Padres sale process reportedly moving along quickly
Padres appear to be accepting bids from at least three potential owners that own other professional sports teams, NFL awards, Winter Olympics get underway, and more.
As you will see below, the San Diego Padres are closer than they’ve been to changing hands in a very long time. In 2026, we could see the team change both its owner and manager, as well as the GM and President of Baseball Operations (if A.J. Preller doesn’t end up extending his deal with the team).
That would be a “everything but the roster” kind of change, which feels equal parts rare and potentially damaging for the short-term future of the team.
That being said, the types of guys that are being talked about as potentially buying the team in 2026 seem like they would be interested in pushing in on this core and spending more money to keep the window of contention open. That’s good! And it’s made me about as optimistic as I’ve been all offseason.
Onto the links!
San Diego Padres
Initial bids in Padres’ sale process expected near end of February: Sources - The Athletic
Prospective buyers include Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, according to league sources. Lacob, 70, is interested in buying the Padres and is exploring the idea, though he has not yet committed to bidding for the franchise. He has owned the Warriors since 2010, with the team winning four NBA titles over that period while becoming the most valuable franchise in the league.
The full list of suitors is not known. Sportico reported this week that two owners of English Premier League clubs, Dan Friedkin and José E. Feliciano, are among other possible bidders who have expressed interest in the Padres. Friedkin, who was born in San Diego, owns Everton and Serie A club AS Roma and attempted to buy the Boston Celtics last spring. Feliciano’s private equity firm, Clearlake Capital, is the majority owner of Chelsea.
Local sports action
Local Sports Report: Gulls head into All-Star break on a tear; Seals look for fourth straight win - San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Gulls enter the American Hockey League’s All-Star break on a hot streak.
Matthew Phillips scored a goal and logged two assists as the Gulls beat the Henderson Silver Knights 7-4 on Wednesday night at Pechanga Arena. The seven goals matched a season high for a Gulls team that has won three straight games; San Diego (21-14-6-3) enters the AHL break fifth in the 10-team Pacific Division standings.
Dengdit Propels Tritons to Comeback Win - UCSD Tritons
Triton junior Bol Dengdit had a huge block with 15 seconds remaining to preserve a 77-74 comeback win for UC San Diego over Long Beach State Thursday night at LionTree Arena. Dengdit notched his third double-double of the season with 18 points and 12 rebounds in the victory. Freshman Jaden Vance scored a career high 17 and Alex Chaikin added 16 and a season best six rebounds in the win.
Career Night From Owens Not Enough in High-Octane Loss to WSU - USD Toreros
With 9.6 seconds left, San Diego women’s basketball head coach Blanche Alverson called timeout off a sideline out of ball inbounds trailing by two against Washington State Thursday evening at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
Kylie Ray, who aggravated a lower leg injury in the opening quarter a week ago at Oregon State and missed the following game at Portland, returned to the floor Thursday and caught the inbounds pass.
However, her dribble bounced on the sideline leading to a turnover and ultimately paved the way to an 80-76 home loss against the Cougars.
Condron Sets Program Record and Tritons Clinch Postseason Berth - UCSD Tritons
UC San Diego women’s basketball clinched a berth to the 2026 Big West Championship with a 64-53 victory over Long Beach State on Thursday evening in Walter Pyramid. The Tritons (16-6, 11-1 Big West) made 29 free throws—shooting 85 percent as a team from the charity stripe—against the Beach (3-19, 2-10 Big West).
Erin Condron set the program’s Division I single-game record with 32 points, including a career-high 14-for-16 from the free throw line. She recorded her seventh double-double of the season, finishing with 13 rebounds and two blocks. Dymonique Maxie also scored in double-figures with 10 points, adding three assists. Makayla Rose tallied nine points, seven rebounds, while leading the team in assists (4) and steals (3). Sabrina Ma matched Rose with the team lead in assists and steals.
Odds & Ends
Crotch-gate: The biggest controversy heading into the Winter Olympics involves … ski jumping? - Yahoo Sports
The Norway cheating scandal highlighted two irrefutable facts about the crotch-obsessed sport of ski jumping on the precipice of the 2026 Winter Olympics. There is, as Finnish coach Petter Kukkonen put it last April, “a culture of cheating” in ski jumping. And the battleground between unscrupulous teams and rule-upholding regulators is often below the belt.
Male ski jumpers must wear tight-fitting suits that are no more than 4 centimeters larger than their body measurements at any point. Most national teams seek to find every millimeter they can because a bigger, baggier suit catches more wind and provides more lift during flight than a smaller one does.
Fittingly, the most advantageous place to enlarge a ski jumper’s suit is the crotch area. Adding just a centimeter of fabric to the circumference of that part of a suit increases flight distance by approximately 2.8 meters — or more than 9 feet — according to a study published by Frontiers in Sports and Active Living in October 2025.
Rams’ Matthew Stafford edges Patriots’ Drake Maye for MVP in closest race since 2003 - The Athletic
Matthew Stafford can now call himself a Most Valuable Player. And it won’t be his final moment in the NFL spotlight.
The Los Angeles Rams quarterback announced Thursday night at the NFL Honors award show in San Francisco that he plans to be back for an 18th season next year.
Stafford edged out New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye for the MVP. He finished with 366 points, getting 24 of 50 first-place votes, while Maye had 361 points and 23 first-place votes. The MVP race was the closest it’s been since there were co-winners in 2003, when Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning shared it.
Brees, Fitzgerald, Kuechly, Vinatieri, Craig make Hall of Fame - ESPN
The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced its 2026 class as part of the NFL Honors awards show Thursday night, with five players, including quarterback Drew Brees and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, selected for enshrinement later this year.
Brees and Fitzgerald received the nod in their first year of eligibility. They’ll be joined by kicker Adam Vinatieri and linebacker Luke Kuechly, who were in their second year of eligibility.
And rounding out the class is running back Roger Craig, who was a Seniors finalist.
2026 NBA Trade Deadline Winners and Losers - The Ringer
It’s never been more clear just how useful the apron system is for owners to justify personnel moves that are primarily made to save them money. Whether getting under an apron or ducking the tax, teams are now able to spin decisions that make their present day roster worse at basketball by pointing at the flexibility it may afford sometime down the line. This stinks.
Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase accused of manipulating pitches in 48 different games as wire fraud trial looms - Yahoo Sports
The allegations against Emmanuel Clase appear to stretch much further than previously known.
A court filing has revealed that the Cleveland Guardians closer is accused of manipulating pitches in 48 different MLB games over the span of two years, according to ESPN’s David Purdum. That’s far more than the nine specific games identified in the federal government’s indictment last year.
Including playoffs, Clase appeared in 178 games ranging from May 2023 to June 2025, the timeline of the scheme alleged by prosecutors. If the 48-game figure is correct, that would mean Clase threw suspicious pitches (i.e. intentional balls to allegedly help his co-conspirators win prop bets) in 27% of his appearances with the Guardians in that span.
Giants Co-Owner Steve Tisch Says His Creepy Emails With Jeffrey Epstein Were About “Adult Women” - Defector
The United States Department of Justice on Friday released another batch of files from its investigation into sex offender and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Included in these latest files are several emails between Epstein and New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, in which Epstein appeared to be scouting girls for Tisch.
Like a lot of the sad, old rich men who ended up in Epstein’s orbit, Tisch seems to have reached out to the infamous sex criminal for romantic assistance. All of the emails between Tisch and Epstein that were released in this batch of documents were sent in 2013, when Tisch was 64 years old, and five years after Epstein pleaded guilty to child prostitution charges.
Dodgers reportedly expected to return to White House after World Series win - Yahoo Sports
The Los Angeles Dodgers are indeed headed back to the White House after their second straight World Series win.
The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and the California Post’s Jack Harris and Zain Khan report the Dodgers are expected to make the trip despite calls to cancel it in light of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, with the former outlet citing a league source and the latter citing the White House. The Dodgers declined comment to both outlets.