11:38am: The second payout is evidently not all that significant. Sanders reports (on X) that the Padres will receive roughly $17MM in total from the settlement, indicating the remaining-asset value is roughly $6.5MM. 10:06am: There were minor developments in the long-running Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy proceedings this week. Most notable is the revelation of a deal that the broadcasting conglomerate struck with the Padres last summer. As Daniel Kaplan of Awful Announcing first reported, Diamond agreed in July to a deal that could pay the San Diego organization as much as $78.9MM to resolv ..read more

We’re three weeks into the 2024 season, and this year’s crop of Rule 5 picks has had an atypical amount of staying power. That’s perhaps in part due to the fact that only ten players were selected in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft, but as of this writing, only one Rule 5 selection has been returned to his original organization. For those unfamiliar, in order to be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, a player must not be on his team’s 40-man roster and must have played in either parts of five professional seasons (if they signed at 18 or younger) or four professional seasons (if they signed at 19 or older ..read more

The Padres announced Wednesday that they’ve placed righty Yu Darvish on the 15-day injured list due to a tightness in his neck and recalled right-handed reliever Logan Gillaspie from Triple-A El Paso in his place. Darvish’s IL placement is retroactive to April 15. Darvish had been slated to take the ball for San Diego on Saturday but will now be sidelined until at least April 30. The team hasn’t provided further details on the injury or given a timetable for the length of his expected absence. The Friars also haven’t listed a replacement starter for Saturday yet, though they have an off-day to ..read more

April 17: The teams announced that Avila has been traded from San Diego to Cleveland in exchange for cash. In a corresponding 40-man move, the Guards transferred infielder Angel Martinez from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. April 16: The Guardians are acquiring right-hander Pedro Avila from the Padres, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (on X). San Diego had designated Avila for assignment last week. Avila has had a tough start to the 2024 campaign. The Venezuelan-born pitcher has allowed eight runs in as many innings over his first four appearances. Avila has fa ..read more

The Padres have signed veteran infielder Donovan Solano to a minor league deal, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Solano will report to the club’s Arizona facilities for now but will presumably move to a higher affiliate after getting in a delayed Spring Training of sorts. Solano, 36, has somewhat quietly been a very effective utility guy over the past five seasons. After playing in the majors from 2012 to 2016, Solano was stuck in the minors for 2017 and 2018. He made it back to the show with the Giants in 2019 and spent three years with them. He got into 236 games in those three ..read more

When right-hander Marcus Stroman opted out of the final year and $21MM of his deal with the Cubs over the winter to test free agency, he kicked off a relatively quiet foray into the open market for a pitcher of his caliber. The veteran only received publicly-known interest from the Royals prior to him landing a two-year deal with the Yankees that guaranteed him $37MM. At the time of Stroman’s agreement in the Yankees, Jon Heyman of the New York Post indicated that a handful of other teams were interested in the righty’s services before he ultimately landed in the Bronx. Heyman discussed Stroma ..read more

The Padres announced that they have recalled left-hander Adrián Morejón from Triple-A El Paso, with right-hander Pedro Avila designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Avila, now 27, has bounced on and off the Padres’ roster over the years. Initially acquired from the Nationals in the 2016 trade that sent Derek Norris to Washington, Avila was added to the 40-man roster in November of 2018. At the end of 2019, he was non-tendered and re-signed to a minor league deal. He got his roster spot back in October of 2021 but was outrighted in June of 2022, before getting selected to the roster ..read more

Multiple reports over the offseason indicated that the Padres had interest in signing Tommy Pham, with the most recent of these items coming in mid-March, when USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote that San Diego had interest in Pham on a one-year deal worth around $3MM or $4MM.  Opening Day has now come and gone with Pham still a free agent, but Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the Padres still have interest, though they are wary that signing Pham wouldn’t leave much flexibility for future in-season moves while still remaining under the luxury tax threshold. RosterResource projec ..read more

2023 ended up being Juan Soto’s final year in San Diego, as the Padres swapped the star outfielder to the Yankees in a blockbuster deal last December.  Given the Padres’ inconsistent play during their disappointing 82-80 season, there was plenty of trade buzz surrounding Soto during the year, and a trade began to look like more of a reality once reports filtered out after the season that San Diego was looking to reduce payroll. However, some attempts were made to keep Soto in SoCal via a long-term extension.  Agent Scott Boras told Jon Heyman of the New York Post that former Padres o ..read more

A year after spending north of $400MM in free agency, the Padres spent a total of $50MM on free agents this offseason, adding just $9.35MM to the 2024 payroll. Indeed, in an effort to slash the budget, president of baseball operations A. J. Preller made most of his biggest acquisitions on the trade market. The Padres added Michael King, Jhony Brito, Kyle Higashioka, Randy Vásquez, and Drew Thorpe from the Yankees in exchange for Juan Soto and Trent Grisham, and several months later, they used Thorpe as one of the headlining pieces in a trade for White Sox starter Dylan Cease. They also brought ..read more