What are the Padres doing?

The answer to the question in the headline probably isn't "Nothing" but it's certainly not one that I am able to, or will, answer in this post. Sorry in advance.

However, I would like to hold up what is going on with the San Diego Padres with proper context and comparison because I think it's kind of wild.

Who's in charge here?

A.J. Preller is headed into the last year of his contract with the San Diego Padres. His official title(s) with the team is President of Baseball Operations & General Manager. He has held at least one of those titles for eleven seasons now, so it's a good bet that most of the people that work underneath Preller have been brought in by "the Preller administration" if not the man himself.

There's a good reason that people in a position of power don't like doing their job on the last year of a contract: It means you're less invested. It also means that, sometimes, you can get overruled by those who are more invested.

As an example, what if Preller wanted to trade Ethan Salas at the deadline to improve the team's chances of winning the 2026 World Series? And what if other people in positions of similar power that are contractually obligated to be here for at least the next few years decide that Preller is only making that decision because he doesn't have a guaranteed future in San Diego? That's a problem!

It is important for the San Diego Padres to know who is in charge of their baseball decisions now, which also probably means they need to know who is charge of baseball decisions in the (at least) near future. Because only that person will know how to weigh a decision that effects both the present and future versions of the organization.

As of right now, Preller is still the man in charge and is reportedly discussing a contract extension with Padres Chairman John Seidler.

There are a handful of MLB teams that are, still today, looking for a new General Manager. However, I believe the only team searching for a new President of Baseball Operations currently is the Colorado Rockies. That puts the Padres in strange company when it comes to organizational stability.

Shildt or get off the pot

The San Diego Padres need a new manager after Mike Shildt retired from the team and disappeared into coastal North Carolina.

The team is currently interviewing candidates to replace Shildt, but not much is known beyond that.

Is A.J. Preller part of the interview process? Did he help select candidates? How much control does he have over the final decision? Will the new manager answer to Preller on an org chart? We have no idea and probably won't, at least not for a while.

What strikes me is the other side of that equation. Which potential manager is going to sign up for a job managing a team that might be led by a new and different POBO ("President of Baseball Operations") in a year? Why would they? What if there's a new POBO in 2027 who doesn't agree with the manager's style or wants to bring in their own person for the role?

No stability in the organization means no promised future. No promised future means it's a less enticing sell to potential managers to come to San Diego and try and solve problems that couldn't be solved by Bud Black, Pat Murphy, Andy Green, Jayce Tingler, Bob Melvin or Mike Shildt.

Tick tock

Here are the players that the San Diego Padres likely need to replace, in one form or another, before the start of the 2026 MLB season:

SP Dylan Cease
SP Michael King
SP Nestor Cortes
SP/RP Kyle Hart
RP Robert Suarez
1B/DH Ryan O'Hearn
C Elías Díaz
IF Jose Inglesias
1B/DH Luis Arráez

To be fair, I'm not advocating those players to be re-signed (some of them probably will be), but that's nine roster spots that will be empty. Some of those spots will need to be filled by free agents.

Now, the Padres are probably not going to be in bidding wars for the highest paid free agents on the market, but that doesn't mean they can afford to sit on the sidelines trying to figure their organization out while the rest of baseball is working.

Free agency starts the day after the World Series ends, technically. That starts a five-day window for teams to negotiate with their own free agents, which would be a good time for the Padres to get their ducks in a row on the list of players listed above.

Five days later is when teams are able to sign free agents from other teams, and typically this period starts with a flurry of signings that leaves the timid teams having to readjust their offseason plans.

What is the Padres' plan? Is A.J. Preller allowed to sign players beyond 2026? Is there a cap on the team's payroll for 2026 and beyond? Would Preller try to sign players 1-year deals so that he could potentially sign them again, possibly for another team, next year?

I'm not trying to impugn Preller's character here, I'm just laying out the reasons why teams don't usually let stuff like this linger too long. It can get complicated.

As the clock ticks down to the start of free agency, I think the Padres need to find answers quickly to the questions of who is in charge of BaseballOps beyond 2026 (or, at least, any decisions that are forward-looking) and who is going to be the manager of the team. In that regard, they have less answers than almost every other MLB team.

The Padres need to know who they are before they're going to know how to build themselves into a championship team. Right now, I'm not sure that they do.