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Report: San Diego Padres being sold for an MLB-record $3.9 billion

Danby: Daniel Hager04/17/26DanielHagerOn3

Clearlake Capital’s Jose Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, have reached an agreement to buy the San Diego Padres for an MLB-record $3.9 billion. Sportico’s Scott Soshnick reported the news on Friday morning.

The previous record for the largest purchase price of an MLB team was $2,475,000,000. That was spent by Steve Cohen on the New York Mets in 2020.

The previous chairman and principle owner of the San Diego Padres organization was businessman John Seidler, who was promoted by MLB owners and chairmen following his brother’s passing in 2023. Peter Seidler, his uncle Peter O’Malley, and Ron Fowler formed the O’Malley Group in 2012 and purchased the Padres for $800 million. Seidler assumed the role of chairman in 2020, but passed away just three years later.

SBJ: ‘Padres sale is a critical one for MLB’

The other three finalists to buy the Padres (per Sportico) included Dan Friedkin (Pursuit Sports), Golden State Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob, and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores.

“When the Padres first hit the market late last year, the early chatter was the team could sell for more than $2.5B. That floor has since risen,” the SBJ wrote on Friday. “Nearly every source interviewed this week agreed with recent media reports that the Padres will likely sell for at least $3B. That would easily surpass the MLB-record $2.4B Steve Cohen bought the Mets for in 2020.

Many see the Padres sale as a critical one for MLB, especially since team owners have recently struggled to reach desired sale price targets; the Angels, Nationals and Twins have all tested the market in recent years before changing tacks. A league-record price for the small-market Padres would be a feather in MLB’s cap heading into contentious labor and media rights negotiations.”

The Padres were seen as a sleeping giant for years in the NL West, as they failed to make the Postseason from 2007-2019. Since then, however, San Diego has been one of the constants in the race for the NL pennant. It has made the Postseason in four of the past six seasons and advanced to the National League Championship Series in 2022.