ANAHEIM — The number is what stood out to the Padres players.
“Three point nine billion dollars,” Manny Machado said simply.
Just like most everyone who saw the record price tag of $3.9 million for which the Padres are about to change hands — with the Seidler family nearing a deal to sell the team to a group led by private equity billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones — the organization’s most public-facing employees were shocked by the sheer size of the transaction.
“It’s a pretty healthy number,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “It’s a really healthy number.”
For them, for varying reasons, the magnitude of the transaction is personal.
“I think it goes to show what cities are capable of,” said Musgrove, a lifelong San Diegan who has been pitching for the Padres since 2021. “I think people like to lean on the stereotypes of we’re a small-market town, so we’re going to kind of stay in our pocket. And it’s kind of a fallback. But Peter (Seidler) started something that seems to have carried on far beyond him and is going to keep going.
“A city like San Diego that hasn’t won a championship and has lost a lot of their sports team and has this one pride of the Padres they still hold onto, it’s a good feeling to be a part of that and to know that the team has worked as much as it has. And part of that is the players. Part of it is the ownership putting the money down to get those players.”
Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres looks on before the ninth inning against the Seattle Mariners at Petco Park on Thursday, April 16, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The latter subject particularly intrigues players. Their hope is that the new owners will couple a semblance of former chairman Peter Seidler’s passion and vision with real money to invest in payroll.
“Everybody in here — the clubhouse — those are things that are out of our control,” Machado said before the Padres played the Angels on Friday night. “We can’t control those things. We can go out there and play some good baseball, like we’ve been doing, and we’re going to continue to do that. I think our goal is to do that. But to know we have a future ahead of us … and know what a game plan could be, it’s motivating.”
The Padres have made significant moves at the trade deadline the past two seasons to improve their roster for a playoff push. Both times, they were able to do it even as they kept an eye on the bottom line. In 2025, they added closer Mason Miller, left fielder Ramón Laureano, catcher Freddy Fermin and others for virtually no cost besides considerable player and prospect capital.
Some Padres players have quietly spoken since Seidler’s 2023 death about needing ownership to support Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller with more funding.
“We gotta wait and see and see the mentality they bring and go from there,” Tatis said.
Like others in the organization, some players voiced the belief that the new owners paid a premium for the purpose of winning.
“You’re bidding that high … I think that’s the biggest point you can give,” said Machado, who said he had phone conversations with prospective owners in March. “That entails what they want to do with the organization, and that’s huge for us.”
Especially to those who have been around for the franchise’s transformation over the past half-dozen years, there was significance in the Padres being sold for more than any Major League Baseball franchise in history.
“I don’t want to hear anybody talk about us being a small market no more,” said Machado, whose signing for $300 million over 10 years in 2019 arguably served as the singular moment that signaled the transformation of the Padres into relevance.”
Machado marveled that San Diego “outbid … New York City.” The reference was to the Padres’ sale price being higher than the $2.4 billion paid for the New York Mets in 2020, the previous record sale price for an MLB team.
San Diego, California – April 16: Fernando Tatis Jr. #23 of the San Diego Padres runs after a single against the Seattle Mariners during the second inning at Petco Park on Thursday, April 16, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Tatis was the first Padres player to truly benefit from Peter Seidler’s vision of long-term roster building. Just three months after Seidler took over as team chairman, Tatis signed a 14-year, $340 million contract that was the third-largest in MLB history.
“Obviously, it’s a little bit sad, because everybody knows what Peter built over here,” Tatis said. “We all know (selling) was definitely not his goal long term. But this world works at a different pace.”
And then there was the matter of the potential broader implications of the sale coming months before the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the league expires. Owners have been posturing for some time about the need for a salary cap as a way to combat the mounting costs of running a team.
“I think bottom line is, you look at what’s going on in our city — and not just in our city but across the state of baseball — and this game is in an amazing place,” said Jake Cronenworth, a member of the MLB Players Association executive subcommittee. “And for the market that we’re in, and for what the team just sold for, I think (it) shows where the game is.
“You see viewership across the last three seasons, not only in the regular season but the postseason. You see in-stadium attendance is higher. You see what fans are bringing to this game and the quality of baseball that’s being played. And you see there are owners that want to win and want to put a great product on the field, because they see (what) the benefits of it is. I think today is a perfect example of what the benefit is.”
