The Seidler family is close to a deal to sell the Padres to a group led by private equity billionaire José E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones, per Jared Diamond and Miriam Gottfried of the Wall Street Journal. The deal values the Padres franchise at around $3.9 billion, which would shatter the previous record for a major league franchise in sales. Steve Cohen’s purchase of the Mets for $2.4 billion in 2020 is currently a record.
Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported yesterday that the sale process is nearing completion, suggesting the Seidlers could get a price in excess of $3.5 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal duo, San Diego received multiple bids that valued the franchise at more than $3.5 billion. Apart from Feliciano’s team, the three finalists were teams led by Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, and Dan Friedkin, who owns the English Premier League club Everton.
Feliciano himself is the majority owner of Chelsea FC of the EPL and is the founder of Clearlake Capital, a private equity firm with over $90 billion in assets under management and focused on the technology, industrial and consumer sectors. Jones is the founder and CEO of Supercharged, a media company based in Santa Monica.
Padres ownership has been in a state of turmoil since late owner Peter Seidler passed away in November of 2023. Seidler’s willingness to spend at more aggressive levels than previous iterations of Padres ownership ushered in a new era of baseball in San Diego – one that saw the Friars emerge as perennial contenders and major players in free agency. From 2009-14, the Padres ranked in the bottom six MLB teams in terms of salary per season. Under Seidler’s watch, payroll has soared north of $200MM, including a record Opening Day payroll of $249MM in 2023. The Friars have used an Opening Day payroll of $200MM+ in four of the past five seasons.
Since Peter’s death, there has been a rift between the widow and her siblings. Sheel Seidler, Peter’s wife, filed a lawsuit against his brothers Bob and Matt Seidler, alleging that they violated fiduciary law and committed fraud as his successors. He accused them of selling their goods at below-market prices in an attempt to consolidate control of the franchise. Matt responded by accusing Sheel of “making claims” to ensure control of the franchise himself. The allegations have never been fully charged; Sheel’s claims were settled out of court earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Peter’s other brother, John, has been approved as the person in charge of the franchise in February of 2025. John announced last November that his family had begun “the process of evaluating our future with the Padres, including a possible sale of the franchise.” In the following months, five applicants came forward who were willing to appear. The teams of Feliciano, Lacob, Gores and Friedkin were the final four, it seems.
It emphasizes that nothing has been finalized yet. Diamond and Gottfried report that an official announcement could come as early as next week, however. Even after a deal is agreed, Feliciano and Jones won’t be taking control of the club any time soon. They will still need the approval of 75% of the other league owners at the next MLB owners’ meetings in June. Lin, Ken Rosenthal and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic added that the total amount of the deal would need to include about $300MM of debt accumulated by the franchise. Either way, it will be a record-breaking deal if the proposed deal is pushed through next week.
Time will tell exactly what the ownership change means for the upcoming iteration of the Padres. Still, with the sticker price so flashy, there’s no guarantee that Feliciano and Jones will have the same willingness to spend as their late predecessor, Peter Seidler.
Even in the two years since Peter’s sudden passing, the salary has been reduced to some extent. The Padres have spent $200MM+ in Opening Day revenue each of the past two seasons, ranking them in the top 10 in the league in both cases, but that’s a ways removed from the team record mark of $249MM set in 2023. In each of the past two seasons, preJ baseball reports have surfaced regarding the limitations of the president’s performance.
San Diego made one notable free agent acquisition each offseason — Nick Pivetta last year, Michael King this year – but their other additions have all been very small in scale. Even Pivetta’s four-year, $55MM contract required a creative structure that paid him just $4MM in 2025 before his salary increased to $19MM in 2026. The final two seasons of the deal are player options, giving him the right to opt out at the end of the season (although his recent injury may cause him to forgo that option).
While there are instances of new ownership causing a significant increase in spending — eg Cohen’s purchase of the Mets and Peter Seidler’s ascension from minority shareholder to majority owner of the Padres in 2020 — that is not true in all cases. The Orioles spent more money under David Rubenstein than under John and Lou Angelos, for example, but never advanced the payroll beyond the levels established by the late Peter Angelos (John and Lou’s father). The trade of Jeffrey Loria to the Marlins for Bruce Sherman has not gotten Miami out of the cap space. The Royals payroll under current owner John Sherman, who bought the team for $1 billion in 2020, is not much different than it was under former owner David Glass.
Regardless of what happens with the club’s payroll, the new ownership group should bring stability and continuity, ending the tumultuous uncertainty that has surrounded the club over the past few seasons. And the franchise’s huge sales price — another testament to the game’s broader financial health — figures to be a number often cited in upcoming labor talks between the league and the Players Association as the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement nears its end on Dec. 1.
