Next season has just begun with this San Diego Padres offseason. It's never too early to begin fixing what you ruined, and for the Padres front office, they have lots of work to do. Repair the roster, and the relationship with the fan base.

Hope you are enjoying the postseason, and it's been an electric opening week in the American and National League playoffs. Hell, it really began in the final hours of the final day of the regular season, with all that tension and excitement of come-from-behind wins, that got teams the final wildcard spots. Excitement everywhere, but not here in San Diego, where the Padres leadership took a first place team and made it into a last place ballclub.

We're lucky though, as the mistakes that General Manager Jed Hoyer made on veteran player acquisitions can be repaired. Not so other places. The White Sox are on the hook for another 33 million to slump ridden Adam Dunn, the home run hitting/strikeout artist, who hit .065 against left-handed pitching this season. In Boston, they paid out $142M to free agent Carl Crawford only to watch him wilt in the glare of the media spotlight, his worst season ever at the plate and in the field. The Cubs are still suffering from mega contracts given to slugger Alf Soriano and prickly personality pitcher Carlos Zombrano.

At least in San Diego, the Padres won't be burdened going forward with the waste of burning $8M this past season on the since-departed Ryan Ludwick, Jorge Cantu and Brad Hawpe. Hoyer owes us one, maybe two or three new acquisitions that pan out.

Owner Jeff Moorad had promised the payroll will go up in the 'increments", and it has. The problem is, not big increments, but nickels and dimes. None-the-less, San Diego has gone from $36M to 46M to next year's projected 55M threshold. Of course a chunk of that money is already committed, more has to go to arbitration eligible players, and a piece of it might still be paid out to soon-to-be free agent Heath Bell, and the option that has to be picked up on pitcher Aaron Harang.

Bell could get $7 to 10M next year, if they offer him arbitration. You earn 40-plus saves, you deserve a payday. Harang won 14-games in a bounce back season, and the club has a $5M option they should surely pickup.

The Friars have 13 young players eligible for arbitration. Chase Headley hit nearly .300 all season, and is likely due $3M. Tim Stouffer, with little run support, could earn a $3M deal too. Nick Hundley put up strong numbers either side of his oblique-elbow injuries, and should make $2M. Streaky Will Vanable is slated to get close to $2M, but that's pricey for someone so inconsistent. Starter Dustin Moseley, role player Chris Denorfia, set-up guy Luke Gregorson, and reliever Joe Thatcher are also in the group likely to get some increase. If the Padres were to sign all their arbitration eligible guys, it would eat up about $17M of payroll space.

Pay bumps are due Mat Latos, Cam Maybin, Kyle Blanks and other young players, but none of those will get beyond $500k this season as second or third year guys.

San Diego already has commitments to veterans like Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson and other vets under multiyear deals, that totaled about $13M spent. That changes if any of those guys are traded, but what kind of market is there for guys who struggle to hit .250?

Simple math shows us the Padres will spend upwards of $13M for Bell and Harang; $13M to veterans already signed. 17M-to arbitration players. That's $43M in commitments, leaving approximately 12M to be used to get players from the outside.

How do you add talent with so little budget space left? Go get one veteran bat with some power, maybe another short term rental. Look at trading one of your arms to go get another bat, and hope you come upon a veteran player or two, you can afford, who can still hit.

And of course, it may be fall, and hope springs eternal, that young first baseman Anthony Rizzo, young big bat Kyle Blanks, and maybe rookies from Tucson and San Antonio will take the next step forward.

They drew just a shade over 2M fans this year, a pretty good accomplishment considering how bad the product was most of the summer, The Padres new TV deal with Fox Sports San Diego could net them $20M per year a portion of that going towards an increased payroll.

October is for postseason, and November will be the beginning of next season for the Padres front office brass. San Diego doesn't really give a damn about somebody in Tucson and San Antonio. They want major league talent on this roster at Petco Park, if you plan on charging fans major league prices.

They took a 90 win team and turned it into 90 plus losses. It's time for the Padres ownership to step up, pay up, up the payroll, sign the checks and spend some money.