The Padres may be shopping for offense this winter, but the market doesn’t look like it’s going to hand them a centerpiece bat.
That matters because San Diego has real work to do across the lineup, even if the rotation is getting most of the attention. Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. are locked in, and Ethan Salas is waiting in the wings behind the plate.
After that, the picture gets messy fast. First base is unsettled.
Shortstop could be in play. Second base might change shape.
Left field is wide open, and the DH spot still needs a plan.
There’s also the bigger issue: if president of baseball operation/GM A.J. Preller is counting on free agency to solve all of it, he could be in for a rough winter.
This is not a loaded class. There’s no Juan Soto, no Shohei Ohtani, no Bryce Harper headlining the bat market.
At first base, the cleanest answer might be staying with Ty France. He just turned in a career year at age 32, posting 4.5 WAR with 21 home runs, 72 RBIs and an .865 OPS after the Padres signed him to a minor-league deal right before the season.
If San Diego wants a different route, Jake Bauers is a name to watch after breaking through with the Brewers. In 144 games, he hit .266 with 26 homers, 86 RBIs, 11 steals, an .874 OPS and 3.3 WAR in what was his third season in Milwaukee.
Alec Bohm, 30, is another possibility as he moves fully to first base. Beyond that, the reliable options get older: Paul Goldschmidt of the Yankees, Josh Bell of the Twins and Nathaniel Lowe of the Cleveland Indians.
Left field offers one of the more interesting names in the pool in Randy Arozarena of the Mariners. Now 32, he just put together his sixth straight 20-homer, 20-steal season, finishing 2026 with 26 homers and 26 steals.
He also hit .281/.381/.484 with an .865 OPS, the best of his career in any season where he played more than 25 games. He made $15.65 million in 2026, and his next deal figures to be much richer, with some estimates putting him near the 3-year, $66-million contract Teoscar Hernandez signed with the Dodgers in 2025.
San Diego could also look overseas. Teruaki Sato, the 2026 MVP in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League, is coming off a massive year with 38 homers, 39 doubles, three triples and eight steals after hitting 40 homers in 2025. Other left-field starters on the market include Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ of the Cubs, plus Taylor Ward of the Mariners.
If the Padres decide to get aggressive in the middle infield, the options thin out quickly. Luis Arraez, who is set to leave the Phillies, could be part of the answer at second base and even first.
Brandon Lowe is coming off his second straight season with at least 33 homers, this time for the Pirates. Jazz Chisholm of the Yankees, who could also fit in the outfield, is expected to be available, along with Gleyber Torres of the Tigers.
Shortstop is even more limited. The top name is J.P Crawford, while Mauricio Dubon - coming off a renaissance season at age 32 with the Braves - looks like the next-best choice. Dubon also brings the kind of flexibility teams love, with the ability to play second base and the outfield as well.
In Other News...
Padres Take An Intriguing Flier On A 20-Year-Old Arm From Japan
The Padres added another arm to their system on October 15, agreeing to a minor league deal with 20-year-old right-hander Tatsuya Nogami and giving him a $300,000 signing bonus. It is the kind of low-risk, upside-minded move San Diego has been willing to make as it continues to hunt for pitching talent wherever it can find it.
Nogami comes to the organization without a professional track record in Japan, having pitched at Osaka Sangyo University instead. For a club that has not shied away from taking chances on younger arms, the appeal is obvious: there is time to develop him, and room to see whether his stuff can translate once he gets into the Padres' pipeline. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Prospect Radar Suddenly Has A New Name To Watch
Joe Tiroly arrived in the Padres system as a seventh-round pick, and his first taste of pro ball at Single-A Lake Elsinore gave the organization something it can always use more of: a bat that showed up quickly. In his first 22 professional games, the college transfer from Rider to Virginia produced seven home runs, then kept hitting all the way through a season that ended with a .321 batting average, 27 hits and a California League title for Lake Elsinore.
For a player who had already navigated a foot injury before beginning his pro career, the early return is encouraging enough to get him noticed well beyond draft value. The next question is how much of that power surge sticks as the competition gets tougher, but for now Tiroly has given the Padres a new name worth tracking in a system that is always looking for impact bats. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Rotation Reset Could Depend On One Costly October-Proven Arm
The Padres are staring at a rotation picture that could change fast, with seven starting pitchers potentially reaching free agency after the 2026 season. That kind of turnover puts pressure on the front office to think ahead, especially with so many innings and responsibilities possibly needing to be replaced at once.
Freddy Peralta has emerged as one of the more intriguing names in that conversation, a right-hander with a postseason track record that should appeal to a club looking for stability under October lights. San Diego already has enough financial commitments to make any major addition a careful decision, but a multi-year push for a pitcher of Peraltas caliber would fit the kind of rotation reset the Padres may need to pull off. [Read more 🡒]