Padres’ Sung-Mun Song contract details are deeply confusing (and we can help)

The San Diego Padres finally made it official with Sung-Mun Song… and then immediately dropped a contract structure that reads like it was written on a napkin during a red-eye to San Diego.

Here’s the cleanest way to understand it: Song’s deal is being reported (via Ronald Blum of the Associated Press) as a four-year, $15 million pact, but it’s only “four years” in the way that baseball contracts love to be “four years.” 

Sung-Mun Song’s Padres deal looks simple until you read the fine print

The true guaranteed money is basically the first three seasons plus a signing bonus:

• 2026: $2.5M
• 2027: $3M
• 2028: $3.5M
• Signing bonus: $1M total (split into $500K in January 2026 and $500K in January 2027)

Add that up and you get $10 million in the “you’re definitely getting paid this” bucket.

After that, it turns into a choose-your-own-adventure:

• 2029: $4M player option (Song decides)
• 2030: $7M mutual option (both sides decide), with a $1M buyout if it doesn’t get picked up

So the "four years, $15M" math is essentially: $10M guaranteed plus an additional $4M to be earned via player option plus $1M buyout (assuming the mutual option does not occur). Therefore, this would appear to be a four year contract, despite most of the backend being comprised of options and leverage for Song.

Additionally, Song can have some added flavor:

• A $1M bonus should Song win National League Rookie of the Year
• An MVP salary escalator if Song finishes in the top five in MVP voting.

And yes, Kiwoom gets their cut: the $3M posting fee is the standard 20% of the first $25M of guaranteed value under the KBO posting rules. 

This is also happening right after the Padres’ opt-out-heavy reunion with Michael King, and it’s not just “cute depth” budgeting anymore. RosterResource lists the 2026 CBT thresholds at $244M, $264M, $284M, and $304M—and San Diego’s estimated luxury tax payroll is already sitting right around the mid-$260Ms neighborhood. 

Translation: Song’s deal isn’t massive, but it’s the kind of move that matters when you’re trying to stay just barely under a line that triggers bigger penalties.

Which, honestly, is the most Padres thing possible: add an intriguing KBO bat, keep the roster flexible… and make all of us do math in late December.