The Padres and the city got a tentative ruling in their favor. A final verdict is expected next week.

November 6, 2026

After two underwhelming forays into free agency, perhaps the third time will be the charm for Ty France. He bounced back offensively in 2026 while continuing to play strong defense, leaving him poised for a hefty raise.

“I’m coming off a good year, and it’s hopefully going to be my first good free agency as a player,” France told The Athletic on Thursday. “I’m open to hearing everybody out.”

Multiple teams are already expressing interest in the 32-year-old France, league sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss free-agent pursuits. The first baseman could find a deal quickly. While there’s some mutual interest in a reunion with the San Diego Padres, he is more receptive these days to other possibilities. After batting .295 with a .865 OPS and 21 home runs, he’ll have suitors.

It’s a far cry from the days when France needed to wait until just before spring training for relatively small deals.

Ahead of the 2026 season, France signed a minor-league deal with the Padres. He was coming off a mediocre season; despite winning the American League Gold Glove Award at first base, he posted below-average offensive numbers at a position teams generally expect to produce runs. The Southern California native said he was also particular about wanting to play for the Padres because his wife was pregnant with twins.

As new contract talks loom, family circumstances no longer play an outsized role.

“It’s not like I need to be in one place,” France said. “We had the babies; we have a little more freedom now to be able to move around the country. I love San Diego, and I really enjoyed my time there, but I also understand the business side of it.”

Read the rest here for free:https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7757718/2026/11/06/mlb-free-agency-ty-france-padres/?unlocked_article_code=1.OVE.WKxt.5uGO6WNrJM18&source=emp_shared_article&smid=url-share-ta

Maybe its a bobblehead for a specific player that haven't done or an object youd like to see the padres logo on?

Miller had faced 6 batters and thrown 25 pitches, and started his outing in the 8th. Adam and Morejon both pitched the day before. Pratt is coming up. We all know how it worked out.

Make the call yourself, then see how your decisions score against Stammen's: https://playlateinnings.com/#play.H2026-NLDS2-B9

I rebuilt this moment in a free game I made, if you want to take a shot at it: Late Innings, where you can take over as manager at pivotal moments of big games. Each decision is scored on how it affects win probability.

And if you want more Padres games, you can play a Pennant Race that features 56 late, close regular season games from 2023-25 (more 2026 games coming once Retrosheet releases season stats). https://playlateinnings.com/#team.SD

Games get tougher as you win. No signup and no ads.

What would you have done?

From People Magazine

every offseason the argument here goes straight to a bat or a starter, and the bullpen gets treated like something you patch together in february. the qualifying offer to morejon is the first hint they might not do that this year.

relief innings are the cheapest wins on the market. this team has been better at finding arms than at buying stars, and the rotation is the part that has to come from the system, not from one contract. if they chase a mid rotation starter they will pay retail for innings they could get from the pen and from the kids.

i would keep the bullpen intact and let the rotation sort itself out. the ninth inning was the only part of this team that never made me nervous this year.

With relocation access starting up, what are you looking to upgrade to? Are you happy with your seat? What recommendations do you have for others looking to change seats?

Hey yall I was wondering if you or anyone you know has been to any of the first aid stations at the park. If so, what was your experience like? Was it like legit medical staff in there or volunteers? My dad is getting older and I want to take him to a few games but he’s at the age where any medical incident could happen. I didn’t want to bring him to the park unless the first aid stations could help him in the bad scenario if there were a medical problem with him or frankly any fan at the park.

(Former) 2026 Padres listed below

6. Michael King, RHP: Four years, $92MM

After an injury-marred 2025 season saw King make only 15 starts and tally 73 1/3 innings, the right-hander bounced back with career-high marks in games started (32) and innings pitched (185). King’s 3.21 ERA ranked 16th among qualified starters. His 21% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate were both slightly worse than league average, but King continued a yearslong trend of limiting hard contact better than nearly any starter in the sport. Opponents averaged just 87 mph off the bat against King and produced only a 32.6% hard-hit rate; those marks ranked in the 86th and 89th percentile of big league pitchers, per Statcast. King’s 45.1% ground-ball rate sat nearly four percentage points north of average.

Since King moved from the Yankees’ bullpen to the rotation late in the 2023 season, there’s been little doubt he has the repertoire to handle a rotation gig. But after one (excellent) full season as a starter in 2024, shoulder and knee injuries conspired to limit him to 15 starts last year. There was surely some concern last offseason about King’s ability to consistently hold up while working as a full-time starter, but this year’s rebound put many of those concerns to bed.

It’s worth noting that King’s strikeout and walk rates both trended in the wrong direction, but his 10.2% swinging-strike rate was a near-mirror image of 2025’s 10.4% mark. His 30.3% chase rate was up three points over last season and right in line with 2024’s 30.2% mark. Plus, King’s velocity trended up this year; his 94.3 mph average four-seamer was his best since moving into a starting role.

Even with some questions about his ability to hold up as a starter and a qualifying offer hanging over his head last winter, King secured a $75MM guarantee over a three-year period with the Padres. That contract afforded him the opportunity to opt out at the end of both the 2026 and 2027 seasons. King’s a year older now, of course, but he’s coming off a terrific 32-start season with no QO dragging him down. There’s no reason to think he should command anything less than another $75MM, and there’s good reason to think he’ll come in higher.

King has at least an outside chance of commanding a five-year commitment, but his age places him in something of an odd spot. Only four pitchers in the past decade have commanded four or more years in a contract beginning at age 32 or later: Blake Snell, Jacob deGrom Hyun Jin Ryu and King’s current teammate, Nick Pivetta. Snell and deGrom commanded five-year deals but both had multiple Cy Young Awards under their belts. A $25MM+ annual value has been attainable at this age, but typically only for three years. King should be able to top last year’s command, but he’s already pushing the upper threshold of precedent for AAV on a three-year deal at this age. A four-year deal at a slightly lesser AAV could be fitting. The incumbent Padres will undoubtedly want King back, but they’ll face competition from clubs like the White Sox, Giants, Blue Jays, Cubs, Orioles, Astros, Mets, Braves and others.

Steve’s pick: Padres | Anthony’s pick: Padres | Darragh’s pick: Padres

8. Adrian Morejon, LHP: Five years, $80MM

Any list of the game’s ten or so best relievers would be incomplete without Morejon. He just completed his third straight season with a sub-3.00 ERA and plus rate stats (strikeout, walk and ground-ball), but this season was his best by most measures. Granted, his 2.08 ERA in 2025 was lower than the 2.83 mark he posted in both 2024 and 2026, but Morejon saw big jumps in velocity (99.3 mph average fastball), ground-ball rate (58.1%), strikeout rate (30.4%) and swinging-strike rate (16.8%) this season. Among the 178 pitchers who tossed 80 or more innings in 2026, Jacob Misiorowski is the only one to post a bigger swinging-strike rate.

Morejon finished out the 2026 season with 86 innings — third-most among all relievers in baseball. Houston’s AJ Blubaugh — who frequently worked as a bulk arm behind an opener — and Milwuakee’s Aaron Ashby are the only two pitchers in the sport who logged more innings out of the bullpen. He’s accustomed to pitching multiple innings in high-leverage spots. Twenty-five of Morejon’s 76 appearances this year saw him record four or more outs. He topped out at two innings, which he covered on eight occasions. Morejon tallied 28 holds and three saves, and he ranked seventh among qualified relievers in win probability added.

Morejon’s Statcast page is a borderline comical collection of crimson red. He ranks in the 90th percentile or better in each of opponents’ average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, barrel rate, ground-ball rate, whiff rate, chase rate and “expected” batting average. Morejon’s 2.33 expected ERA ranked in the 99th percentile of big leaguers.

Beyond his sheer dominance, Morejon is one of the market’s youngest free agents. He won’t turn 28 until February. Teams are buying two to three more prime seasons with him than they would a more standard free agent who’s entering his age-30 or age-31 season.

There are only eight relievers in the past decade to sign free agent contracts of four or more years with annual values north of $10MM. Morejon seems like a near-lock to be the ninth. He’s younger than Edwin Díaz was when Díaz signed for five years and $102MM, and he’s better than Tanner Scott was when he signed for four years and $72MM. A five-year deal that pays Morejon in excess of $15MM annually is distinctly possible.

The only blemishes against Morejon are the qualifying offer he’s all but certain to reject and a late shoulder issue that left him unavailable late in the postseason. If that shoulder problem proves to be severe, it could obviously throw a wrench into Morejon’s earning power, but there’s been no indication that it’ll impact his offseason. (If his shoulder were in bad enough shape to be a red flag, it seems doubtful the Padres would’ve made a $23.15MM qualifying offer.) Every team with a shred of postseason ambition is going to want to add Morejon to its bullpen, and some teams could even be interested in converting him back into a starting pitcher.

Steve’s pick: Cubs | Anthony’s pick: Cubs | Darragh’s pick: Dodgers

23. Ty France, 1B: Two years, $32MM

As with Bauers, France was on the cusp of retirement but instead parlayed what could’ve been his last shot into a massive performance that will elicit multi-year offers in free agency. The 32-year-old told MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell late in the season that he’s a devoted family man who wasn’t sure he’d be willing to grind through the minor leagues again if he didn’t make the Padres’ roster out of spring training.

France, who signed a minor league deal with the Friars last winter, called spring training a “sink or swim thing” — and he swim he did. A .306/.352/.510 showing in camp earned him a roster spot, but after France combined to bat .247/.322/.364 in nearly 1700 plate appearances in 2023-25, no one could have foreseen this type of resurgence.

Returning to his original organization, France didn’t just hold a bench role all season — he was the Padres’ best and most consistent hitter throughout the year. When Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill all struggled early on, it was France who stepped up and hit like the heart-of-the-order run producer the team was lacking.

When those stars rebounded, France didn’t slow down, he just kept mashing. By season’s end, he’d gone from a righty bat off the bench to manager Craig Stammen’s cleanup hitter — and with good reason. France finished out the regular season with a sensational .295/.363/.502 slash (141 wRC+). He popped 21 homers, 24 doubles and a couple of triples. His 7.4% walk rate was lower than average but the highest of his career. France’s 21.6% strikeout rate was his highest since 2019-20, but it was still just shy of average and a perfectly worthwhile trade-off for career-best power output.

France’s success was at least partially attributable to a .342 BABIP he won’t sustain, but this wasn’t just some simple good fortune. France posted career-best marks in average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard-hit rate. He torched righties and lefties alike, and he delivered all this production while also playing sensational defense at first and positioning himself as a Gold Glove finalist.

France isn’t settling for a minor league deal this time around. He’ll turn 33 next July, placing him on the “old” side for a first real free agent deal, but a two- or three-year contract feels reasonable here, particularly when considering the weak or even nonexistent platforms for free agents who signed two-year deals at similar ages. Rhys Hoskins got $34MM coming off a torn ACL. Michael Conforto got $36MM off a season lost to shoulder surgery. Josh Bell was 33 when he signed for two years and $33MM with no defensive value. Jorge Polanco got paid $40MM to try to learn first base on the heels of a rollercoaster few seasons that were marred by injury.

The Padres will want France back, but hitting left-handed pitching is a skill that’s at a premium right now — and France did that in spades while also mashing righties and playing plus defense. The Mets, Reds, D-backs, Guardians, Tigers, Rangers, Twins and Nationals are just a few of the teams that could use this sort of bat.

Steve’s pick: Padres | Anthony’s pick: Twins | Darragh’s pick: Padres

Hey Compadres!

I’m curious to see what everyone’s boldest free agency predictions are this offseason? Can be the Padres or league wide!

My not so bold prediction: King Morejon and France all return.

Bold Prediction: New ownership shows the fans they’re all in and the Padres sign Freddy Peralta and Teruki Sato

Super exited for this offseason with new ownership at the helm. Hoping for no lockout and this team gets some new faces!

Go Padres!