#san-diego-padres

#san-diego-padres

Miranda, 28 in June, seemed like a long-term piece for the Twins not too long ago. He debuted with Minnesota in 2022 and hit 15 home runs in 483 plate appearances. His 5.8% walk rate was quite low but he was also tough to punch out, going down on strikes just 18.8% of the time. He finished that year with a .268/.325/.426 line and 116 wRC+, splitting his time between the two infield corners.

The question going into next season, naturally, is just how much the team has available to spend, and the answer appears to be that same $211MM-$221MM range. " We anticipate payroll will remain at a similar level to last year....We're operating the club as we have for the last five or six years," Padres chairman John Seidler told the San Diego Union-Tribune's Kevin Acee and other reporters on Monday at the Winter Meetings.

Rodriguez ranked among Atlanta's top 30 prospects after signing in minor league free agency ahead of the 2025 campaign. FanGraphs and MLB.com both had him ranked at 25th. The 22-year-old torched Double-A pitching for 10 games, then moved up to Triple-A. Rodriguez posted an underwhelming .640 OPS with Gwinnett, but did pop a career-high eight home runs to go with 17 stolen bases.

Veteran reliever Wandy Peralta will forgo the opt-out in his contract, reports Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Peralta's four-year, $16.5MM contract contained opt-out opportunities after each season. He's exercising a $4.45MM player option for the 2026 season and will have one final player option for the same amount next offseason. Peralta effectively has two years and $8.9MM remaining on his contract, with an opt-out at the midway point.

The Padres clinched a playoff berth with a 5-4, 11-inning win against the three-time NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night. Freddy Fermin, acquired from Kansas City at the trade deadline on July 31, drove the first pitch he saw from Grant Anderson to center field with one out in the 11th, singling in automatic runner Bryce Johnson and setting off a wild celebration in front of a sellout crowd of 42,371 at Petco Park.

Since that 2022 season, however, and since he's come to San Diego, Cease's production has been far from what almost won him the most valuable pitching award in baseball back then, with an ERA of 4.02 and a 21-22 record since making the move to the Padres. Despite his mediocrity over the past couple of seasons, Cease could still be a hot commodity come offseason free agency.

September is right around the corner, and there is still no clear frontrunner for the National League West title. The Los Angeles Dodgers swept the San Diego Padres in their recent home series. But then, the Padres responded by winning back-to-back games in their home series against the Dodgers the following weekend. The Dodgers managed to make it out of the two weekends still on top of the division, despite losing the second series.