Even after adding Michael King back to their rotation last month, Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic report that the Padres are hoping to add another starter before the season begins. With that being said, however, it appears no deal is particularly imminent. Rosenthal and Sammon go on to write that the club has indicated to multiple players’ agents around the league that they “are not yet ready to move” on the pitching market.
Rosenthal and Sammon suggest that the Padres could be holding off on making an addition in order to clear money off the books with another move, such as a trade of Nick Pivetta. There’s certainly reason to wonder if that might be the case. RosterResource estimates San Diego’s 2026 payroll at $220MM, a modest increase over last year’s $211MM figure. For luxury tax purposes, this year’s $262MM is virtually identical to 2025’s $263MM figure. There’s been no indication to this point that the club is willing to scale it’s payroll up substantially from last year’s numbers, and signing even a mid-rotation free agent like Lucas Giolito or Chris Bassitt could cost somewhere between $15MM and $20MM in terms of annual salary. Dealing Pivetta and his $20.5MM salary could, in theory, allow the Padres to sign a starter in free agency using that money while also recouping either a young starter or help for another area of the roster as part of the return package for Pivetta’s services.
The team shopping Pivetta would certainly be a logical reason for the team to hold off on signing a starter, and the team was known to be discussing a deal with the Mets last month and that Pivetta was one of the players involved in those discussions. Of course, Ramon Laureano, Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, and Jeremiah Estrada were among the many names brought up in those negotiations. That deal never ended up coming to fruition, and The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported earlier this week that talks regarding Miller, specifically “went nowhere.” That’s not a shock, given the massive price the Padres paid to acquire Miller just a few months ago. It’s hardly impossible that the Mets and Padres could still get together on a Pivetta trade that doesn’t involve Miller, though, and it’s certainly possible other teams looking for rotation help (such as the Yankees) could be intrigued by the right-hander as well.
Looking to clear salary isn’t the only plausible reason for the team to be waiting on making a rotation addition. Another possibility could be that they’re simply waiting for asking prices to drop. The club signed Pivetta in mid-February last year, with Spring Training fast approaching as players still on the market feeling pressure to sign. That allowed to land him on a creative four-year, $55MM deal that may not have been possible earlier in the winter. Waiting to see how the market develops could be particularly prudent if the Padres are intrigued by a player like Zac Gallen, who falls into a similar tier of the free agent market this year as Pivetta did last year.
It could also make sense if the club is hoping to add a starter from the lower tiers of the market on a relatively small guarantee. As teams fill out their rotations ahead of Spring Training, perhaps stragglers on the market would be especially attracted to the promise of a wide-open lane to secure a rotation spot in San Diego. Bounce-back candidates like Walker Buehler, Erick Fedde, and Jordan Montgomery are among the many pitchers who that sort of approach could make sense for.
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