3 free agents the Padres can sign to get revenge on the Dodgers – and win the 2025 World Championship

The San Diego Padres had an incredibly successful season, but when a team invests in winning as aggressively as the Padres currently do, anything short of a World Series is a bit of a disappointment.

The Padres did everything they could to beat their division rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the Padres kept coming up short, this time losing to the Dodgers in five games in the NLDS.

San Diego watched the Dodgers celebrate their NLCS berth while the Padres were devastated at the end of their season. It’s the kind of heartbreak you can’t really put into words.

Now the Padres have five months to build a better team that can come back in 2025 and exact revenge on the Dodgers en route to a World Series victory. These are the free agents who could lead the Padres to that goal.

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The Padres were big buyers at the trade deadline this season, with their big acquisition being top bullpen arm Tanner Scott. San Diego sent several top-10 prospects to acquire him, with many people in baseball viewing this as an incredible overpay for the Padres. However, a few factors come into play with a rental agreement like this.

If the Padres don’t win the World Series and Scott leaves as a free agent, then it was probably an overpayment. But if the Padres manage to win the World Series with Scott or re-sign him as a free agent, the price for such a talented closer seems much lower.

The idea of ​​re-signing in a midseason trade is common in baseball. It’s the plan the Padres should have had in mind when they made the deal for Scott. Scott was great in San Diego, pitching to a 2.73 ERA, 2.33 FIP and a K/9 rate well over 10. He was outstanding in San Diego and has a real backend bullpen in closer Robert Suarez. Duo formed.

However, re-signing Scott might be too costly for the Padres. He’s probably looking for a decent contract, but if both sides can come up with the money, that would be a big win for the team.

The one place on the team where you can never have too much depth is in the starting pitching rotation. The Padres will likely need to add a starter or two this offseason. They already have a solid pitching rotation led by Michael King and Dylan Cease. But they could use an extra arm or two.

Spoiler alert: The number one player on this list is also a pitcher. The Padres should target him and not Jack Flaherty. If they manage to get the top spot on this list, they wouldn’t really need Flaherty, but Flaherty should be considered their best backup option.

Adding Jack Flaherty while plucking him from the Los Angeles Dodgers would be a pretty poetic offseason move for the Padres. Both make their starting rotation even better while making the Dodgers’ rotation worse. It’s the perfect move.

Flaherty looked like an ace at times, but he would fit perfectly as the third pitcher in the Padres rotation. Most of the time he is incredibly competitive and provides constant stability in the rotation.

The top talent the Padres should pursue considering Juan Soto is off the table is another player they never should have let go: Blake Snell. The Padres should have offered Snell the massive contract extension he wanted last offseason instead of letting him land with the Giants and increasing his value a bit.

Snell is coming off one of the stronger second halves in recent memory for a pitcher. He proved in this second half that his Cy Young win in 2023 was anything but a fluke. He proved in 2024 that he can take over a baseball game year after year.

The Padres have some top-notch pitchers, but Snell is one of the top talents in the entire league. He is the type of pitcher that can face any top team in the league and be considered competitive in the matchup.

Snell was incredible in San Diego and the Padres have the money to bring him back. If they want to compete with the league’s superteams next year, adding their former top star would be the best starting point in their pursuit of a World Series title in 2025.