Padres’ record $3.9 billion sale proves small-market owners can afford to spend

It's being reported that the San Diego Padres are going to be sold to private-equity billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, for a whopping $3.9 billion. While it's obviously great for MLB that one of its teams — a small market one at that — is worth that much money, this could also be the league's biggest nightmare ahead of an expected offseason lockout.

MLB owners want a salary cap added to the game, citing financial disparities around the league, while players are vehemently against such an addition. The Padres selling for nearly $4 billion, assuming the deal gets done, is exactly why players believe that MLB owners have no case.

Padres are proof that MLB team values are skyrocketing

MLB owners consistently try to act as if owning a team isn't a money-making entity. What does this looming transaction tell you, though? Valuations are going through the roof now.

According to a Forbes article from March, the Padres were valued at $3.1 billion. That $3.1 billion valuation included a 59 percent year-over-year increase in value. The Padres' value skyrocketed to get to $3.1 billion, and the franchise is reportedly selling for almost $1 billion beyond that.

The Padres were purchased for $800 million in 2012 by Peter Seidler. Not even two decades later, the value of the franchise has increased by almost five times what it once was. As if that isn't crazy enough, the New York Mets — yes, the NEW YORK Mets, who play in the biggest market in the country — sold for $2.4 billion in 2020, with Steve Cohen paying the largest sum for an MLB team in history. Six years later, a Padres team that does not play in a major market, is selling for close to double that.

Despite being a franchise in debt and with several undesirable contracts on the books, the Padres are sellable. Does that not speak to the health of MLB?

Padres' sale teaches other small market teams important lesson

Admittedly, the Padres are a unique case. Their value went up significantly, partly because they sell out virtually every home game. They trail only the Los Angeles Dodgers in attendance, and they've ranked in the top five every year since 2021. Not every small market team can get as many fans to the park.

With that being said, this hasn't always been the case in San Diego. In 2019, the Padres ranked 14th in attendance. The last time they ranked in the top five before 2021 was in 2005. Fans were not coming to games in droves like they are now. The late Peter Seidler is the man responsible for the attendance changes.

Despite the Padres being a small-market, low-revenue team, Seidler spent a fortune trying to get his team back to relevance before his death in 2023. From Eric Hosmer and Manny Machado to Xander Bogaerts, San Diego has spent a ton in free agency, and they've even spent a lot of money on extensions for young players like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill. Their trades to acquire superstars like Mason Miller, Juan Soto and Josh Hader (to name a few) might not have all aged well, and the same can be said for the free agency signings, but they make an effort to try and win.

The results have been there. Sure, they haven't won much in October, but they've made the playoffs in four of the last six years. They had made the playoffs five times in franchise history before their latest successful run.

If you actually try to win, more often than not, you'll end up winning. If you end up winning, or even making an effort to do so, fans will show up to the ballpark. If fans show up to the ballpark, you will make money. This isn't rocket science.

Padres sale should be warning to other small market owners

The Padres are proof that if you spend money, you will make money, and the value of the team will only increase. Knowing that, it really feels like small-market teams have a choice when it comes to spending money. Most of them decide not to take it. That doesn't mean they can't take it.

If the Padres can exponentially change their franchise's valuation by spending, what's stopping other small-market teams from doing the same? I'm not even saying a team like the Miami Marlins should be spending nine figures on free agents. Can't they do something? You're really telling me they can't afford to spend more than $81 million in payroll, as they are in 2026?

The Marlins, and many other small-market teams, can spend more. Their refusal to do so does not mean they can't. If they won't, selling the team should be the next step. There's no excuse anymore after what the Padres just did.

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