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Teams such as the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets and even the Los Angeles Angels have been busy this week making additions to their respective rosters to gear up for the 2026 MLB season. The Blue Jays signed starting pitchers Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce. The Mets signed Devin Williams to fill their closer role, and the Angels signed Alek Manoah, a once promising young starter, who fell out of favor in Toronto, to a one-year deal. These moves illustrate the free agent pitching market has been active, and each of these moves has come before the MLB Winter Meetings have started.
There are still plenty of pitchers on the market, but at the current pace, the quality pitchers may not be there for long. The San Diego Padres are probably not going to sign Ranger Suarez or Framber Valdez, but perhaps a reunion with Michael King can be arranged. If that is to be the case, the Padres, who have been deathly quiet, need to start making their push soon.
In the last Gaslamp Poll readers were asked to identify the most important area of need for San Diego this season. It was no surprise that starting pitching received more than three quarters of the votes, followed by offensive slug and defensive vacancies. The poll numbers reflect not just the most important area of the roster to address, but it also identifies the biggest concern for the Friar Faithful.
Padres President of Baseball Operations and General Manager A.J. Preller has his work cutout for him. Three of his five starters from the 2025 roster are not or will not be a part of the 2026 rotation. Cease, as stated above, signed with the Blue Jays, King is still a free agent and seems like a long shot to return, and Yu Darvish will miss the entire 2026 season after elbow surgery following San Diego’s postseason exit.
Preller showed last Spring that he can be creative when he needs to be. The signing of Nick Pivetta surprised much of the baseball world, and it came together in large part to a contract that included player opt-outs and a club option, with varying monetary figures year after year. If San Diego is going to address what the fans and many in the industry see as the biggest problem on the roster through free agency, Preller will need to do more of the same this offseason.
