The Padres release a statement from chairman Peter Seidler this morning, seemingly offering a vote of confidence for president of baseball operations A.J. Preller and manager Bob Melvin, though neither was mentioned by name.
“We entered 2023 with expectations that we would build on last year’s NLCS appearance and contend for a World Series Championship. We fell short of that goal,” the statement reads, “The Padres organization will learn from this season and emerge in 2024 with the pieces in place to compete for San Diego’s first World Series title. Our current leadership team has my full support, and I have asked them to perform a thorough assessment of our organization, beginning today. We will make the changes necessary to play championship-caliber baseball for our extraordinary fans in 2024.”
The statement largely tracks with previous reporting, which indicated not only Seidler’s preference to retain both Melvin and Preller in 2024, but also that the club would be undergoing an internal review. Importantly, despite the seeming vote of confidence for the duo, the statement does not guarantee their return for the 2024 season, instead noting that the club plans to “make the changes necessary” to return to the postseason next year. After all, reports of philosophical differences that lead to the personal relationship between the Padres’ manager and GM fraying are well documented. Melvin is under contract through the end of the 2024 season, while Preller is signed through the end of the 2026 season.
Whoever is at the helm of the Padres next season, they’ll have a difficult task set before them as they look to improve the club’s roster following an 82-80 season. Shutdown closer Josh Hader and NL Cy Young award candidate Blake Snell are both poised to depart the club for free agency this offseason, and the club is reportedly looking to trim payroll down to $200MM for next season. While RosterResource indicates the club’s payroll in 2024 stands at just over $128MM at this point, that figure doesn’t include arbitration-level contracts for players like Juan Soto, Scott Barlow, and Trent Grisham, among others.
Those arbitration-level contracts could approach $50MM or more this offseason, with Soto alone expected to get a significant raise on his $23MM salary in 2023. That leaves the club with minimal space to take on additional financial commitments despite significant holes to fill in the rotation and bullpen, not to mention the need to deepen a position player group that suffered from an extremely thin bench throughout the season.
