The Padres know exactly what they signed up for with Xander Bogaerts. The problem is that knowing and escaping are two very different things.
San Diego can line up Bogaerts next to Manny Machado and find a pretty obvious common thread. They’re both 34.
They both have full no-trade protection. They’re both under contract through 2033.
And starting next season, the two infielders will combine to cost the club nearly $65 million a year.
That kind of money is why the Padres have to at least study every possible escape hatch. But the two deals do not carry the same kind of baggage, and that matters.
Machado changed how the franchise sees itself. He was there before San Diego became a regular in the postseason. Bogaerts is a different kind of commitment, and he is the one the Padres would have a far tougher time moving.
According to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego has spent the past few years talking through ways to move a big contract. Bogaerts is the obvious starting point for those conversations. The reason the talk stays private is simple: the money is brutal.
Bogaerts is owed about $25.5 million in each of the next seven seasons, which leaves the Padres on the hook for roughly $178 million through his age-40 year. He also has a full no-trade clause and no opt-outs, so San Diego cannot just send him wherever the market looks easiest. He gets a say, and any team that wants him knows the Padres are working from a tough spot.
The on-field production does not make the math any easier. Bogaerts hit .231/.332/.344 with 13 home runs and a 90 OPS+ in 2026. That is a long way from the kind of impact bat another club would want to pay $178 million for.
If the Padres really wanted to move him, they would likely have to eat a meaningful chunk of the salary, take back another contract that is not exactly desirable, or attach young talent to sweeten the deal. In all likelihood, they might need all three.
You can see the appeal from San Diego’s side. Even trimming part of Bogaerts’ deal could open room for another starting pitcher, a needed bat or multiple depth pieces.
But that comes with a cost of its own. The Padres have built plenty of their recent push by turning prospects into big-league help, and that approach brought star power to San Diego.
It also made cheap, controllable talent harder to keep around. If they have to send out another meaningful young player just to move Bogaerts, then the club is basically paying an early-termination fee to get out of a contract it already committed to.
Machado’s situation is plenty complicated too. His salary climbs to about $39 million in 2027 and stays there through 2033. Still, moving him would be an entirely different kind of decision.
He remains the face of the franchise’s veteran core, the standard in the clubhouse and the star most closely tied to San Diego’s rise from irrelevance to a team that expects to chase a championship every year. Trading him would not just be a roster move. It would be a statement about the direction of the whole organization.
Preller should look at every avenue. But if moving Bogaerts means the Padres have to keep a huge portion of the salary and give up premium young talent, they need to stop. They have already paid plenty for this contract.
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