Front Row Seat: Padres need to make a decision on Luis Campusano
Before tomorrow's deadline, the San Diego Padres need to decide if they're comfortable heading into 2026 with Campusano as their backup catcher.
Section 1904 is a community-supported media company. If you like our content, considering either subscribing to support our work for as little as $5/month or dropping a tip in the jar.
Section 1904
Darren Smith
San Diego Padres
The Padres Need To Make A Decision On Luis Campusano - MLB Trade Rumors
Both Díaz and Maldonado reached free agency at the end of the 2025 season, with Maldonado announcing his retirement shortly thereafter. That leaves Fermin and Campusano as the two catchers on the 40-man roster. Ethan Salas is one of the club’s top prospects but he is only 19 years old and has barely played above High-A. He may be the future but a promotion in 2026 would be ambitious.
Campusano is now 27 years old and out of options, meaning he can’t be easily sent down to El Paso any longer. He actually qualified for arbitration a year ago as a Super Two player, so the Friars paid him $1MM in 2025. Since he hardly played in the majors this year, MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him to make the same salary in 2026. Friday is the non-tender deadline, giving the Padres a few more days to decide whether or not to tender him a contract again.
Dylan Cease, Michael King decline qualifying offers from pitching-needy Padres - The Athletic
Instead of bidding for similarly priced pitchers, Preller could opt to wait out the market again. The executive employed that strategy to great effect nine months ago, signing Pivetta in spring training to a heavily backloaded contract that paid the veteran only $1 million in salary (plus a $3 million signing bonus) in 2025.
Back then, with Cease and King on the roster, the Padres’ need was less pronounced. Now, they might resort to chasing multiple lower-tier starters in free agency, such as Cody Ponce, who spent the past four seasons in Asia. Although Hart, a former standout in the Korea Baseball Organization, posted a 5.86 ERA in 2025, San Diego has had success with other pitchers after stints in Asia.
And even with little depth left in his farm system, Preller remains a looming threat in trade conversations. The Padres discussed potentially reacquiring MacKenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals this summer, and the left-hander — who MLB Trade Rumors projects to earn a modest $4.7 million next season — continues to be a top candidate to be moved.
MLB, ESPN finalize deal to stream Padres games in 2026 - San Diego Union-Tribune
As expected, among the TV deals that Major League Baseball announced Wednesday is an agreement giving ESPN rights to in-market Padres games, as well as out-of-market games for all 30 teams that had been streamed as part of MLB.TV.
What does that mean in San Diego?
For at least the 2026 season, subscribers to Padres.TV can auto-renew subscriptions on the platforms that streamed games this year. ESPN’s new app could ultimately offer different bundling opportunities later in the year and in subsequent seasons. Meantime, linear cable/satellite options will continue to be offered as they have since the advent of Padres.TV.
MLB is flying high. Why does it seem to be barreling toward a work stoppage? - The Athletic
Baseball’s current labor deal expires in December 2026, and a work stoppage in 2027 over competitive balance, an issue owners are trumpeting, could undo or even reverse the goodwill the sport has accumulated. That possibility was not lost on executives at last week’s general managers meetings in Las Vegas. There, club officials both criticized the state of competitive balance in MLB while simultaneously praising the overall health of the game, a tension that will sit at the heart of talks between players and owners, which have already started preliminarily.
Some execs acknowledged that, ultimately, they fear a work stoppage could stymie the sport’s growth.
