Major League Baseball's new labor pact means Padres games against National League teams outside the West have gained importance.
With an additional wild-card berth now available, the 12 NL clubs that don't win their divisional races have a shot at three tickets to the postseason.
There's a little more juice, then, to the Padres-Reds series that begins Monday night at Petco Park, especially when you consider San Diego and Cincinnati last won their five-team divisional heats in 2006 and 2012, respectively.
A staggering fact to the Padres-Reds competition this year is San Diego's player payroll is some $90 million greater despite the duo's similarly sized media markets and Padres revenues exceeding Reds revenues by only $16 million in the latest Forbes estimates.
Payroll isn't destiny in baseball. Last year the Reds finished 83-79 and the Padres went 79-83 despite San Diego's $55-million edge in salaries.
In most years, an extra $90 million should buy a better win-loss record. Which means, in this case, being one rung higher on the wild-card ladder.
How did Padres owner Peter Seidler respond to getting so little bang on the payroll dollar last year?
Not only did he stay the course, he approved a payroll that has grown by $25 million.
At $205 million, it's fifth of 30 MLB teams.
Reds owner Robert Castellini saw his team fade from the wild-card race last year and apparently concluded the performance warranted less investment, even while knowing the wild-card field was likely to expand.
He trimmed this year's budget by some $10 million. During spring training, a trio of veterans were shipped out.
Pushing another youth movement, the owner punted this season. Reds players know it. Their fans see it. The white flag is up.
Seidler has punted a few seasons but has shown if A.J. Preller and scouts make a good case for it, he'll support a payroll ranking that's higher than the team's revenue ranking (15th last year, per Forbes). Related, the Padres (and many other MLB teams) have enjoyed robust revenue growth, while their valuation has risen $1 billion since Seidler's entry in 2012, according to Forbes.
It may be Seidler was further financially emboldened by City Hall last year predictably selecting the Padres to head a potentially lucrative real-estate development next to Petco Park, final negotiations for which are ongoing.
Treating Padres fans with respect may be Seidler's best trait as a baseball steward. As a younger relative of former Los Angeles Dodgers leaders Walter O'Malley and Peter O'Malley, he saw how important fan relations are.
The Reds may have some work to do there.
It's hard to imagine Seidler or anyone in his family would assail Padres fans as Reds President Phil Castellini — the owner's son — retorted to Reds fans earlier this month.
Asked why fans clamoring for new team ownership should stay loyal to a franchise whose last winning playoff series came in 1995, he told Reds flagship 700-WLW:
"Well, where are you going to go? Sell the team to who? That's the other thing: You want to have this debate? …. What would you do with this team to have it more profitable, make more money, compete more in the current economic system that this game exists? It would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else.
"Be careful what you ask for."
Castellini later apologized, saying he loved Cincinnati and Reds fans. Amid the fan backlash, Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench defended Reds ownership headed by Robert Castellini, who led a group that bought the franchise in 2005.
"It's a shame because his passion is second to none for that town and for that ballclub," Bench told the Dan Patrick Show.. "But he hasn't been able to get the winner that he wants or the city wants. And so Phil ... wanted to protect his dad, he wanted to protect his family."
According to the Castellinis, the Reds have invested beyond their market size in each of the past 16 Reds teams. The best results came in 2012, when homegrown stars Johnny Cueto and Joey Votto led Cincinnati to 97 victories and the Central title.
Then the Reds, despite winning the first two games of a best-of-five series on the road, joined a long list of postseason opponents who lost to manager Bruce Bochy's Giants in even years between 2010 and 2014.
In the 21st century, neither the Padres nor the Reds, who were NL West rivals between 1969-1993, have reached the League Championship Series.
Who breaks through first? A large thumb on San Diego's scale belongs to Peter Seidler.
