Padres notes: Brass talks cable TV options; Jay Groome gets another chance

The way you watched Padres games last summer will be how you watch Padres games in 2024 … eventually.

The team will stream games this season under the newly rebranded Padres.TV banner. The Padres have not yet struck deals with local cable and satellite TV providers, though team CEO Erik Greupner said on Saturday that he expects those details to be in place closer to opening day.

For now, the Padres’ spring training games will only be broadcast for free through Padres.TV apps on devices and via audio webcasts at Padres.com or radio broadcasts on 97.3 The Fan. In-market fans will need to pay for a regular-season subscription to Padres.TV once the season starts. Both games of the Korea Series will be broadcast by ESPN, leaving the club’s March 28 home opener against the Giants as the first Padres game in need of a linear option for those who subscribe to cable or satellite.

“MLB Media on our behalf is securing distribution agreements,” Greupner said. “We would anticipate that we’re going to end up with all the same satellite and cable options that we had last year.”

He added: “We feel good about the commissioner’s leadership and MLB Media, the team they’ve put together, that they’ve stood up in less than a year. Some of the best people in the industry are leading MLB Media. So we feel like we’re in really good hands. The Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy and that timeline has impacted discussions on distribution and securing distribution agreements. So we think MLB Media is on top of it. We’re in a good spot.”

Late last May, Bally Sports San Diego’s parent company defaulted on a 20-year, $1.2-billion contract that ran through 2032, returning broadcast rights to the Padres and Major League Baseball.

Major League Baseball secured deals with DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, Cox, Spectrum and fuboTV to carry Padres games the rest of the season while promising to make sure the Padres received at least 80 percent of the some $60 million that Diamond Sports owed the team in 2023 (Diamond made its first payment in 2023 but missed the second).

Asked what impact the loss of the Diamond Sports contract has on the team’s finances moving forward, including an opening day payroll projection that currently sits at about $149 million — some $100 million off last year’s opening day figure — Greupner said: “Every year we budget independent of prior years or what we would have expected to have received for TV revenue. At the end of the day, we’ve gotten a lot of PUTs (people using television measurement) and ads. There’s a lot coming in that’s higher than it’s been in the past on the revenue side and some areas where we’ve taken small steps back.

“But overall, the fan support that we’ve received, the attendance, the ticket revenue has allowed us to continue to field a competitive payroll, and we’re incredibly thankful for that. And we’re able to do that regardless of taking a little bit of a step back on the TV side.”

Jay Groome struggled in El Paso last season.

(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Take 2

Pedro Avila had an 8.57 ERA at Triple-A El Paso when a promising stay in San Diego (3.22 ERA) thrust him onto the radar for a big-league job in 2024. El Paso was nearly as tough on Matt Waldron (7.31 ERA) before solid spot duty in the majors (4.35 ERA) added him to the conversation.

Yet Jay Groome is not chalking up a terrible 2023 season to the unforgiving environs of the Pacific Coast League.

The 25-year-old left-hander knows better.

“The walks,” Groome said before Saturday’s bullpen session. “I got killed by the walks.”

Indeed.

While the 6-foot-6 Groome set El Paso’s single-season strikeout record with 137 in 134 2/3 innings, a whopping 112 walks played the largest role in posting an 8.55 ERA over 30 starts in taking himself out of the running for the various big-league auditions that opened up last year and removing him from most prospect radars.

Perhaps compounding a snowball-type year, Groome had been a breakout in camp last year and was in the running for a job — either in the rotation or as a long man — until he was optioned to El Paso late in spring training. He posted a 1.29 ERA over 14 innings in Cactus League play, but the 10 walks against 13 strikeouts was a knock against his case — especially after he issued three free passes in 3 1/3 innings in his last spring start in Maryville. The four runs (two earned) he allowed in that game were the only runs he allowed all spring.

“I mean, I had been optioned twice already,” said Groome, referring to previous camps with the Boston Red Sox. “So I kind of know what it feels like. But that was my first time in a whole big-league camp. I guess you could say my thought process was I was going to make it, but I knew it was still on the table for me to be optioned. When it came, I was upset about it. But then I found out that I was starting opening day in El Paso, so that kind of made it a little bit better.

“I should have just pitched better to really put myself in a position to show the team that I’m ready.”

Groome’s goal is the same as he settles into his second camp with the Padres. He could not quite pinpoint precisely why his command unraveled other than the need to “stay locked in on every pitch,” nor did he want to get too far ahead of the opportunity again in front of him this spring, even if he’s been leapfrogged in the organizational depth chart by likes of Avila, Waldron and up-and-coming prospects like Jairo Iriarte and Adam Mazur.

“The good thing is I get another season,” Groome said. “I learned some things about myself that had never really challenged me like last year. It was just a tough season all around, but one thing I can say is I stayed healthy.”

He added: “(The opportunity this year) is always in the back of my mind, but it’s still me that has to make the team, so I have to go out there and show these guys that I can perform at the highest level.”

Notable

• The Padres are still awaiting the arrival of three players waiting on visas from their respective countries. Both RHP Luis Patiño (Colombia) and OF Jurickson Profar (Curacao) could get the necessary paperwork completed any day, while LHP Wandy Peralta (Dominican Republic) might not receive his until the middle of next week, Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “I can’t minimize (and say) it’s nothing,” Shildt said. “He’s not in camp. But (Peralta) is a veteran. He knows what it takes to get ready for the season. He has, just like ‘Pro,’ Patiño, he has the resources to to get himself ready and stay sharp.”