A busy offseason is underway in San Diego. The Padres are set to bring back a strong core for the 2026 season, but they have several key areas to address as well. Here’s a subjective ranking of their biggest needs this offseason, ranked five through one:
5. Bench depth
Freddy Fermin solidified the starting catcher spot. Ramón Laureano has a team-friendly option and will almost certainly be back to anchor left field. Gavin Sheets has earned a spot as the strong side of a platoon, at the very least. The Padres have filled out a handful of next year’s offensive needs with moves from the past 10 months.
But the bench spots behind that group are wide open. Elias Díaz and Jose Iglesias are free agents. Which means the Padres now need a backup catcher and probably a backup infielder. (They acquired Will Wagner in a Deadline deal with the Blue Jays, but they should still look to add to their infield mix.)
Bryce Johnson can return as a backup outfielder, but the Padres need a potent bench bat beyond that. Which is to say, they need to find next year’s Sheets.
4. Rotation depth
More to come on the rotation later. But we’ll start with the back end. Randy Vásquez has earned his place. For much of the summer, he was excellent, but with underwhelming peripheral numbers. Rather than regress toward those peripheral numbers -- as is typically the case -- the opposite happened. Vásquez began to miss bats and limit walks. He looks like he could become a mainstay.
Beyond Vásquez? The back end of the rotation is thin, and given the concerns at the top -- there’s very little clarity regarding Yu Darvish’s future, and Joe Musgrove is returning from Tommy John surgery -- the Padres are going to need more depth.
Thing is, they traded a bunch of their upper-level pitching depth at last year’s Trade Deadline, and JP Sears struggled upon his arrival. Multiple fringe rotation additions will be needed.
3. Power
The Padres do not need to lead the league in homers in 2026. But they absolutely cannot finish 28th, as they did in '25. The most important thing they can do is maximize the in-house power potential of guys like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill. But it can’t hurt to add externally.
Which means Luis Arraez is the type of free agent they probably shouldn’t be chasing. San Diego will almost certainly need to skew toward a power bat to fill out its sole lineup vacancy (either at first base or DH).
“There’s a lot of ways to do it,” Preller said of the offense. “Hitting the ball out of the park is obviously a nice thing to do. We’re capable of doing that. I think we’re going to look to add to that.
“But I think it’s that balance between grinding at-bats and hitting the ball out of the ballpark and having that consistent offensive pressure. That’s what we talk about all the time. We’ve got to find some ways to get a little bit better on that front this offseason.”
2. A frontline starter
Dylan Cease and Michael King combined to make 110 starts as Padres over the past two seasons, and both are set to hit free agency. Nick Pivetta returns at the front of the rotation, and Musgrove is expected back from surgery. But that’s a lot of innings to replace.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Pivetta signing. He signed on the first day of full-squad Spring Training, then ended up stabilizing the entire 2025 rotation -- and on a manageable contract.
In short: If the Padres are unable to bring back Cease or King -- which seems the likeliest outcome -- they must find their next Pivetta.
1. The right manager
For all the roster questions, the current squad still boasts serious upside. With the right additions, it’s an obvious October-caliber roster. And with the right person at the helm … maybe it’s a World Series-caliber ballclub?
Mike Shildt’s retirement has prompted another manager search, and sources have said the interview process is well underway. Under Shildt, the Padres won 90-plus games in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history.
The next manager will need to build on those foundations, then take that next step in October. For all the transactions the Padres are likely to make this winter, finding the right fit for the manager’s chair is perhaps the most important move they’ll make.