San Diego Padres 2026 Position Analysis: First Base

[Randy Holt]

Coming into the offseason, there may not have been a position with more uncertainty for the San Diego Padres than first base. While the team retained Gavin Sheets, the two names that logged the most time at the spot both appeared set to depart in free agency. Of course, that would come to fruition as Luis Arráez (117 games) and Ryan O'Hearn (27 games) signed deals with San Francisco and Pittsburgh, respectively. That left just Sheets and Cronenworth (13 games apiece) as players on the roster who spent any time at the cold corner in 2025.

Fortunately, the volume approach that the organization took to the roster impacted first base most heavily. They were never in on the likes of Pete Alonso via free agency or Willson Contreras via trade. Instead, Craig Stammen declared early that Sheets would get the first crack, with the signings of Miguel Andujar and Nick Castellanos to follow. That left four options on the roster including Cronenworth. Then, Ty France and José Miranda were each added on minor-league deals as well. Factor in the idea that Sung Mun Song's versatility as an infielder is likely to be expanded to include a few quick stints — and that Luis Campusano is capable of handling it for a spell — and the Padres appear to be well-suited at first base for 2026. 

The only question is what the playing time distribution will look like. 

FanGraphs has Sheets with a healthy edge in playing time as he's projected for 53 percent of the first base innings. They like Nick Castellanos for the second-most time (22 percent), followed by France (10 percent), Cronenworth (eight percent), and Andujar (four percent). Song and Miranda make up the last three percent of the time combined. Baseball Prospectus agrees only in the sense that it'll be Sheets ahead of everyone else (40 percent). From there, it goes Cronenworth and Andujar (25 percent each), Castellanos (five percent), and Campusano (five percent). None of Song, France, or Miranda are included, most likely due to the non-guaranteed contracts of the latter two. 

All of that indicates that there isn't a lot of certainty around how the playing time distribution could shake out, especially early in the season. Nevertheless, with Sheets, Cronenworth, Castellanos, and Andujar all on guaranteed contracts (and at least one of France or Miranda with a decent chance at cracking the roster given their strong springs), Craig Stammen has plenty at his disposal to get the most out of the position.

San Diego Padres First Baseman At A Glance

Starter: Gavin Sheets
Backup: Nick Castellanos, Miguel Andujar
Depth: Jake Cronenworth, Sung Mun Song, Ty France, José Miranda
Prospects: Romeo Sanabria

fWAR Ranking Last Year: 20th (0.9)
fWAR Projection This Year: 28th (0.8)

The Good

Volume is a never a bad thing to have, especially when it allows a manager to play the matchups as much as possible. That goes double for a position like first base, where the goal is to maximize power given the position's profile. Unsurprisingly, Sheets was much better against right-handed pitchers (119 wRC+) than he was against lefties (89 wRC+) in 2025. His power was especially notable against pitchers of the opposite handedness, with a .202 ISO against righties as opposed to the .113 mark he went for against left-handed arms. 

The same could be said of Andujar. While he was above average against pitchers of both handedness, his 171 wRC+ against left-handers far exceeds that of the 108 wRC+ he posted otherwise. His .189 ISO was also exactly 50 points higher. We can't glean that same kind of trend out of Castellanos after an abysmal last year in Philadelphia, but Cronenworth offers someone a little more split-neutral everywhere but in his power output. That's a lot of chess pieces at Stammen's disposal, which should yield some positives throughout the rest of the lineup. 

Given the setup, he can slide either of Andujar or Sheets to left or Castellanos to right. Cronenworth would move to first while Song logs time at second. France and Miranda, should either make the roster, can flip over to the hot corner to get Manny Machado off his feet for a day. It opens up a ton of different lineup possibilities and raises the floor of the position significantly from what Arráez and O'Hearn's respective skill sets offered last year.

The Bad

If you have eight players that could log time at first base, you probably don't have a first baseman. While it's unlikely that the volume approach fails at this particular spot considering the names involved, there's at least a possibility that this is the worst defensive position on the field for the Padres in 2026. 

A primary factor in FanGraphs' WAR figure not only indicating a regression for the position, but projecting it to be among the worst in the sport, is in the defense. Sheets is a -3 Outs Above Average player there in his career. Cronenworth was at -2 OAA last season. If he were to make the roster, Miranda is at -4 OAA. If Ty France did, he's two years removed from a -12 OAA season, with no way of knowing if he'll repeat the 10 OAA to which he bounced back last year. Further, Andujar has just 30 innings there, and Castellanos hasn't appeared there in a major-league game. Ditto for Sung-mun Song in the KBO.

Of the seven players for which FanGraphs projects time, only Sheets is expected to fall on the positive end of their fielding metric. It's also difficult to know whether you'll see improvement when the playing time might be inconsistent until Stammen settles into what he wants from that spot. 

So, while it's unlikely that we see this area of the roster fail completely given the volume and the flexibility available, there's also massive questions about what this spot will look like defensively and who can rise above to become the cream of the crop.

The Bottom Line

It's highly probable that we see Gavin Sheets run out at first base for the bulk of the time in 2026. He offers the most reasonable defensive aptitude while demonstrating visible growth at the plate last season. But one of the ways a manager can support a player is by offering the platoon solution to protect him as needed. Stammen has that at his disposal with Sheets, where each of Castellanos, Andujar, et al will be in the mix to support him. That should bode well at the position, providing consistent production given that each of these hitters has at least some track record of offensive success to their names.

While it may be somewhat worrisome that the team didn't bring in a surefire option to handle first base, the way in which the position was addressed should benefit the Padres this season, especially in the myriad ways all of the options can impact other parts of the roster.

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