PADRES’ STOVE TO GET HEATED
Wednesday’s tender deadline will infuse market with free agents
The long slow winter for the Padres and all Major League Baseball could gain some clarity this week.
Or perhaps the offseason will just become more of a slog.
Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline to tender contracts to players under team control is expected to turn several capable veterans into free agents, further saturating a market already mired in the financial morass created by the COVID pandemic.
Where the Padres by this time last season were about to make their third trade in a week, Wednesday could essentially signal the beginning of their 2020-21 offseason.
The tender deadline has made free agents of an increasing number of players in recent years, primarily when teams off load players they deem to be due more money in arbitration than their production merits.
Last December saw
53 players nontendered, an increase of eight over
2018 and up from an average of 32 the three years before that.
Teams contend they lost an average of $100 million with no fans allowed in ballparks last season and say uncertainty over the start of next season and how many fans will be allowed to attend games in 2021 will precipitate further losses. Payrolls are being trimmed throughout the game.
The Padres expect to keep their opening-day payroll around the $150 million it would have been at the start of 2020 had it been a normal season. If they are to make improvements in their starting rotation, that will require savings elsewhere.
One way to cut salary would be to let go of outfielder Tommy Pham, who is likely due about $10 million in his final year of arbitration. The Padres acquired Pham last offseason with the expectation he would continue to get on base at an elite level. Due at least in part to a hand injury, he struggled in ’20 with a .312 on-base percentage. Additionally, Pham was the victim of a knife attack outside a strip club on Oct. 11 and last week filed a lawsuit against owners of the club and several of its employees.
The suit alleges Pham suffered “catastrophic injuries, which have and will continue to cause him significant economic damage, including … his earning capacity as an elite professional baseball player.” Multiple sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly speak about Pham’s health, have in the past week said Pham
has been working out almost every day. Those same sources said Pham is expected to resume baseball activity soon. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As for how they might add talent, identifying which players the Padres have shown interest in is an adventure in folly. As they always have under General Manager A.J. Preller, they have checked in on or will check in on and continue checking in on virtually all free agents that could be an obvious fit and several more who aren’t so obvious.
Yes, they are in on Japanese starter Tomoyuki Sugano, who has posted a 2.20 ERA over more than 1,000
innings since 2015.
Catcher Yadier Molina, a nine-time All-Star, said in a recent interview that the Padres are among five suitors for his services.
The Padres have let the agent for Trevor Bauer know they’d like to be kept apprised as his market evolves.
It isn’t known whether they have recently talked to the Texas Rangers about starting pitcher Lance Lynn, who is due $10 million in 2020, but they were interested in him at the trade deadline.
They have spit-balled what it would take to get Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays.
It goes on and on.
Perdomo released
The Padres announced pitcher Luis Perdomo had cleared waivers and is a free
agent. Perdomo was designated for assignment last week after posting a 5.19 ERA in five seasons with the Padres. The 27-year-old
right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery in October.