Sheel Seidler, wife of late Padres owner Peter Seidler, sues brother-in-law for control of team

By the associated press

Late San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler’s wife, Sheel Seidler, sued her brothers-in-law Matthew and Robert on Monday, trying to stop another brother, John, from taking over the team in his place .

The suit comes at a time when the Padres are among the teams signing Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki.

In a petition filed in Travis County Probate Court in Austin, Texas, Sheel Seidler sued Matthew, who became executor of Peter Seidler’s estate last year, and Robert, the former executor. She alleged fiduciary breaches of trust, fraud, conversions and blatant acts of self-dealing.

The petition accused Robert’s wife, Alecia, of making “multiple racist, crude and hateful communications against Sheel, a woman of Indian origin.”

“Defendants’ actions to gain control of the Padres were undertaken to force Sheel – a female, interloper and Indian-American woman not of O’Malley descent – to leave what Bob and Matt considered their family business and their ancestral right,” the court said. petition requested.

Sheel requested that Matthew be prohibited from acting on behalf of the Seidler trusts and removed as trustee. She asked the court to quash any action to appoint anyone other than Sheel as the Padres’ controlling person.

“I made this decision as a very last resort, but I am confident that it is the right and best way to protect the Padres franchise and ensure that the vision Peter and I have shared for the team will continue ” Sheel said in a statement. .

Peter Seidler, grandson of late Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, was an investor in the group that took over the Padres in 2012. He replaced Ron Fowler as team manager on November 18, 2020 and is died at age 63. November 14, 2023. Three days later, the team appointed Peter Seidler associate Eric Kutsenda as interim controller.

San Diego announced on December 21 that John would become the controlling person, a move that Major League Baseball’s owners have not yet approved.

“Matt attempted to intimidate Sheel into silence, threatening her if she went public with her opposition to John’s wrongful appointment as control person,” the petition states.

San Diego, which has never won a World Series title, reduced major league player payroll from a team-record $257 million in 2023 to $166 million at the start of the 2024 season .

“The emphasis in the press reports on the Padres’ cutting salaries, lowering their expectations and implicitly abandoning their total quest for a World Series championship would have been a gut punch to Peter,” says the petition.

The petition included a piece of paper purported to be in Peter Seidler’s handwriting listing Sheel followed by their children as his preference for future control person. The petition quotes Matthew telling Sheel in a letter dated October 15 that she does not have the “experience, skills and financial acumen necessary to assume the responsibilities of this important role.”

“Rather than appointing Sheel as the Padres’ control person – consistent with Peter’s noted preference and as the person whose interests are best aligned with the Seidler Trusts – defendants are attempting to force the appointment of their brother John as the control person of the Padres,” the petition alleges. .

“In doing so, they place control of the substantial interests of the Padres and Seidler trusts in the hands of a third party and enjoy the appearance and benefits of being primary owners.” During this time, defendants excluded Sheel from the Padres organization and deprived her of the benefits of being the baseball team’s largest beneficial owner, while enjoying those benefits themselves.

She accused Matthew and Robert of trying to sell the trusts’ interests in Seidler Kutsenda Management Co. for less than market value, then canceling the sale when the attempt became known.

“Alecia made it clear that Sheel was an outsider unworthy of being part of the Seidler family and that she was foolish to believe that the Seidler family would ever act in her best interest,” the petition claims.

The petition also states that Robert and Matthew “have made it clear that Sheel and her children are not welcome in the owners’ box at the Padres’ stadium, Petco Park.”

“We do not comment on pending legal matters,” Padres spokesman Craig Hughner said.

MLB declined to comment.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Originally published: January 6, 2025 at 2:29 p.m. MST