Sheel Seidler, the widow of late Padres’ owner Peter Seidler, filed a lawsuit earlier this month trying to gain control of the team. That suit made various allegations, including that two of Peter’s brothers (Matt and Bob) breached various fiduciary duties as they tried to make an underhanded attempt to control the club and maybe even relocate the team. This week, Matt Seidler has filed a response that refutes Sheel’s narrative, as relayed by Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Dennis Lin of The Athletic.
Matt and Sheel present very different perspectives about how things have proceeded in recent years. Matt’s response states that Peter amended his trust seven times and did not name Sheel a trustee in any of those changes, whereas Peter’s brothers Robert, Matt and John Seidler are designated as trustees, with the trustees to name the control person. In December, it was reported that John would be named the club’s new control person.
“In fact,” the response reads, “… the Trust Agreement precludes Sheel from ever serving as a successor Trustee under any circumstance. Conversely, Peter provided that, after Sheel’s death, each of his Children would have the right to become cotrustees of their own trusts once they reached the age of (40).” The response goes on to say that the transactions Sheel identified as fraud actually benefited the trust at a rate twice as much as expected, with Sheel and her children beneficiaries of said trust.
Matt’s response also alleges the trust has made multiple transactions to benefit Sheel, including transferring ownership of a $30MM Texas ranch to her name, the purchase of an $8.5MM home in Coronado, California, as well as cash disbursements totaling more than $4.5MM. Matt’s response alleges that Sheel requested to be the club’s control person, which Matt denied, at which point she demanded $20MM and a promise of annual payments in that same amount. Matt also alleges that Sheel used power of attorney to take $2.5MM from one of Peter’s accounts while he was in the ICU. The filing also states that “Sheel’s goal is to manufacture claims against the Trustees in pursuit of the control that Peter intentionally chose not to give her” and that the lawsuit was a public relations move which “sought to prejudice the Padres fanbase against Matt, Bob, and John.”
Whether the ownership battle has any on-field impact is something that can be debated, but Matt’s filing insinuates that Sheel’s suggestion that the club might leave San Diego impacted discussions with right-hander Roki Sasaki. The Dodgers were long considered the most likely landing spot for Sasaki with the Padres considered a dark-horse threat. The Padres and Dodgers were two of the three finalists, alongside the Blue Jays, though Sasaki did eventually pick the Dodgers.
Longtime Padre Jurickson Profar recently signed with Atlanta and was asked about not returning to San Diego. In video relayed by Jim Russell of Jon & Jim, Profar alluded to the “issues with ownership” that the Padres have.
Perhaps that was a reference to this legal battle or simply the club’s well-documented financial issues in recent years. Even before Peter died in November of 2023, it was reported in September of that year that the club would have to cut back its spending habits because they were deemed to be “out of compliance with MLB regulations regarding their debt service ratio.” The current offseason and last winter’s have been largely defined by the club dealing with payroll constraints, which led to last winter’s Juan Soto trade. The club has been less active this offseason but players like Dylan Cease, Michael King, Luis Arráez, Robert Suarez and others have been in trade rumors.
Dane Butswinkas, an attorney representing Sheel, provided Acee with a statement in response to Matt’s filing: “The response, for all of its bravado, is especially thin in responding to the very specific and serious allegations of Matt and Robert Seidler’s breaches of fiduciary duty. It’s ironic that they accuse Sheel — Peter’s wife of two decades and the mother of his three children — of misusing his assets, while at the same time they have reaped the benefits of Peter’s generosity for decades. The fact is, we will win in court because the defendants have shown they have no case. In short, their response is a total strike out.”
It’s unclear what the next steps of the legal process will be or what the expected timelines are. Per Lin, the MLB owners are scheduled to vote on John as the club’s control person next week. Many clubs are owned by multiple people but each team gets one control person who is a point of contact for the league and who votes on league matters.
Complicated ownership disputes are not unprecedented in Major League Baseball. Various members of the Angelos family, which previously owned the Orioles, filed lawsuits against each other after Peter Angelos fell ill. Those lawsuits were dropped in February of 2023 and the club was sold to a group headed by David Rubenstein in 2023.
