Seidler Family Puts the Padres Up for Sale. How Long Could the Process Take?

The Seidler Family was the latest baseball ownership group to announce that they intend to put their team, the San Diego Padres, up for sale, as the 2025-2026 offseason is in its infancy. 

The Seidler Family has had majority ownership of the Padres since 2012, with the late Peter Seidler operating as the team’s control person from 2020 until his death on November 14, 2023. Since Peter Seidler’s death, there have been numerous legal battles over who should have a controlling interest in the team, as his widow, Sheel Seidler, sued his brothers Matt and Bob Seidler after their brother John was appointed as acting chairman of the Padres while the appointment was still pending league approval earlier this year.

On top of the legal battles between the Seidler brothers and Sheel Seidler, the Padres had also taken out a $50 million loan to help cover payroll during the 2023 season, as reported by Evan Drellich, Ken Rosenthal, and Dennis Lin of The Athletic in November of 2023. With debt accumulated and an ongoing lawsuit that has not been settled in or out of court, the sale of the Padres could take much longer than folks anticipate.

The announcement that the Seidlers are putting the Padres up for sale comes just a few months after the last baseball ownership family, the Pohlads, decided to take their team, the Minnesota Twins, off the market after a 10-month process in which no sale took place. The Pohlads did not have any legal action surrounding their ownership of the Twins that was attached to their exploration of selling the team; however, they had accumulated nearly $500 million in debt and were asking for a selling price of no less than $1.7 billion, which was around the price tag the Angelos family sold the Baltimore Orioles for to their current owner, David Rubenstein. 

Reports indicated the Pohlads were unwilling to go any lower on a sale price of $1.7 billion after their initial deal with Chicago White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia fell through in spring training this year. The Pohlads had received offers as high as $1.5 billion for the Twins, but interested parties were unwilling to assume a significant portion of the team's debt, which they hoped a potential buyer would take on. 

It’s unclear whether the Seidlers have paid off their $50 million loan and interest at this time, or whether they have any additional outstanding debt associated with the Padres. But given the issues the Pohlads had with the Twins trying to attach their debt to the sale to a new owner, any debt attached to the Padres will be an issue for a potential buyer as well. 

With the lawsuit between Peter Seidler’s widow and his brothers still ongoing, it’s fair to assume the announcement of a new owner of the Padres will not come any sooner than Opening Day at the earliest. The best-case scenario for the Padres to move the sale along quickly is an Opening Day announcement, but given what is tied to this ownership group, both on and off the field, and the Twins' sale process track record, it’s a safer bet that the Padres' sale process could take a minimum of six months and up to a year before a new ownership group is announced and then approved by MLB.

But with an impending lockout looming a year from now, it might speed up the pace of the sale process so MLB can have a new ownership group in place before the lockout begins next offseason. 

There’s no telling how long this sale process will take, but assuming it will take less than six months is a fool's errand. The saga surrounding the sale process of the Twins is just the latest track record to set the precedent ahead for the Padres, and that is what Padres fans should expect to follow as their sale process begins next week.