Apparently there are some murmurs of the Padres potentially slashing payroll from 74 million this season to the 40 million range next year, somewhat similar to how the A's went from 79 million to 47 million in one off-season. By my count, using Cot's, the Padres will have about 27 million coming off of the books through free agency.
| Player | $ Value |
|---|---|
| Maddux | 10 |
| Hoffman | 7.5 |
| Iguchi | 3.85 |
| Barrett | 3.5 |
| Tomko | 0.39 |
| Prior | 1 |
| Estes | 0.55 |
That's not including a potential Brian Giles buy out (3 million) or cost efficient re-signing ( less than 9 million) and about 19 million after planned increases in current players salaries. They also have a handful of arbitration eligible players who may rake in a bit more, especially the rejuvenated Jody Gerut.
With all of that considered I would have to assume that either this report is false or the Padres are going to sell off a key piece or two in order to rebuild and keep their payroll low.