John Seidler approved as Padres’ control person

Major League Baseball owners unanimously voted to approve John Seidler as the San Diego Padres‘ new control person at the owners meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday, commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters.

Seidler will take over for his younger brother, Peter Seidler, the late Padres owner who died in November 2023, making him the ultimate decision-maker for the franchise. John Seidler will formally step into the role once he becomes the trustee of Peter Seidler’s trust. That is expected to take place in the next month.

Thursday’s vote was considered a formality — majority ownership of the Padres remained with the Seidler family after Peter Seidler’s death and the franchise announced that John Seidler would become its next control person on Dec. 21– but it comes a month after Peter Seidler’s widow sued two other Seidler brothers for control of the team.

Sheel Seidler, in a complaint filed in Texas probate court last month, accused Robert and Matthew Seider of “fiduciary breaches of trust, fraud, conversion and egregious acts of self-dealing” in their roles as trustees and executors of Peter Seidler’s estate.

She claimed that she and her three children have been “effectively ostracized” from the organization since Peter Seider’s death. Sheel Seidler also alleged John Seidler becoming the Padres’ control person was contrary to her late husband’s wishes.

The outstanding lawsuit requests that all decisions by the trusts of Peter Seidler’s trust be reversed.

A spokesperson for the Peter Seidler Trust called Sheel Seidler’s complaint “entirely without merit.”

The Padres finished one win shy of advancing to the National League Championship Series in 2024, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games in the NL Division Series.

They have since done little to improve their roster, signing just one player — catcher Elias Diaz — to a major league contract this offseason and not making any trade acquisitions. They lost key contributors Jurickson Profar, Tanner Scott and Ha-Seong Kim to free agency as the fight for control of the franchise brewed.

The Padres are still projected to have one of the top-10 payrolls in baseball at over $200 million, though they could shed more salary by trading Dylan Cease, Michael King or Luis Arraez.

“Are we disappointed we haven’t made any moves? Yeah,” Padres star third baseman Manny Machado told reporters Saturday. “I think as a team you kind of look up there and you’re a little disappointed that we let some of the guys that were [part] of the core group here go elsewhere. But, at the end of the day, we can’t control that.”

ESPN’s Alden González contributed to this report.