The Padres Have MAJOR Choices To Make...

The Padres have huge decisions to make as the free agent market has been open and a lot of players on the Padres are now free agents. Who should we re-sign? Who are the names that are gone? Is this good? Is this bad? Let's talk about it. Hi, welcome back to another episode of Padres Digest with your host, Andrew. Today, we are talking free agency. I guess the first video, I had a burp right there, I guess the first video in the free agent market that we talked about, I think, I don't know, whatever, but a lot of Padres are free agents. So let's go through the list. Let's take a look at who we're going to miss, who we're not going to miss. I just made a video about Michael King opting out. So he's probably the biggest name, but there's still a lot of big names out there, right? Obviously, Joe Musgrove's one of them. So let's take a look at that. Before we get too deep into it, please subscribe. As always, follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, Padres Digest. So let's start with this. Major Padres players hit the free agent market. Who's the biggest one? We already talked about that. That, of course, is Michael King. Declines player option today and will be a free agent, one of the most coveted players on the market. He, of course, will be open to a reunion. King is open to returning to San Diego, and the Padres are open to bringing him back. Cool. Thank God for that, right? And then also next, we have Nick Pavetta. Obviously, the straightforward option is picking up the club option. The next couple of weeks, we'll get together with our coaches, our staff, our evaluators, and start figuring out what the puzzle looks like. That is from A.J. Preller's season wrap-up. And the next player, of course, we have Adrian Morejon. A 27-year-old reliever with his numbers is going to land a massive payday, and there's going to be a bidding war for a free agent to be. So who in total are we talking about here? Let's go with this graphic. So we have Michael King, of course, in our starting pitchers heading to free agency. 3.21 ERA last year, 12-10 record, 185 innings pitched, 159 strikeouts. Did opt out of his decision, but he's projected to make four or five years, $118 million to $140 million annually. Annually, not annually, that'd be crazy. Overall. So obviously Michael King, 32, he's not young, right? But he's not old. So he's probably going to cost a lot. And he hasn't been as good, like I said, since 2024. But he's still a very solid pitcher and he was very good in the playoffs, so you know. It would be nice to get him back, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if we didn't, right? Now, same thing with Adrian Moran. He is still super young. So 28 years old for a reliever who we've had since he was like 16. He's the kind of guy I would love to re-sign, but when it's projected as three years, 42 million, it might be too much for us. But a 2.08 ERA and 73 innings in 2025, and a 283 ERA this year, 9-3 record, 107 strikeouts. Obviously, he's the kind of player you are very happy to re-sign if you can, but people are going to overpay for him. And I don't know if we can afford to outpay people who are willing to overpay. You know what I mean? Nick Pavetta, 34 years old. Obviously, we can get a club option for $14 million. But, do we want to? Because he only played 34.2 innings pitched last year. 2.86 ERA. So, he was pretty good, right? Was he as good as he used to be? That's up for debate. You know, and there's also a huge possibility that he might hurt his arm again. So, there is a big injury risk. But, when he's on, he's on. Right? Robbie Ray, goodbye. Please never come back. That's all I gotta say. Please don't come back. Casey Mize. I said this before, and I'll say it again. I wouldn't hate re-signing KDC Mize if he can prove that he is healthy. Because when he is healthy, he is very, very good. Like, he had a sub-3 ERA with Detroit earlier in the year and then got hurt, but told nobody, and then got traded to us. Well, I didn't say he told nobody, but we traded for him anyways, and then he was the worst pitcher I've ever seen in my entire life. So, for $10 million, honestly, I don't hate it. That's kind of what a cheap, good pitcher would go for with injury risks. Uh... So for him, I wouldn't say it's like a Walker Bueller kind of reunion, but it would be kind of similar, I guess the way I would say it. But I wouldn't hate Casey Mize re-signing, but it would be a huge asterisk and a huge risk. Uh, let's just jump into the other pitchers. I think we just go down the list, make it more fun. So next we have, of course, Walker Buehler, who we just talked about. ERA was 4.63, but I think that's a little too unfair for him. Uh, he was, he was pretty solid for a good amount of the year and had some really bad outings, but he was mostly solid. Uh, but he's cool, right? 32 years old. He signed on a minor league deal, proved himself. So he's definitely not going to be cheap anymore. He might get similar numbers to Casey Mize with 10 million, but. I wouldn't hate re-signing Walker Buehler, but I wouldn't mind if he left. Kind of the same thing with Jason Adams. So Jason Adams, 35 years old, has a little bit of an injury bug right now. Uh, yeah. ERA, though, was 2.62 last year. 2025 was 193, and career overall, 268. So that looks really good. But what we saw from Jason Adams last year was honestly a step backwards. I just don't think he is as good as he was or will be. And I'm afraid he's going to blow up when we need him the most. And we're going to be stuck with a big contract because I assume he'll get a pretty relatively well-sized contract for him. I just don't know if I want to take that risk on a guy. I would rather take that money and sign Moreano than take that money and give it to Jason Adams. Now, if Jason Adam goes somewhere else and does really good, cool. Right. But I just don't think he has as good a stuff as he used to. And he's not getting any younger. Giolito, bye-bye. Hate you. Go away. Griffin Canning, bye-bye. Dislike you. Go away. That's how I feel about both of those people. And let's just jump into the hitters. So, hitting-wise, first of all, Ty France, please come back. I would love you to come back. I wouldn't want a huge contract for you. But I would like to see your return. And I know you like it here. But 21 home runs, .295 average, .865 OPS. Literally no one expected me this good. And he was the best hitter on our team. Well, I don't want to say best hitter on the team, but at least most consistent hitter. Laureano is an interesting case. Barely played, but when he did play this year, he didn't look great. But 2024, he was very good, right? So I wouldn't mind re-signing him for like super cheap. Like if I would rather go out and get a more secure left fielder, but maybe sign him to a smaller one-year deal, a prove-it deal. And if we can't get anyone better at left field, let's just stick with Laureano. And if that doesn't work, we'll have Samad Taylor. And if that doesn't work, maybe we can re-sign the guy down there, Luis Rengifo. But for right now, I'm not opposed to bringing him back, but I don't think it's anywhere near my top priorities. Same thing with Austin Hayes, low-key. I don't, I know we don't love Austin Hayes. Some people do, some people don't, right? He is a lefty specialist and we've always had a lefty hitting problem. He was injured most of the year, came back, looked not, he looked okay and looked bad at some points, but he was never like great, but he did look really good in September in the playoffs. Not really, right? So I, if again, same thing with Laureano, if he's super cheap, sure. Use him as a bench bat and a lefty platoon. But, again, not very high on my priority list, right? Rengifo, I'm honestly, same thing with Hayes, but honestly, even cheaper. I just don't know if I trust Luis Rengifo has turned it around. You know, I think he might have been a one-and-done hot streak player, and that's fine. Like, I don't want to say he served his purpose, but he served his purpose. Purpose. So. If we get him back, cool. If we don't, cool. He reminds me of Jose Caballero. No, not Jose Caballero. Jose Iglesias. Jose Iglesias, I would have liked to re-sign because he was cool with us, but if we didn't, and, you know, he sucked. So, fine, right? Miguel Andujar, I don't think he declined his mutual option yet, but if he doesn't, or if he doesn't accept it, he'll be a free agent. And I don't... I guess I would re-sign him. I feel like he's a better Austin Hayes, but I think he'd be more expensive than Austin Hayes, so I don't know. But if we get him back, cool. If we don't, whatever, right? It's fine. It's fine. Fine. Uh... I have a bunch of quotes and all that, but we don't really have to look at all that. That's a lot of effort and a lot of reading that I don't feel like doing. So let's just take a look at the roster, what would it look like without these players, or at least what it looks like now, if it loads. Give me a sec. I'll wait for it to load. Okay, here we go, right? Nick Castellanos is gone, so he shouldn't be there. So Jake Cronenworth, second base. Sung Moon Song, second base. Worst case scenario, we have Gavin Sheets and Cronenworth both be first base. And Sung Moon Song plays at second. But, yeah, we still have Gage Workman, which I completely forgot about. But so far, Dustin Harris, Ahmad Taylor, they're still here, right? Jackson Merrill doing his thing. So starting pitching is where the huge problem is. Uh... Griffin Canning, I'm pretty sure, is a free agent. Hedman Marquez, we straight up released. Nick Pavetta, we can get back. J.P. Sears is still here. And Lucas Giolito, I still think... I think he has to do a mutual option, too. I think he just said it was a mutual option, right? I already forgot. My brain is fried. Uh... Yeah, Giolito has a mutual option, but a $1.5 million buyout. Canning, same thing, but a $5 million mutual option. So we're probably going to give them both $1.5 million to literally never come back. I want to let it reload again. Yeah, so clearly it's not the best, but it's not the worst. Bullpen isn't the worst without Morohan and Adam, but it's not great. B-Rob would be our new setup guy. Juani Peralta and Yuki would be our lefty setups. Probably Yuki, though. Kyle Hart can be really good, really bad. I love how Rodolfo Duran's there. That's funny. With Jeremiah Estrada, if he can find it again, same thing with David Morgan. So we don't actually have the worst bullpen without Adam and Morohan. I would like them. Well, I would like Morohán, but Adam I wouldn't hate as long as it's cheap, but I doubt it. So, yeah. So I guess it begs the question, what do you guys think? Who is the Padres' re-signing priorities? Re-sign Michael King, re-sign Morohán, pick up Iveta, spend elsewhere. Who do you want to re-sign? Who do you not want to re-sign? Let me know all of your opinions down below in the comments. And as always, thank you so much for watching. Please subscribe. Follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, Padres Digest. Thank you to our channel members. Remember to check out our awesome bonus features and have a fantastic, wonderful rest of your day. Goodbye.