This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SAN DIEGO — It’s been a quiet offseason in San Diego.
With baseball’s annual Winter Meetings slated to begin Monday in Dallas, history tells us to expect activity. Padres general manager A.J. Preller is no stranger to making a splash. He capped last year’s event in Nashville with the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to the Yankees.
The Winter Meetings are where the Padres first hatched their plan to sign Manny Machado in 2019 — and where they did sign Xander Bogaerts in ’22. It’s where they completely overhauled their roster in ’14, as Preller earned his “rockstar GM” moniker.
It’s hard to envision the Padres making quite so big a splash next week. As noted in Monday’s newsletter, their top offseason priority is probably landing Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki — which won’t be possible until the 2025 international signing window opens in January.
But there’s still plenty to get done. Here’s a look at what to expect at baseball’s annual offseason extravaganza.
• Starting pitching: The top of the rotation features Yu Darvish, Michael King and Dylan Cease, a trio that San Diego would stack up with any in baseball. The back end? That’s anybody’s guess. As things stand, Randy Vásquez and Matt Waldron are slated to fill out the Nos. 4 and 5 spots. That’s likely to change in the coming months. The Padres will be major players for Sasaki. But they could use more than one arm — and will likely go about their search with one eye on the future. Darvish is 37 while both King and Cease are slated to be free agents after next season.
• Corner outfield bat: Jurickson Profar would fill this void nicely, though the Padres would probably still need to add a separate DH/pinch-hitter type. It’s unclear where things currently stand with Profar, but both sides have expressed a desire for a reunion in 2025. If that falls through, there are corner-outfield bats aplenty on the open market.
• Catcher: After Kyle Higashioka signed with the Rangers earlier this week, Luis Campusano and Brett Sullivan are the only catchers remaining on the Padres’ 40-man roster — and neither cracked the postseason squad. Even if Campusano is viewed as a potential starter, the Padres probably still need two catchers — one for a timeshare with Campusano and another for Triple-A depth.
Potential trade candidates
Really, there aren’t many. The Padres’ roster feels largely set, aside from the areas mentioned above. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand made the case that Campusano could be a change-of-scenery candidate, and while I think I agree with the sentiment, that would only leave the Padres thinner at catcher. If they’re going to trade, they’ll presumably look to do so from their farm system — though that system was largely depleted by a number of in-season trades in 2024.
Preller has swung numerous offseason trades to land high-level starters in the past. Just look at the current rotation. Darvish, King and Cease all arrived via trade (though the Cease deal came to fruition during Spring Training). The same holds true for the injured Joe Musgrove. Could the Padres swing a deal for, say, Garrett Crochet, perhaps the top available starter on the trade market?
Well, they were interested at the Trade Deadline but wouldn’t part with Ethan Salas or Leodalis De Vries — San Diego’s top two prospects and MLB Pipeline’s Nos. 19 and 28 overall, respectively. It’s hard to imagine anything changing on that front. The Padres’ belief in both has been steadfast.
“We’ve had some really good ones here over the last few years with [Fernando] Tatis [Jr.], obviously Jackson [Merrill], CJ [Abrams], James Wood, some of those guys,” Preller said after the Trade Deadline. “But they fit in at the top of the guys we’ve had in the system. You always listen. You always are willing to hear what other teams have to say. … But ultimately, we’re really happy that they’re with us right now.”
A year ago, San Diego nabbed right-hander Stephen Kolek from the Mariners, then kept him on its big league roster through the season, meaning Kolek remains a Padre. It’s possible the Padres look to do something similar this year. They have seven places open on their 40-man roster, after all. But their Major League bullpen wouldn’t seem to have room for a low-leverage stash. They would need any Rule 5 Draft pick to seriously contribute.
How aggressive will Preller be?
The Padres are coming off a 93-win season that qualifies as the best regular season in his 10-year tenure. The bulk of their roster returns for 2025. But there are still glaring holes, and Preller has yet to move to fill any of them this winter.
Preller has never shied away from major offseason signings or trades. But with a depleted farm and not much financial wiggle room, it’s hard to see a path to a serious shakeup. Still, there’s work to be done.
