“I shouldn’t have left – Former San Diego Padres key Man Regrets Leaving As He Struggles With New Team.
With the World Series underway and the inevitable end of the 2025 MLB season on the horizon, predictions about where players will end up and the money they will receive from their 2026 employers are coming out. Jim Bowden of The Athletic provided a new set of predictions with his “Top 50 MLB free agents for 2025-26: Contract predictions, team fits for Tucker, Schwarber, more” article, released Monday.
Bowden includes information and predictions for several players in the article. Some of his predictions include the Padres as a landing spot for free agents, while other predictions include his potential landing spots and contract expectations for soon-to-be free agents like Dylan Cease, Ryan O’Hearn and Luis Arraez. Bowden also included players like Michael King and Robert Suarez, who are expected to exercise opt-outs in their respective contracts, making them part of the free agent pool.
A handful of players are listed as potential fits in San Diego, including multiple starting pitchers. It’s no secret the Padres need to address their starting rotation in the offseason with Cease and King expected to leave in free agency, and questions about the health of Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove, who will be returning from Tommy John surgery, lingering.
The following is a list of players Bowden identifies as potential fits in San Diego along with his projected contracts for each player:
Cease, King, Suarez, Arraez and O’Hearn are included in Bowden’s list of top free agents. Cease is predicted to land a six-year, $187 million contract, and the Padres are on the list of potential fits. Several other teams are listed as suitors for the 30-year-old right-hander despite his elevated numbers in 2025. Those teams include the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers.
King is expected to opt-out of a mutual option with the Padres and enter free agency. He is predicted to land a three-year, $75 million contract, which is certainly much lower than what would have been projected for the 30-year-old right-hander before 2025. Health issues were noted as the reason for suppressed contractual numbers. The Padres are one of several teams listed as fits for King with the other teams being the New York Yankees,
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