For San Diego Padres fans, Peter Seidler's legacy is difficult to separate from the team's willingness to spend on player payroll.

The former owner transformed the franchise's ambitions by signing third baseman Manny Machado, extending right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., bringing in free agent shortstop Xander Bogaerts and extending pitcher Yu Darvish in February 2023.

The lucrative contract extensions for starting pitcher Joe Musgrove and outfielder Jackson Merrill further cemented the message: San Diego was willing to compete with any team for baseball's best players.

The results of the Padres' spending spree under Seidler went beyond the roster. Petco Park became one of baseball's premier destinations, with attendance surpassing 40,000 per game in 2026 and ranking among MLB's top three for the fourth consecutive year.

An interesting comment from agent Scott Boras over the weekend ought to resonate well in San Diego, if not at MLB's corporate headquarters in Manhattan.

Speaking on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast, Boras praised Seidler, who died in November 2023, for what he accomplished with the franchise.

“We have an owner who went and took and signed four or five players, that's all he did," Boras said of Seidler, "and he took 20,000 fans and made it 40 [thousand] and took a $600 million franchise and made it worth $4 billion.

"That's the genius of Peter Seidler, God bless him. And that genius was rewarded to that ownership. And that genius was allowed to do so based upon the stage and the platform that was provided.”

Boras' point was about the value of MLB's uncapped spending system — a system MLB owners intend to dismantle in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Padres were able to invest heavily in their roster, improve their product and give fans a reason to fill the ballpark despite (not because of) their market size.

For agents, players and Padres fans, that's a pretty compelling argument for keeping the system intact.

MLB owners see things differently.

With the current CBA set to expire Dec. 1, MLB is approaching another potential lockout. Negotiations between the league and the MLB Players Association have been marked by acrimony, and a transaction freeze could leave free agents waiting for new contracts.

Commissioner Rob Manfred represents owners who appear increasingly willing to use a lockout as leverage.

For Padres fans, the question is whether the kind of aggressive spending that helped transform their franchise will remain possible — or become another casualty of baseball's labor wars.