Padres listening on offers for top starter despite glaring pitching needs

Because of course the San Diego Padres’ latest Winter Meetings plot twist involves their best starter.

Dennis Lin of The Athletic says the Padres are at least picking up the phone on Nick Pivetta. After posting a 2.87 ERA over a career-high 181 2/3 innings and finishing sixth in the NL Cy Young race.

On the surface, it doesn’t make any sense. The Padres just watched Dylan Cease walk to Toronto and still have multiple rotation spots to patch. In a world that operates on normal baseball logic, Pivetta is the last guy you talk about moving. He’s the Opening Day starter you write in pen after last season’s performance, then worry about the rest of the depth chart.

Padres exploring Nick Pivetta offers is the latest mixed signal of the offseason

But the Padres don’t really live in that world right now. They live in the every-dollar-counts reality where “we’re trying to win” is constantly battling “we’re trying not to blow up the budget anymore.” Pivetta’s deal is a perfect example of that tension. Last year he cost them just $1 million in salary (plus a $3 million signing bonus), but that changes fast: he’s owed $19 million in 2026, and next November he gets the chance to walk away from the final two years and $32 million if he thinks he can do better in free agency.

So any team trading for him right now is really acquiring two things at once: a legitimate frontline arm for 2026 and a massive decision point after that. If Pivetta shoves again, he’s probably gone and you rented him for a year. If he gets hurt or backslides, he might stick you with the back half of the contract. That’s exactly why the return would have to be steep for the Padres to even consider it.

From San Diego’s side, this feels less like a “we’re punting on 2026” signal and more like classic A.J. Preller: stress-testing the market to see if someone will overpay for a shiny asset while he tries to solve three problems at once — rotation, lineup depth, and payroll.

Still, there’s no getting around the optics. When your biggest need is starting pitching, even listening on your top starter is going to make Padres fans nervous. And honestly? It probably should.