DALLAS — The Padres still plan on contending for a championship, and the circumstances still seem conducive to that aim.
In a league where 12 teams make the postseason, their payroll will almost certainly fall somewhere near the middle of the pack among Major League Baseball’s 30 clubs.
They were ranked 15th in payroll in 2024 and won more games than all but four other teams and advanced to the National League Division Series. There, they lost to the Dodgers, the eventual World Series champions.
But the Padres are also cognizant of a budget in a way they were not for when late owner Peter Seidler authorized spending that saw the franchise rise as high as No. 3 in expenditures on players in 2023.
Their payroll for 2025 will be higher than last year’s $169 million, but the aim is for it to be less than the current projection of around $210 million, according to people familiar with the Padres’ plans.
With that in mind, the Padres are exploring possibilities that would lower their financial commitments while adding talent.
Among their numerous conversations at this week’s winter meetings are some with other teams regarding starting pitcher Dylan Cease.
There is no indication any deal is imminent, but this is more than just fielding phone calls. League sources characterized the talks regarding Cease as being anywhere from “trying to unload Cease” to the Padres being “open to” trading the right-hander, who turns 29 later this month and is projected to make between $13 million and $14 million in 2025, his final year of arbitration eligibility.
Cease was acquired in a trade from the White Sox last March and ended up finishing fourth in National League Cy Young voting. Cease posted a 3.47 ERA in 189⅓ innings over 33 starts. And on July 25, Cease threw the second no-hitter in franchise history.
With the cost of pitching on the free-agent market, Cease could be an attractive trade option who could bring the Padres needed help in left field or designated hitter and/or prospects they could turn around in a separate trade.
While trading Cease would thin the Padres’ starting pitching depth, they would still have Yu Darvish and Michael King at the top of the rotation and Randy Vásquez and Matt Waldron as their other experienced starters. They are pursuing Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki and are confident in their ability to add another mid-level starter. A haul for Cease could even enable them to flip prospects and/or young major leaguers for a top-end starter such as White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet, who would be cheaper than Cease and is under team control for two years versus the one year before Cease hits free agency.
“It’s been active, it’s been a lot of conversation,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said of the Padres’ talks regarding potential trades and signings. “There (are) a lot of things that were that we’re weighing, considering. Some are more like kind of exploratory still and going down that path. Some are things that we can end up lining up on. … It’s that time of year where you’re always going to get incoming phone calls when you have good players. This year has been active on that front.”
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