San Diego Padres news: New manager candidate rumors, roster decisions, free agents

With the dominoes that fell inside the National League Central on Monday, could the repercussions continue with the San Diego Padres? Let's talk about that and more in today's Padres news and notes roundup.

David Ross a candidate to lead San Diego Padres?

After a bombshell on Monday where Craig Counsell left the Milwaukee Brewers to take over the Chicago Cubs, David Ross was ousted from his position as manager of the Cubs. With the Padres still looking to hire a manager after Bob Melvin bolted for the San Francisco Giants, could Ross be a candidate to take over in San Diego? According to Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Padres are "mulling" whether to talk to Ross or not about the vacant opening.

While Acee reveals that Mike Shildt is still considered to be the favorite to become the next manager, it still seems that there are other options being considered, with another option potentially being added in Ross.

Qualifying offers extended to Josh Hader, Blake Snell

After all of the shock surrounding Ross on Monday, one of the lesser shocking moves of the day was San Diego extending qualifying offers to pitchers Josh Hader and Blake Snell. Both are expected to reject the qualifying offer (QO), which would equate to a one-year deal of $20.325 million.

With the qualifying offers now tied to them, any team that signs Hader or Snell will send draft pick compensation to the Padres. It's a complex system and there's a simple explainer for what Padres need to know about a QO here.

Including Hader and Snell, there were seven MLB players who now have a QO attached to them. That includes Shohei Ohtani, who is still expected to be courted by the Padres this offseason.

San Diego Padres free agent targets?

MLBTradeRumors.com has published their top 50 free agents for the offseason and their projections for where they will land. You can see the list here.

Spoiler alert: All three experts expect Ohtani to sign with the Dodgers (collective groan from Padres fans). San Diego's first potential free agent comes in at number 15, and that's Japanese outfielder Jung Hoo Lee (see his stats here).

The last paragraph from MLBTR's article is very interesting, "As is the case with (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto and (Shota) Imanaga, a major league team would owe a posting fee to the Asian club. The calculation is the same as it is for the NPB players: 20% of the first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter. Lee’s potential suitors may depend on teams’ perception of his ability to play center field regularly in the Majors."

MLBTR also wrote this, "Lee has strong pure contact skills, but there’s some concern he won’t hit for the kind of power necessary to play every day in the corner outfield."

Do your research, Padres fans. Is this someone you'd like to have on the roster? Let us know by connecting with us on X.