Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Padres Rumors

Padres Considering David Ross For Managerial Opening

By | at

With the shocking news that long-time Brewers manager Craig Counsell signed a five-year, $40MM contract with the Cubs, a new managerial free agent entered the fray: David Ross. The freshly fired former Cubs manager should be an intriguing candidate for those teams still in need of a skipper, and indeed, at least one club is already interested. Per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Padres are “considering adding Ross to their candidate pool” for the position left vacant by Bob Melvin, who recently traveled north for a job with the Giants.

Before the game of managerial musical chairs began on Monday, the Padres and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller had reportedly narrowed down their search to four finalists: senior advisor to player development and major leagues Mike Shildt, bench coach and offensive coordinator Ryan Flaherty, Angels infield coach Benji Gil, and Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza. According to Acee, the team wasn’t planning to interview any further candidates; their next manager would be one of Shildt, Flaherty, Gil, or Mendoza.

However, with Ross now available, along with the news that the Mets have hired Mendoza to be their next manager, the Padres could be inclined to reconsider their options. After all, Preller has a well-documented history of changing his mind. Acee mentions several surprise hires the executive made during his tenure with the Padres, including former managers Andy Green and Jayce Tingler.

Of Shildt, Flaherty, and Gil, only Shildt has genuine managerial experience; he took over from Mike Matheny as the Cardinals manager in 2018, steering the team for the next four years. St Louis had a winning record in all four of his seasons at the helm, making the playoffs in the final three. Shildt was fired due to “philosophical differences” with president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, but he seems to be on the same page with the front office in San Diego. He has spent the past two years working in the organization, and evidently, they are happy with the work he has done. 

Still, if the Padres are looking for a seasoned manager to replace Melvin, one of the most experienced skippers in the game, Ross presents an intriguing alternative. He has spent the past four years with the Cubs, leading the team through a mini-rebuild and out the other side. By all indications, the Cubs were largely happy with his performance. At his end-of-season presser, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer praised his then-manager for the clubhouse culture he fostered. Indeed, if it weren’t for Counsell hitting the open market, the Cubs would almost certainly have stuck with Ross in 2024.

Michael Wacha Opts Out; Padres Give Qualifying Offers to Blake Snell, Josh Hader

By | at

The Padres have extended qualifying offers to free agent lefties Blake Snell and Josh Hader, reports AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. The club also announced a batch of transactions, which includes each of Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and Nick Martinez electing free agency. Meanwhile, Matt Carpenter exercised his player option to stick with the club. Additionally, the club outrighted right-hander Nick Hernandez and claimed right-hander Jeremiah Estrada off waivers from the Cubs.

The decisions of Lugo and Martinez were previously reported, as was the news on Carpenter. As for Wacha, it was reported on the weekend that the club was declining a two-year option to retain him for 2024-25. Wacha then had the opportunity to trigger a $6.5MM player option for 2024 but has now turned that down.

Wacha signed a four-year deal with the Padres, though one with a convoluted structure. The club would first have to decide on a two-year, $32MM option for the 2024-25 seasons, which they declined. Wacha then had three straight player options which could have paid him $6.5MM in 2024 and then $6MM in the following two seasons. But he has now turned that down, leaving three years and $18.5MM on the table in search of a new deal.

Although he was largely injured and/or ineffective for much of the 2018 to 2021 period, Wacha has now had two straight solid seasons. He posted a 3.32 ERA with the Red Sox in 2022 and a 3.22 mark in his first season in San Diego. Injuries still limited his total volume of work, as he logged 127 1/3 innings for the Sox and 134 1/3 for the Friars, but the combination of workload and effectiveness was nonetheless the best form he’s showed in years.

He’ll now head back to free agency in search of his next deal. The starting pitching market is headlined by guys like Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Aaron Nola and Jordan Montgomery but Wacha will be somewhere in the tie of solid mid-rotation or back-end guys, alongside Lugo, Jack Flaherty and Mike Clevinger.

The fact that Snell and Hader received $20.325MM qualifying offers is no surprise. The two of them are going to be some of the top available free agents this winter, making them a lock to reject them, something recently highlighted by MLBTR. Snell posted a 2.25 earned run average in 2023 and could receive the second Cy Young Award of his career in the coming days. Hader has long been one of the most dominant relievers in the league and had a 1.28 ERA in the season that just ended. Both should be able to receive nine-figure contracts even with a QO attached.

Any impending free agent can receive a qualifying offer as long as they spent the entire season with just one club and haven’t received a QO before. If Hader and/or Snell sign with other clubs after rejecting the QO, the Padres will receive draft pick compensation.

The departures of Wacha, Snell, Lugo and Martinez will leave the Padres fairly short-handed in their rotation. They still have Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove but they are followed on the depth chart by unproven options like Matt Waldron, Jay Groome, Adrián Morejón and Pedro Avila. They will presumably be looking to add to that group but will have to do so while juggling significant financial concerns.

Hernandez, 29 next month, was just added to the roster in September. He made two appearances, allowing four earned runs in three innings, giving him a career ERA of 12.00 in that tiny sample. He threw 61 innings in the minors in 2023, split between Double-A and Triple-A, with a 3.84 ERA, 32.7% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate. Any of the 29 other clubs could have added him to their roster today but decided to pass.

Estrada, 25, made 17 appearances for the Cubs over the past two seasons with a 5.51 ERA in that time. His 25.9% strikeout rate is a bit above average but his 18.5% walk rate is concerning. That’s generally been a pattern in the minor leagues as well, with Estrada striking out 31.2% of hitters at Triple-A in 2023 but walking 18.8%. He is still optionable next year, so the Padres will add some pitching depth that comes with roster flexibility, while they will presumably try to help Estrada improve his control going forward.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Padres' Assistant Farm Director Mike Daly To Become Triple-A Manager

By | at

  • The Phillies announced that Cesar Ramos will be the team’s new bullpen coach for the 2024 season.  Ramos has working in the Phillies organization for the last four seasons, and was the pitching coach for Philadelphia’s Triple-A affiliate in 2022-23.  Ramos is best known for his eight-year pitching career with the Padres, Rays, Angels, and Rangers from 2009-16.
  • Padres assistant farm director Mike Daly will manage the team’s Triple-A affiliate next season, according to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin.  It is something of an unusual hire, as Daly has no professional experience as a manager, coach, or player at any levels.  Daly’s long career of front office work began with six years in Cleveland’s front office as a baseball operations staff and scout from 2001-06, then 15 seasons with the Rangers that saw him rise to assistant GM status.  Daly also worked with A.J. Preller during that stint in the Texas front office, and in 2021 Daly became one of many of Preller’s past Rangers associates to join San Diego’s organization.

AJ Preller Reportedly Met With Bruce Bochy Before Hiring Bob Melvin

By | at

That creates at least the possibility of a situation where the Brewers retain Counsell while the Guardians land Mendoza, leaving the Mets unsure about who their next manager will be. Cubs bench coach and former Padres manager Andy Green as well as current A’s manager Mark Kotsay have both been noted as possible candidates for the manager job in New York in the past, and the Mets are known to be searching for an external candidate, specifically.

  • Before the Padres settled on Bob Melvin to manage the club during the 2021-22 offseason, Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune indicates that president of baseball operations met with former Padres and Giants manager Bruce Bochy regarding his interest in the position. Krasovic relays that per Bochy’s agent Tony Attanasio, Preller and Bochy met twice that offseason in Bochy’s home in Nashville, TN. Attanasio suggests that Bochy wasn’t especially interested in returning to San Diego, and of course the club wound up hiring Melvin for the role instead. For his part, Bochy would return to the game as skipper of the Rangers in 2023, leading the club to its first World Series championship in franchise history.

Padres Decline Two-Year Club Option On Michael Wacha

By | at

The Padres have declined their two-year, $32MM club option on the services of right-hander Michael Wacha for the 2024 and 2025 campaigns, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic. Wacha will now have the opportunity to decide between exercising a $6.5MM player option for the 2024 season or hitting the open market, with Lin noting that Wacha is expected to become a free agent.

Wacha first signed with the Padres this past offseason on a four-year, $26MM guarantee, though it now appears likely that deal will wind up being for just one year and $7.5MM. At the time, the 32-year-old righty was coming off his best season in several years after posting a 3.32 ERA and 4.14 FIP across 23 starts with the Red Sox in 2022. Though at the time it was easy to wonder if Wacha would regress back to the 4.62 ERA he had posted from 2016-2021, he managed to build upon his 2022 with an even stronger 2023 season. In 24 starts (134 1/3 innings), Wacha posted a 3.22 ERA that was 27% better than league average by ERA+ with a 3.89 FIP and a 22.4% strikeout rate.

Given that improvement, it’s something of a surprise that the club would decline to retain Wacha on what would have effectively been a two-year, $32MM pact, particularly with both Seth Lugo and Nick Martinez now slated to join Blake Snell in departing San Diego for the open market. Indeed, a poll of MLBTR readers revealed that nearly 44% of respondents expected the Padres to pick up Wacha’s options, a total that edges out the 39% of respondents who suggested that Wacha would return to the open market this offseason.

Of course, it’s necessary to consider the financial component of the move. After all, the Padres seem to be facing budgetary issues this offseason that could require them to pare payroll down to around $200MM. The departures of Lugo and Martinez, along with the club’s decision to decline Wacha’s option, have cut the club’s payroll for 2024 to just over $197MM, per RosterResource. Should Wacha decline his option as expected, that would drop the figure to just under $191MM.

That could allow the club to avoid more drastic changes to cut payroll, such as a possible trade of star left fielder Juan Soto. Of course, a payroll of $200MM would allow them just $9MM of room in the budget to replace three of the club’s regular rotation members and their top depth option for the starting staff, to say nothing of the loss of closer Josh Hader or potential upgrades to the lineup. If the Padres hope to patch the holes in their pitching staff and fine-tune their position player group, it seems reasonable to expect additional moves to trim the club’s payroll.

As for Wacha, he appears poised to join a free agent market that’s particular deep in starting pitching options. While he won’t compete at the top of the market alongside the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Snell, and Aaron Nola, Wacha will add another interesting mid-rotation option to a group that already includes the likes of Lugo, James Paxton, Marcus Stroman, Lucas Giolito and Eduardo Rodriguez in the event that he decides to decline his player option and test the open market.

Padres, Nick Martinez Decline 2024-25 Options

By | at

The Padres and Nick Martinez have each declined their simultaneous options on the right-hander’s services for the 2024-25 seasons, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports, and Martinez is now a free agent.

Martinez re-signed with San Diego last winter on a contract that is now ultimately a one-year, $10MM pact, though it represented three years and $26MM in guaranteed money.  Following this season, the Padres had to decide whether or not to exercise $16MM options on Martinez for both the 2024 and 2025 seasons.  If the Padres rejected those club options, they turned into player options worth $8MM apiece, and Martinez then had to decide whether or not to exercise both years’ worth of options at once.

This rather complicated setup ended up being pretty simple, since both sides declined the two years’ worth of options and Martinez will head back into the open market.  Though the Padres have some holes to fill in their rotation this winter, it seemed like retaining Martinez wasn’t too likely, as he had mostly worked as a reliever over his two seasons with the team.  The $32MM price tag for a pitcher who might be best suited for swingman work might’ve also been too pricey for a San Diego franchise that looks to be cutting costs to some extent in 2024.  If the payroll will indeed be pared down to a relatively smaller $200MM figure, Martinez could’ve been seen as a luxury.

The 33-year-old Martinez has taken an interesting career path, starting his MLB career pitching with the Rangers from 2014-17 before heading to Japan in search of a revival.  Those four years in Nippon Professional Baseball led to improved results, and the Padres signed Martinez to a four-year, $25.5MM guarantee prior to the 2022 season.  This was another option-heavy contract, as Martinez had the ability to opt out after each of the deal’s first three seasons, and he took that first opt-out last winter before re-signing with San Diego on his $26MM contract.

Martinez’s second stint in the majors has gone much more smoothly than his time in Texas, as the righty has a 3.45 ERA in 216 2/3 innings and 110 appearances since the start of the 2022 campaign.  Martinez has started 19 of those 110 games, while posting a 22.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate, and an impressive 50.6% walk rate.  Martinez had better numbers as a reliever than as a starter in 2022, and vice versa in 2023.

The Padres have just enough injury problems to create some openings for Martinez to receive looks as a starting pitcher, even if San Diego’s general surplus of arms mostly kept Martinez limited to bullpen work.  As such, he is an intriguing pitcher to watch this offseason, with the added wrinkle that Martinez has changed representation and is now represented by the Boras Corporation (as per Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic).

It stands to reason that Scott Boras will shop Martinez first as a proper starter, to maximize his possible earnings.  Since Boras is no stranger to complex contracts, so he might seek out another option-heavy type of deal for his new client with options or different incentive bonuses or price points tied to usage — appearances, innings pitched, games finished, etc.  It’s possible such a deal might come from the Padres once again, given how they already reunited with Martinez after his opt-out last winter, and how the Padres are in need of rotation help.

Seth Lugo also opted out of his deal with San Diego, and the Padres haven’t yet revealed how they’ll approach Michael Wacha’s club option, which is structured in relatively similar fashion to Martinez’s deal.  Blake Snell is also headed for free agency, leaving Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish as the only two sure things for next year’s rotation.  It’ll be tricky for president of baseball operations A.J. Preller to find pitching while still keeping the payroll in check, and it could be that the Padres might consider adding arms when exploring potential trades involving some higher-salaried players (such as Juan Soto.

Padres To Interview Carlos Mendoza

By | at

The Padres will interview Carlos Mendoza this weekend as part of their managerial search, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Yankee bench coach has also sat down with the Mets and Guardians about their respective vacancies.

According to Acee, Mendoza is the fourth candidate to meet with San Diego brass since Bob Melvin left the organization. Internal options Ryan Flaherty and Mike Shildt have already interviewed. The other appears to be Angels infield coordinator Benji Gil, as Acee notes the Friars were impressed by Gil during a sit-down earlier in the week. Former Angels skipper Phil Nevin is reportedly of interest, although it’d seem he has yet to officially interview.

Mendoza, 43, has never managed in the majors. The Venezuela native managed for two seasons in the low minors with the Yankees in the early 2010s. He has otherwise worked in various coaching capacities for New York since concluding his minor league playing career in 2009. He joined Aaron Boone’s MLB staff as infield coach going into the 2018 campaign and has held the bench coach title for the last four seasons. In addition to Cleveland and the Mets, Mendoza has earned managerial consideration from the White Sox and Red Sox in previous offseasons and from the Giants this fall before they hired Melvin.

San Diego is one of six teams with a current vacancy. The Angels, Astros and Brewers are also presently without a bench boss. Acee writes that the Padres could tab their new skipper within the next week.

Matt Carpenter Exercises Player Option

By | at

Matt Carpenter has exercised the $5.5MM player option in his contract with the Padres, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 (X link). He’ll play out the second season of a two-year, $12MM guarantee.

Triggering the option was likely an easy call for the left-handed hitter. Carpenter had a tough 2023 campaign, hitting .176/.322/.319 with five home runs through 276 trips to the plate. He seemed to fall out of favor with the coaching staff as a result, often going extended stretches without an at-bat. His season ended in mid-September when he landed on the injured list with right elbow inflammation.

Clearly, that wasn’t what the front office envisioned when signing Carpenter a year ago. The longtime Cardinals second baseman had struggled mightily from 2020-21. When a minor league deal with the Rangers didn’t result in a big league opportunity, he considered retirement. Yet he absolutely raked over 47 games when he got a look from the Yankees in May 2022. Carpenter blasted 15 homers in 154 plate appearances, hitting .305/.412/.727. A foot fracture kept his time as a Yankee rather brief, leaving the Padres to gamble on him maintaining some kind of strong offensive form after that relatively small-sample performance.

It didn’t happen in year one. The Padres could give Carpenter another crack at securing a job on the bench, although it doesn’t seem guaranteed he’ll spend the entire offseason on the 40-man roster. In any event, he is assured of next year’s salary. With Seth Lugo making the similarly easy call to decline his option yesterday, the Padres are down to their two more borderline options on right-handers Michael Wacha and Nick Martinez.

Padres Sign Ryan Carpenter To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Padres have signed left-hander Ryan Carpenter to a minor league deal, per Evan Woodbery of MLive. The southpaw will presumably receive an invitation to Spring Training and compete for a roster spot.

Carpenter, 33, has a small amount of major league experience, having pitched for the Tigers in 2018 and 2019. He made 15 appearances, including 14 starts, logging 63 innings over those two seasons. Unfortunately, he allowed 8.57 earned runs per nine innings in that small sample and hasn’t been back to the big leagues since.

The lefty signed with the Rakuten Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan for 2020 and had a solid season for them. He tossed 157 1/3 innings over 26 appearances with an ERA of 4.00. That led to a deal with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization, which is generally considered to be a stronger league than the CPBL. He tossed 170 frames for the Eagles in 2021 with an ERA of 3.97.

Carpenter returned to the Eagles for 2022 but wasn’t able to make much impact, making just four appearances. He was released a couple of months into that season with reports of elbow soreness. Public details on what followed from there are sparse but he didn’t pitch anywhere in 2023. It’s possible that he required some sort of elbow procedure and spent the year rehabbing, though that is entirely speculative.

The Padres have plenty of rotation uncertainty at the moment and questions around their budget as well. Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish give the club a strong duo at the top of their starting staff but Seth Lugo declined his player option and is now a free agent. Michael Wacha and Nick Martinez have complicated contract options but could follow Lugo out the door. Blake Snell will surely receive and turn down a qualifying offer and head to the open market himself, alongside midseason pickup Rich Hill.

The club will surely be looking to bolster the rotation but financial issues could perhaps limit how aggressive they are in signing free agents to accomplish that task. Carpenter figures to compete with internal options like Jay Groome, Pedro Avila, Matt Waldron and Adrián Morejón for a spot on the depth chart.

Ian Kennedy To Retire

By | at

Right-hander Ian Kennedy is retiring, he told Evan Thompson of Sport Relay during last night’s World Series celebration. While Kennedy indicated he had made the decision that this would be his final season going into 2023, he acknowledged “there’s no better way to go out” than as a member of a Rangers team that clinched the franchise’s first title.

The Yankees selected Kennedy in the first round of the 2006 draft. The USC product reached the majors a little more than a year later, debuting as a September call-up in ’07. He saw limited action in the Bronx over the next two-plus seasons. During the 2009-10 offseason, the Yanks dealt Kennedy to the Diamondbacks as part of the three-team blockbuster that moved Max Scherzer to Detroit and Curtis Granderson to New York.

Kennedy spent three and a half seasons as a key piece of the Arizona rotation. He led the National League with 21 wins while pitching to a 2.88 ERA across 222 innings in 2011, securing a fourth-place finish in NL Cy Young balloting. At the 2013 deadline, the Snakes flipped Kennedy to the Padres for Joe Thatcher. He worked out of the San Diego rotation for two and a half seasons, eating around 200 innings annually with a combined 3.97 ERA.

Going into 2016, the Royals signed the hurler to a five-year, $70MM free agent pact. After posting a 3.68 ERA across 33 starts during his first season in K.C., Kennedy struggled in 2017-18. He reinvented himself as a closer in 2019, saving 30 games while posting a 3.41 ERA. He was hit hard in the shortened season and landed with the Rangers on a minor league pact in 2021.

Kennedy had a strong rebound showing in Texas, emerging as one of the better rental relievers on that summer’s trade market. The Rangers dealt him alongside Kyle Gibson to the Phillies. He played out the stretch with Philadelphia, then returned to Arizona on a $4.75MM free agent deal. Kennedy’s return to the desert didn’t go well. He re-signed with the Rangers for 2023, logging 16 1/3 frames over a pair of stints. While he wasn’t on the active roster for Texas’ playoff run, he capped off his playing days with a ring.

It was a storybook punctuation to a 17-year run in the majors. Kennedy logged a little over 1900 innings between six teams, posting a 4.16 ERA. He struck out 1775 hitters, won 104 games and collected 66 saves after his late-career bullpen move. According to Baseball Reference, he banked over $101MM in career earnings. MLBTR congratulates Kennedy on an excellent run and wishes him the best in retirement.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top