5 former Padres still without a job heading toward spring training

The San Diego Padres are a team in transition at the moment. After the 2023 season proved to be a dud, the team was forced to make some pretty drastic moves to cut payroll after a few years of being amongst the league's biggest spenders. Most will probably point to the Padres trading away Juan Soto as the biggest blow, but the Padres also had to let several really good players walk in free agency due to their financial limitations.

Some of those former Padres have already found new teams for 2024. Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo both ended up signing with the Royals, but the biggest names that left San Diego for greener pastures have yet to sign this offseason.

Here are some former Padres players that are still free agents somehow

This isn't supposed to be an exhaustive list of every free agent that played for the Padres last season because, well, there are a lot of them and many of them only played minor roles. Instead, this list is a look at some of the more notable names still on the market and what the latest buzz is surrounding their free agencies. This offseason has been notoriously slow, but spring training is coming up fast so expect these guys to start finding new homes pretty quickly.

Josh Hader

Josh Hader is first up because it appears as though he could be the next domino to fall this offseason. Ever since Hader made his big league debut in 2017 with the Brewers, he has been among the best relievers in all of baseball. However, he struggled mightily after the Padres traded for him in 2022 and many wondered if that move would prove to be a costly mistake.

Fortunately for the Padres, that season proved to be an outlier as Hader re-established himself with a 1.28 ERA in 61 appearances in route to making his fifth All-Star team. As a free agent, rumor has it that he is looking to beat Edwin Diaz's deal with the Mets and get the richest reliever contract ever. His market started off pretty slow, but now it looks like the Astros could land him very soon to help out their beleaguered bullpen.