NEWSLETTER
What else can you say at this point about the San Diego Padres? They haven’t extended Juan Soto yet or signed Shohei Ohtani yet. And I guess they didn’t land Aaron Judge or Trea Turner. OK. Fine. Some monster things they didn’t do or haven’t done yet. But they’ve basically done everything – absolutely everything – else they’ve tried to do, signing huge contracts with free agents and extension candidates, all after years of aggressive trading.
That is to say, yet another core player is going to be with the team for a long, long time:
The dollars aren’t out yet for Cronenworth, 29, who was otherwise still under team control through 2025. Cronenworth has hit .255/.337/.429/113 wRC+ so far in his big league career, and shown the ability to play quality defense all over the infield.
Cronenworth joins Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, and Robert Suarez, all of whom are signed through AT LEAST 2026.
UPDATE: This seems like a no-brainer for Cronenworth to sign:
Could he have topped $80 million if he played it out? Yeah, maybe. A couple years of arbitration where he’d make something like $15 to $20 million, and then free agency in advance of age-32 season, a $60+ million deal is possible. But Chris Taylor – a fellow utility guy – got a $60 million guarantee in advance of his age-31 season, and that was after the bat stayed productive for the years that are still ahead of Cronenworth. Because of his age, this was a situation where it just made too much sense for Cronenworth to lock this down. Good get for him from where I sit.
