\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty healthy number,\u201d Fernando Tatis Jr. said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really healthy number.\u201d<\/p>\n
For them, for varying reasons, the magnitude of the transaction is personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it goes to show what cities are capable of,\u201d said Musgrove, a lifelong San Diegan who has been pitching for the Padres since 2021. \u201cI think people like to lean on the stereotypes of we\u2019re a small-market town, so we\u2019re going to kind of stay in our pocket. And it\u2019s kind of a fallback. But Peter (Seidler) started something that seems to have carried on far beyond him and is going to keep going.<\/p>\n
\u201cA city like San Diego that hasn\u2019t won a championship and has lost a lot of their sports team and has this one pride of the Padres they still hold onto, it\u2019s a good feeling to be a part of that and to know that the team has worked as much as it has. And part of that is the players. Part of it is the ownership putting the money down to get those players.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Manny](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SUT-L-padres-0417-045.jpg\")
Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres looks on before the ninth inning against the Seattle Mariners at Petco Park on Thursday, April 16, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The latter subject particularly intrigues players. Their hope is that the new owners will couple a semblance of former chairman Peter Seidler\u2019s passion and vision with real money to invest in payroll.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody in here \u2014 the clubhouse \u2014 those are things that are out of our control,\u201d Machado said before the Padres played the Angels on Friday night. \u201cWe can\u2019t control those things. We can go out there and play some good baseball, like we\u2019ve been doing, and we\u2019re going to continue to do that. I think our goal is to do that. But to know we have a future ahead of us \u2026 and know what a game plan could be, it\u2019s motivating.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres have made significant moves at the trade deadline the past two seasons to improve their roster for a playoff push. Both times, they were able to do it even as they kept an eye on the bottom line. In 2025, they added closer Mason Miller, left fielder Ram\u00f3n Laureano, catcher Freddy Fermin and others for virtually no cost besides considerable player and prospect capital.<\/p>\n
Some Padres players have quietly spoken since Seidler\u2019s 2023 death about needing ownership to support Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller with more funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gotta wait and see and see the mentality they bring and go from there,\u201d Tatis said.<\/p>\n
Like others in the organization, some players voiced the belief that the new owners paid a premium for the purpose of winning.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re bidding that high \u2026 I think that\u2019s the biggest point you can give,\u201d said Machado, who said he had phone conversations with prospective owners in March. \u201cThat entails what they want to do with the organization, and that\u2019s huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Especially to those who have been around for the franchise\u2019s transformation over the past half-dozen years, there was significance in the Padres being sold for more than any Major League Baseball franchise in history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to hear anybody talk about us being a small market no more,\u201d said Machado, whose signing for $300 million over 10 years in 2019 arguably served as the singular moment that signaled the transformation of the Padres into relevance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Machado marveled that San Diego \u201coutbid \u2026 New York City.\u201d\u00a0The reference was to the Padres\u2019 sale price being higher than the $2.4 billion paid for the New York Mets in 2020, the previous record sale price for an MLB team.<\/p>\n
![\"Fernando](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SUT-L-padres-0417-015.jpg\")
San Diego, California \u2013 April 16: Fernando Tatis Jr. #23 of the San Diego Padres runs after a single against the Seattle Mariners during the second inning at Petco Park on Thursday, April 16, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Tatis was the first Padres player to truly benefit from Peter Seidler\u2019s vision of long-term roster building. Just three months after Seidler took over as team chairman, Tatis signed a 14-year, $340 million contract that was the third-largest in MLB history.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it\u2019s a little bit sad, because everybody knows what Peter built over here,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cWe all know (selling) was definitely not his goal long term. But this world works at a different pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then there was the matter of the potential broader implications of the sale coming months before the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the league expires. Owners have been posturing for some time about the need for a salary cap as a way to combat the mounting costs of running a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think bottom line is, you look at what\u2019s going on in our city \u2014 and not just in our city but across the state of baseball \u2014 and this game is in an amazing place,\u201d said Jake Cronenworth, a member of the MLB Players Association executive subcommittee. \u201cAnd for the market that we\u2019re in, and for what the team just sold for, I think (it) shows where the game is.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see viewership across the last three seasons, not only in the regular season but the postseason. You see in-stadium attendance is higher. You see what fans are bringing to this game and the quality of baseball that\u2019s being played. And you see there are owners that want to win and want to put a great product on the field, because they see (what) the benefits of it is. I think today is a perfect example of what the benefit is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM \u2014 The number is what stood out to the Padres players. \u201cThree point nine billion dollars,\u201d Manny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185,3546],"class_list":{"0":"post-678074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sandiegopadres","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116423426767967000","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}