With the start of Spring Training only five weeks away, the San Diego Padres president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller continued his unbroken streak of not going to arbitration
with any Padres player.
A total of seven players were eligible for arbitration for the 2026 season. C/DH Luis Campusano reached an agreement for $900,000 in November. On deadline day (Jan. 8), Preller reached agreements with the other six. All except for reliever Jason Adam and starter JP Sears received more than the projected amount that was estimated by FanGraphs. Following is the projection and actual contract amount for each player. All are one-year contracts.
Player – Projection – Contract amount
Jason Adam – $6.8 million – $6.675 million
Gavin Sheets – $4.3 million – $4.5 million
Mason Miller – $3.4 million – $4 million
Adrian Morejon – $3.6 million – $3.9 million
Freddy Fermin – $1.8 million – $2.1 million
JP Sears – $3.5 million – $2.75 million
This is the 14th straight year that the Padres have reached agreements with their arbitration eligible players without going to an arbitration hearing. That covers Preller’s entire tenure with the team.
Randy Jones Celebration of Life
The Padres announced that they will hold a Celebration of Life for Padres Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Jones on Jan. 24 at Petco Park. The Padres legend passed away Nov. 18 at the age of 75. He had a long history of battling throat cancer, which he attributed to his use of chewing tobacco and cigar smoking.
The celebration will be free but requires a ticket and can be obtained by following the link above.
Prospect update
Baseball America updated its list of the Padres top 30 prospects and also named a breakout hitter of 2026 from the list of prospects. Catcher Ethan Salas continues to head the list of top prospects with left-handed starters Kruz Schoolcraft and Kash Mayfield in second and third, respectively.
Shortstop Jorge Quintana, 18, comes in as the fifth top prospect and is also named as the breakout hitter for 2026. Quintana was obtained at the trade deadline in 2025. He came from the Milwaukee Brewers, along with pitcher Nestor Cortes, in exchange for OF Brandon Lockridge.
Quintana was part of the Brewers 2024 international signing class and got a $1.7 million bonus. A switch-hitter, the infielder has lots of projection remaining in his 6-2 frame and is believed to have significant offensive upside with enough defensive skill to remain at shortstop. Although not a replacement for Leo De Vries, Quintana warrants a close follow as he plays his first full season in the Padres minor league system.
Baseball America noted his 104.1 m.p.h. average exit velocity as being in the 90th percentile among teenagers in the system with his top velocity of 110.3 m.p.h. as being in the top five. He had an 18 percent whiff rate in the zone and a 72 percent contact rate in his first professional season (mostly in the Arizona Complex League).
Season tickets sold out
The Padres sold out season tickets for the fourth consecutive season after increasing their amount of available tickets. Although the exact amount of season tickets sold was not announced, the average price went up seven percent this season and more were sold than last year. That should significantly increase ticket revenue for a team that finished second in overall attendance last year (the Los Angeles Dodgers were first).
Nine more teams end their RSN contract
Fan Duel Sports Network or Main Street Sports Group – formerly the Diamond Sports Network – missed payments for several of their contracted MLB teams over the past few months and the nine teams under contract severed those contracts this week. The Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays all withdrew due to breach of contract. All contracts can be renegotiated with the same network or another network but joining the teams currently carried by MLB Media is also a possibility. MLB currently carries games for seven MLB teams (Padres, Washington Nationals, Cleveland Guardians, Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins) and could become the media outlet for up to sixteen MLB teams if there is no media contract for those teams carried by Fan Duel.
MLB sold MLB.TV to ESPN for exclusive rights to carry games for the seven teams currently being shown via their media outlet. That deal will be for three years, through 2028, when all current broadcast network contracts are due to expire and MLB will be making a long-term decision about broadcast rights at that time.
Sunday Night games
NBC announced its Sunday Night Baseball schedule for the 2026 season. MLB severed the previous contract with ESPN and signed a new deal with NBC through the 2028 season. Starting this year, NBC will broadcast all their Sunday night games via the NBC broadcast channel and Peacock or NBCSN and Peacock.
The first game debuts on March 29 at 4 p.m. PST with Cleveland versus Seattle.
The San Diego Padres will be featured on May 17 versus the Seattle Mariners and broadcast on Peacock/NBCSN.
Their next game will be against the Dodgers on July 5 on NBC/Peacock.
They will play Aug. 9 versus the Houston Astros on NBC/Peacock.
The last game will be Sept. 13 versus San Francisco on Peacock/NBCSN.
The Mariners, Dodgers and Giants games will all be road games for the Padres.
