of that cream, taking at least $200M of advanced money out the door with them as part of the sale, which is part of why the Padres were so broke for 4-5 years right after the sale).
The Pads have huge assets in property and Stadium rights which will return revenue. They money issues are significant, but temporary. There are two or three different thing that hit them at the same time, and staying under the MLB luxury tax penalties is vital (not just $$ cost, but loss of draft rights, etc.). The main issue is that the MLB/MLBPA contract is acting as a governor against a small market team spending money, and trying to compete with the “big guys”. There’s a legal argument if the Pads wanted to pursue it, that the contract is an anti-competiative device, benefiting teams like the Mets and Dodgers who have a nearly bottomless revenue stream via their geographic locations, against smaller market teams attempting break in to the large markets.
Anyhow, no tears for the Padres or their fans. The franchise will be all right in the longer term, barring of course, another (now unplanned, unforeseen) change in ownership (i.e. Seidler family selling out, new owners perogatives, etc.).
Thanks old salt, great summary
The Tennessee Orioles? Oh, I know. They could move back to St. Louis.
I’m with Brew on waiting to see who gets added to fill out the roster. That said, I’m ok with not trading away what appears to be a strong class of 2025 ready OFers and SP and RP and C while treading water for 2024. Maybe, just maybe if at deadline they have maintained a WC spot then make a trade bit wait and see on trades – unless it’s the 15-30 spot guys.
Maybe if the padres weren’t giving out bloated contracts like halloween candy, they wouldn’t be in this posistion. At least the Darvish fiasco drops from 24 mil to 15 in 2024. Eventually they’ll be forced to trade Tatis and hope the new GM gets market value because Preller will be fired soon enough
Padres were the worst hitting team against the fastball least year.
Maybe if AJ knew how to put a team together, they wouldn’t be .500.
They have more excuses than any team in all 4 pro major sports.
do you actually believe that the Padres were the worst team in MLB against fastballs last year?
Padres had a .259 BA and .772 OPS vs FB. Both better than they hit overall and 5TH best in MLB.
They had problems last season, but hitting the FB was not one of them.
Been a Padres supporter for over 25 years. If the Padres ever trade Tatis, it’d be tough to still root for them. They’ve come a long way in recent years thanks to Seidler.
Hoping SD gets to watch Tatis in brown and gold til he retires (and hopefully goes to Cooperstown). Having him would make some losing seasons more palatable than watching 2010s-like rosters with retreads and fill ins.
Tatis isn’t going anywhere he is on a very team friendly deal. 24m aav until he is 35.
He’ll have an uphill climb to cooperstown w/ a PEDS suspension. He better be really great.
Cooperstown or not, every team in baseball would love to have him
Simm
I am aware of Tatis’ contract details.
Just saying, I hope they never entertain the idea of trading our homegrown superstar (or somewhat homegrown, thanks CWS)
HS Kim. Especially after last year’s rock solid showing by Tatis, just about every Padre fan I know feels he should serve out his longterm contract as a Padre. His contract is a major bargain for the team, and he’s the core they are building around, hard to imagine why they would trade him.
brew
Id bet Tatis comes back with an even better year at the plate. Between the outside noise and not being “the guy” with Soto in town, I think Tatis’ 2023 season was below what his norm will work out to be.
Let’s be real. The Padres took their biggest step forward in the last 10 or so years when Tatis came up. His energy, swagger, and the way those rubs off on his teammates is evident (or was prior to last season). I’m hopeful he’s truly learned from his mistakes and is ready to continue building his legacy.
While it’s unfortunate we lost Peter and now seem to be cutting back payroll, I’m excited for the future. Tatis is a special piece that the organization must build around for the next 15 years. Go pads.
Tatis is better than Soto in my opinion. We’ll see how it all plays out though.
Agreed. We shall see. Cheers.
Hey! The check came for the opulent yet unsatisfying meal just after the owner died! Shocking! Dear Fans, we regret to inform you that you will be picking up the tab in increased tears and beer pricing as you watch the team lose for half a decade or more.
Thanks for your loyalty!
Sincerely.
Tigers Fans
Orioles owners shaking down tax payers for “public funding”. These politicians and baseball owners are so corrupt it wouldn’t surprise me if they gave the O’s whatever they want. Politicians get their campaign contributions, O’s get public land leased to them, tax payers get 30 more years of the Baltimore Orioles. Doesn’t seem fair
A loan to upgrade the stadium they play in but don’t own is not public funding. A lease on state land at market rate is not public funding.
So just stop.
And such a project funded by the Padres isn’t exactly an indication that they are soon to leave SD with tail between their legs, like some are some dramatic commentors are suggesting here. It suggests long-term viability.
Padres have $198 million in CBT payroll and the threshold is $237 million. They have a minimum of $37 million they can spend and stay under.
Do the Orioles fans and the team a favor and sell the team, John.
We are in prime position for an extended run of success and having your slimeball hands in the pot will do way more harm than good.
I think 2024 will be a “pause” year for the Padres. Not firesale. Not rebuild. Not what 2023 was forcasted to be, but some good baseball nonetheless.
People have short memories. Remember all the stories about “serious holes and question marks in the Padres pitching rotation”? I seem to recall posters on this forum trashing Preller for trading away “steller up and coming rotation pitchers”, none of whom are top of the rotation pitchers at this time. What happened? Wacha and Lugo more or less carried the rotation for much of the year. Yeah, they were injured, too (which is why I believe the Royals will regret what they spent on these over-30-year-old pitchers, who I highly respect, but who won’t be able to answer the call every 5th day).
Preller has yet to begin his building plans to improve the 2024 team. Now while saying that, I’d admit that the potential FA’s who could help the team are a fast dwindling supply. However, that’s not Preller’s forte. He drafts well, finds those “diamonds in the rough”, and … uhh … occasionally bombs with a Matt Carpenter or Nelson Cruz, but don’t forget the Wacha, Lugo, and Sanchez successes.
What I’m hoping for as a Padres fan, is that Preller will fill the holes this time with a few deserving prospects. Hey, run it up the flag pole, if they can’t cut it, move them and develop someone else. But, at least don’t trade a minor league .400 hitting 1st/3rd baseman like Ty France. And yeah, I love Kim, but he has more value than Cronenworth (who WILL rebound), he’s redundant in the infield, and he’s coming into his contract ($190M?!) year. Will hate to lose him, but he’s a success story that Preller needs to take advantage of. Kim NEEDS to be a starting SS on some playoff bound team, and playing him anyplace else (like Cronenworth at 1B), sacrifices a lot of value needed elsewhere on the roster.
I like where the Padres are at this moment. Yeah, the CURRENT pitching deficit sucks, but wait until March 1st, before you give a final assessment. (Better yet, maybe June 1st, as it took Wacha/Lugo/Hader that long to iron things out.) Padres have challenges, but no problems that can’t be overcome, even on a relatively limited budget. The Padres have advantages that at least 20, maybe 24 teams would relish. including fan turn out!