Padres' Seidler on Tatis deal: 'There's nothing we can't do'

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Padres majority owner Peter Seidler couldn’t make it any clearer.

He doesn’t think San Diego is a small market, but rather views it for what it is, the eighth-largest city in the United States.

And he’s certain the Padres can handle the three nine-figure contracts they’ve doled out in the last four years.

Outsiders have questioned how the Padres will be able to afford the $340 million, 14-year contract they gave electrifying shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. on Monday, the longest deal in baseball history. That deal comes on top of the $300 million, 10-year deal they handed slugger Manny Machado in 2019 and the $144 million, eight-year contract they gave first baseman Eric Hosmer in 2018.

After a relatively bruising two decades in which ownership wasn’t willing or able to spend on big deals, these Padres are committed to competing.

“We love this city,” Seidler told The Associated Press hours after the Padres announced the deal for Tatis, who has become one of the faces of baseball. “We want to honor the support our extraordinary fans give us.

“In 1984 and 1998, this place went crazy. And those were real teams that went to the World Series. I know we have the city’s trust and the city trusts us. We’re going to put good teams out there. From a franchise standpoint, we’re going to get support and we’re going to back it up with our actions reflective of the eighth-largest city in America.”

Seidler is a grandson of the late Walter O’Malley, who moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, and a nephew of Peter O’Malley, who owned the Dodgers until 1998.

He and civic leader Ron Fowler headed a group that bought the Padres in 2012 from John Moores. Moores’ ownership had become tumultuous in the years after his...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Padres-Seidler-on-Tatis-deal-There-s-nothing-15974670.php