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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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Baseball agents might be the busiest men in the sports industry this month.
As Dec. 1 approaches, the race to find new contracts for major league free agents is turning the expiration date of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between players and owners into a deadline. Agents must work harder than usual to lock in contracts for clients who want one done before an expected lockout — and the transaction freeze that comes with it.
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The lockout is an optional negotiating tool for owners. So far, however, it's looking like a certainty. Collective bargaining talks between MLB and the MLB Players Association has been defined by acrimony, rather than an earnest search for common ground.
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Against this backdrop, it was at least unusual for one agent, Scott Boras, to praise the owner of one MLB team.
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The compliment came with a catch: Peter Seidler doesn't own the San Diego Padres anymore. He wasn't even alive to hear the compliment Boras paid him on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast over the weekend.
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“We have an owner who went and took and signed four or five players, that's all he did," Boras said of Seidler, who died in November 2023, "and he took 20,000 fans and made it 40 (thousand) and took a $600 million franchise and made it worth $4 billion.
"That's the genius of Peter Seidler, God bless him. And that genius was rewarded to that ownership. And that genius was allowed to do so based upon the stage and the platform that was provided.”
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Boras' point was simple. The uncapped free agent system in MLB allowed the Padres to sign third baseman Manny Machado, extend the contract of right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., sign free agent shortstop Xander Bogaerts, and extend the contract of pitcher Yu Darvish in February 2023.
Along with the $100 million extension for starting pitcher Joe Musgrove, the Padres' spending spree coincided with a run of success under Seidler that saw fans regularly sell out Petco Park.
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In 2019, the final season under previous majority owner Ron Fowler, the Padres averaged 29,585 fans per game, 14th in MLB. The 2026 season saw Petco Park attendance surpass 40,000 per game and finish in the Top 3 for the fourth consecutive year.
San Diego is an easy team for an agent to praise. By overspending on players relative to their market size, and achieving immediate success in the standings and at the ticket gates, the Padres laid a blueprint that can encourage more competition among teams to spend more freely on players.
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Boras and other agents would argue this benefitted fans, players, and the bottom line of Seidler — and the owners that bought the team from his heirs, Jose Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, for $3.9 billion earlier this year.
Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred might beg to differ. At least, he's the appointed spokesperson for a majority of owners who are willing to shut down the sport to make a counterpoint.
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