The Padres came close to making a costly waiver claim, but the Baltimore Orioles ended up saving them from themselves.
San Diego, still in the middle of a crowded National League wild card race with the Arizona Diamondbacks and others, was looking for more offense at the deadline after A.J. Preller already added Casey Mize and Robbie Ray to help the rotation. Preller was still shopping for more, and one of the names on the radar was former New York Mets outfielder Luis Robert Jr.
According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Padres tried to claim Robert off waivers, only to lose out to Baltimore. That turned into a break for San Diego, because Robert would have been an expensive bet with very little room for error.
“The New York Mets didn't know if any team would actually be willing to pay $5 million for one month of Luis Robert's services when they placed him on waivers, and it turned out that at least two of them did, with the Baltimore Orioles claiming him as well as the San Diego Padres. The Orioles, with the worse record, won the claim,” Nightengale writes.
Robert, who was once a 37-homer slugger and an All-Star with the Chicago White Sox, has already shown a little pop in Baltimore with a .795 OPS in three games. But he’s now on the injured list and will miss time because of a hamstring injury.
The Orioles’ move has already started to look shaky. It’s not just the prorated salary for 2026 that matters; Baltimore is also on the hook for a $2 million buyout this offseason. That comes on top of the roughly $3 million they spent to claim him from the Mets, and for all that money they’ve gotten just three games before the injury setback.
There’s also a $20 million club option in play, but the buyout is the likeliest outcome. For the Padres, losing the waiver claim was the best possible result. What looked like a missed opportunity in the moment now reads like a $2 million mistake they never had to make.
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