At 2:00 PST Monday afternoon, 25 players who finished the 2026 season on the roster of a Padres affiliate will become minor league free agents.
The group is headlined by left-handers Jagger Haynes and Luis Gutierrez, who both have starting experience in the upper minors, and outfielder Tirso Ornelas, who briefly logged time with the big league club in 2025.
Gutierrez, 23, headlined the Padres’ 2019 international free agency class, but didn’t find his first real success until 2025, when he posted a 3.31 ERA across four levels. While a shoulder injury cost him more than three months this summer and he finished the year with just 36 innings of work, Gutierrez could well land a big league deal with a club before next spring. It is not out of the question that the Padres would move to add him to the 40-player roster to retain him in the organization.
Haynes was the Padres’ fifth-round pick out of high school in North Carolina in the abbreviated 2020 draft. The 23-year-old has posted a 4.50 ERA over 374 career innings. While he pitched a career-high 135 innings this year, he struggled in 10 games for El Paso late in the season.
The majority of the the players now free to sign with another organization first arrived with the Padres via the same minor league free agency route. Most played in El Paso in 2026, including outfielders Bryce Johnson and Nick Solak, who also logged time with the big league club. Right-handed relievers Ty Adcock and Daison Acosta each signed big league contracts last winter, but were outrighted off the 40-man roster earlier in the year without contributing in the major leagues..
Jake Cunningham will be back in San Antonio next spring. (Photo: Vashaun Newman)
Over the last month, the organization has signed outfielder Jake Cunningham, pitchers Sadrac Franco and Fernando Sanchez, and catcher Oswaldo Linares to successor contracts to keep them in the system for an additional year. Cunningham, 24, posted a strong .283/.369/.516 line across two levels in his first season in the Padres organization after he was released by the Orioles last winter. The North Carolina native’s season ended with a groin strain in mid-August, but he should have no ill effects by the time he reports to Peoria in the spring.
Padres prospects reaching minor league free agency
Pitchers: Daison Acosta, Ty Adcock, Sean Boyle*, Hans Crouse*, Omar Cruz, Evan Fitterer*, Logan Gillaspie*, Trevor Gott*, Luis Gutierrez, Jagger Haynes, Matt LaChappa#, Eli Villalobos*, Mario Zabala*
Catchers: Victor Duarte, Carlos Rodriguez
Infielders: Francisco Acuña*, Clay Dungan, Nick Pratto*, Carson Tucker*, Luis Verdugo*
Outfielders: Albert Fabian, Bryce Johnson*, Tirso Ornelas, Carlos Rodriguez*, Nick Solak*
* Entered the Padres organization via minor league free agency
# LaChappa was last active in 1995 but has been re-signed every year to maintain his health insurance benefits.
