Thirteen months after the death of late owner Peter Seidler, the San Diego Padres have settled on a full-time replacement. Seidler’s older brother, John Seidler, will run the organization, the team said Saturday.
The news of Seidler’s appointment, which was first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, comes after the Padres concluded one of the best seasons in franchise history, advancing to the National League Division Series before falling to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It has been just over a year since we lost our Chairman Peter Seidler. He would be incredibly proud of the team’s grit and performance this past season but mostly grateful to the Padres fans whose loyalty and support inspired them,” the team said in a statement.
“Since Peter’s passing, Eric Kutsenda has served as our interim control person. Peter’s youngest brother Matt, as trustee of Peter’s trust, is pleased to announce that John Seidler, Peter’s oldest sibling, an accomplished entrepreneur and business executive, will be the Padres’ next control person, pending approval by Major League Baseball.
“Peter never viewed the Padres as ‘his’ team. Instead, he saw the team as an asset of the community of which he was a faithful steward. John shares Peter’s vision and will continue to strengthen and nurture this great franchise, its players, fans and employees, and the entire San Diego community.”
Last November, soon after Seidler’s death, Major League Baseball appointed Kutsenda, a longtime friend and business partner of Seidler’s, as interim control person. MLB requires a team control person to hold at least a 15 percent stake in their respective team. While league sources said Kutsenda falls below that standard, the commissioner’s office made an exception because Kutsenda was serving on an interim basis.
John Seidler, the oldest of 10 siblings, is believed to meet MLB’s threshold for full-time oversight. Seidler, 65, has been a minority owner of the Padres since 2012, when Peter Seidler and Ron Fowler led the purchase of the team. The Seidler family, which includes Seidler’s siblings, mother, widow and multiple cousins, is said to hold a stake of between 40 percent and 50 percent.
How the operation of the team might change under John Seidler remains to be seen. Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller and CEO Erik Greupner are expected to continue in their current roles, and Kutsenda will continue to have a role in the leadership of the organization. A team spokesperson declined further comment Saturday.
Under Seidler’s younger brother, the Padres transformed from a relative afterthought in a small media market to one of the sport’s most aggressive franchises, making significantly leveraged investments and running a franchise-record $255 million payroll in 2023. But even before that season ended in disappointment, some team officials said, Peter Seidler had indicated he anticipated the Padres would not sustain that level of spending.
Last offseason, with Kutsenda serving as chairman, the Padres traded star outfielder Juan Soto and cut close to $90 million in payroll. The team subsequently surprised the rest of the industry by winning 93 games, and the Padres have returned to compliance with MLB’s debt-service rules, according to league sources.
However, this offseason has brought more financial restraint. The Padres, before making an addition to their major-league roster, are carrying a projected payroll roughly $40 million higher than it was at the end of the 2024 season. They also are estimated to be over the luxury-tax threshold, and like they were last winter with Soto, the Padres have been willing to listen to trade offers for pricier veterans, including Dylan Cease, Luis Arraez and Jake Cronenworth.
For now, the franchise has produced at least a temporary answer to some of the uncertainty wrought by Peter Seidler’s death. Seidler often and publicly shared his expectation that his family would own the Padres for decades. Now, his older brother has been selected to carry on his legacy.
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(Photo: Brandon Sloter / Getty Images)
