Padres push opening-day payroll to franchise-record $205 million

The Padres will start the 2022 season with an opening-day payroll north of $205 million, pushing spending to new heights for the second year in a row and a third time in the last four years.

It’s no surprise these days.

Once entrenched as a bottom-third spender, the Padres joined the Dodgers in crossing last year’s luxury tax threshold, added payroll on the margins of the roster this offseason and have not been able to dump any of their burdensome contracts.

Thursday’s opening-day trade did shed some cash as the Twins will pay $6.6 million of new reliever Taylor Rogers’ $7.3 million salary in 2022, in addition to taking the $4.55 million owed to Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagán. The Padres also traded away Victor Caratini ($2 million) to the Brewers on Wednesday.

That relief comes as the Padres look to stay below the new $230 million luxury tax threshold, an endeavor complicated by an inability to move either Eric Hosmer ($20 million in 2022) and Wil Myers ($20 million) over the last few seasons.

With Sunday’s trade for Sean Manaea ($9.75 million) and their trades on Wednesday and Thursday, the Padres open the season with their luxury tax estimate topping $228 million, according to Fangraphs.com.

The luxury tax estimate is calculated using the average annual value of a contract, meaning Fernando Tatis Jr. will be paid $5 million in 2022 but count for $24.3 million against the threshold after signing a 14-year, $340 million deal last season.

While Tatis’ deal is the richest in franchise history, Manny Machado, at $30 million, will be the Padres’ highest paid player in 2022, followed by Hosmer, Myers and Yu Darvish, all at $20 million.

The contracts for Myers ($83 million in 2017), Hosmer ($144 million in 2018) and Machado ($300 million in 2019) preceded Tatis’ megadeal as spending under GM A.J. Preller has increased steadily since beginning the 2017 season with a $68.5 million payroll, the second lowest in the league.

Of course, the Padres had also just dumped north of $80 million on the 2016-17 international class.

The opening-day payroll rose to $101.6 million in 2018, $121.1 million in 2019 and projected to push higher than $150 million in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season down to 60 games.

The Padres made the playoffs that year but collapsed in the second half of 2021 despite opening with a projected $179.8 million payroll.

Marginal additions to the roster this offseason include pitchers Nick Martinez ($6 million) and Robert Suarez ($5 million) from Japan and trades for Manaea, Rogers and Luke Voit ($5.45 million).

The Padres also have six players on the injured list — Drew Pomeranz ($10 million), Mike Clevinger ($8 million), Tatis ($5 million), Luis Garcia ($3.5 million), Michel Báez ($704,700) and Adrián Morejón ($704,500) — accounting for nearly $28 million.

Additionally, the Padres will pay 10 pre-arbitration players less than $750,000 each as the new collective bargaining agreement raised the league minimum from $570,500 last year to $700,000 in 2022.

Here is the full breakdown of the Padres’ 28-man roster:

(San Diego Union-Tribune)