Padres lose key pitchers and sluggers to massive deals, forcing a significant offseason rebuild with new faces emerging.
The San Diego Padres entered the offseason expecting to lose players, with pitchers Dylan Cease and Michael King both hitting the open market.
The good news is that King returned on a three-year, $75 million deal.
On the other hand, Cease left and quickly signed a massive seven-year deal worth $210 million with the Toronto Blue Jays, who are fresh off a Game 7 World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ryan O'Hearn, who was acquired in a trade deadline deal with the Baltimore Orioles, inked a two-year, $29 million deal to go to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Luis Arraez took some time before going to the San Francisco Giants on a one-year deal.
Oh, and let's not forget closer Robert Suarez signing a three-year, $45 million deal with the Atlanta Braves, although Suarez's departure was expected after the Padres acquired Mason Miller.
With all of that, Matt Snyder of CBS Sports says the Padres suffered the biggest losses of the offseason.
"We saved the worst for last because the Padres appear to have taken the biggest losses in free agency as a team," Snyder wrote.
Now, Snyder has JP Sears, former Rockies pitcher German Marquez, and Randy Vasquez mentioned as the options to fill the final two spots.
In reality, there are more choices for San Diego, and at the end of the offseason, the Padres managed to add some talent to at least try to fill the holes.
The Padres signed Miguel Andujar, Nick Castellanos, and brought in Ty France on a minor league deal, and both Andujar and Castellanos have been performing well thus far.
From the pitcher's perspective, Cease struggled in 2025, going 8-12 with a 4.55 ERA, a big change from his 14-11 record and 3.47 ERA he had put up in 2024.
The Padres have more competition than just Sears, Vasquez and Marquez.
San Diego added Triston McKenzie, the ex-Guardians star, although he got roughed up early in spring training. The Padres also added ex-Mets pitcher Griffin Canning, who is recovering from an Achilles injury, and they brought in Walker Buehler, the former Dodgers hurler.
Matt Waldron is another option to fill a rotation spot, but he is dealing with an infection that has him sidelined for some time.
MLB.com had Sears projected as the No. 5 starter, but he didn't pitch well in 2025 since coming to San Diego and he hasn't gotten off to a strong start in Arizona.
So, there is a competition going on, but bringing back Joe Musgrove, who had Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2025, is a big boost to the rotation. At the end of the day, the losses might not seem as bad as it looks, especially if one of Buehler, Marquez, Canning, etc. work out and gives San Diego consistent innings at the end of the rotation.