While hoping to lead the San Diego Padres to the franchise's first World Series title, five players will also be looking to prove they deserve new contracts for the 2027 season.
The popular mantra in baseball is that it's a day-to-day game; there's no need to start looking ahead when you have an immediate job to do. The reality is more complex, akin to the unseen activity taking place as a duck skims across a pond or an iceberg floats across the Arctic Ocean.
Don't think so? In that case, think about how an anticipated lockout/strike that may delay or cancel the 2027 season has loomed like an unwanted apparition in the background throughout the 2026 season. Talk about an iceberg loitering below the surface of the water waiting to sink The Titanic.
So, while the San Diego Padres have their gaze firmly focused on Tuesday night's Game One of the National League Wild Card Series against the visiting Chicago Cubs (7 p.m. PT and MBCSN and Peacock) there are forces lurking in the background.
Namely, five players on San Diego's playoff roster - reliever Jason Adam, starter Walker Buehler, first baseman Ty France, starter Michael King and starter Robby Ray - enter the postseason in the final days of their contracts with the club. That's 36.3% of the playoff pitching staff (4 of 11), 75% of the anticipated postseason starting rotation (3 of 4) and a player, France, who has been one of the game's most pleasant and unexpected surprises this season.
What those players also have in common is that they are among the 39 players that MLB.com writer Mark Feinsand has said could boost their stock the most with a strong postseason performance as they prepare to enter free agency.
"Many...impending free agents rested their respective cases with [last] weekend’s season finales, but for more than three dozen of them, there is an additional opportunity to impress potential suitors on the game’s biggest stage: the postseason," he wrote in his intro to the piece
In truth, all five of the Padres noted have solid cases that can make them desirable free-agent additions prior to next season.
Of Adam, Feinsand writes: "Adam has been one of the steadiest late-innings arms in the game over the past five years, posting a 2.13 ERA over 300 appearances with the Rays and Padres."
Buehler, a two-time World Series winner with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020 and 2024, arrived in San Diego in February on a one-year "prove it" deal. He has been a constant in a somewhat fluctuating Padres rotation with 32 starts and 153.2 innings, his highest total since 2021, while going 9-6 with a 4.63 ERA. Most significantly, he possesses a 3.04 ERA over 18 starts and 19 total postseason appearances.
France caught Feinsand's eye for the way he has performed after signing a minor-league deal with San Diego in February, calling the contract "arguably the best deal signed last winter."
France's numbers back up that claim as he delivered a 4.5-WAR season in 133 games with a .295 average, .865 OPS, career-high 21 home runs and 72 RBIs. He also provides stellar defense at first, as signified by the Gold Glove Award he won in 2025 for his defensive work with the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays.
Of the San Diego pitchers approaching free agency, King may have the best case for an improved contract with a strong postseason showing. Feinsand notes that after the season, King can opt out of the final two years and $58 million of his pact, adding, "A strong October could clinch that decision, while a poor showing could make him reconsider the opt-out clause. This will be King’s fourth career postseason, his third in a row with the Padres; he’s 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in four games (two starts)."
Finally, Ray joined the Padres in a trade-deadline deal with the San Francisco Giants in August. In nine starts for San Diego that covered 43 innings, Ray went 3-2 with an elevated 5.02 ERA. He did post wins in two of his last three starts, but he gave up a total of eight earned runs in those games against the NL's two worst teams, the Giants and the Colorado Rockies. He'll hope a strong playoff run can help him get one final multi-year contract as he turns 35 on Thursday.
