San Diego's Offseason Plans Likely To Be Affected By Lockout

The 2027 season for the San Diego Padres officially began at 10:08 p.m. PT on Wednesday night at Petco Park.

That's what the clock read when Milwaukee Brewers' closer Trevor Megill induced a swinging strike three from Padres' pinch-hitter Gavin Sheets for the final out of Game 4 of the NL Divisional Series, putting a bow on a 3-1 Brewers' victory that gave them a 3-1 series win.

It also signaled the start of an offseason that will likely feature some significant change to the roster of players who will don the San Diego uniform in 2027.

The Padres went into the postseason with many players who would be eligible for free agency once the 2026 season ended. That included much of the starting rotation, with Walker Buehler, Robbie Ray and Casey Mize free to test the free-agent waters, while Nick Pivetta and Michael King have either club or individual options that will need to be pondered before their futures are decided.

This roster uncertainty comes while San Diego's new majority owners, Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, continue to bed in after having their purchase of the team for $3.9 billion approved by the other 29 MLB owners in mid-August.

So far, all of the signs for a fruitful Feliciano/Jones ownership regime have been positive. From holding actual press conferences with media members to enthusiastically cheering on the team from front-row seats at home games, the duo definitely appears to be all in with their new venture.

There may, however, be one fly - an 800-pound fly, at that - in the ointment as the Padres embark on the offseason after an overall successful 2026 campaign.

Though it has lurked in the background like an evil specter all season, there is every indication that at midnight on Dec. 1, a mere 54 days away from Oct. 8, a lockout of the players by MLB owners will finally fully emerge from the shadows.

The most obvious indication that this will be the case emerged on Oct. 7 when Evan Drellich, a writer for The Athletic, reported that the MLB central office had begun internally communicating the parameters for what a lockout will look like.

Drellich reported that a confidential memo that was sent to team executives on Oct. 1 stated that the basic facts of a lockout will be these: "Virtually all business between MLB players on 40-man rosters and their teams will halt until there’s a new deal. No trades, no signings."

The memo also instructed teams, among other things, that player images and videos will be scrubbed from official league and team websites; club officials should, if possible, avoid all contact with players, up to and including attending weddings or sending holiday cards; offseason workout plans need to be communicated before the lockout, but not after; and the major-league portion of the Rule 5 draft will likely be canceled.

Significantly for the players, MLB will not prohibit them from playing in other professional leagues during a lockout, which opens the door for players to play in Japan, South Korea and various winter leagues, which some did during the most recent lockout in 2021-22.

This probably also means that it may be a while before anyone knows who will actually be donning the Padres' yellow-and-brown uniform in 2027, if there even is a 2027 season.

That's probably not quite what Feliciano and Jones bargained for when they decided to join MLB's dysfunctional family.