The O’Malley family owned the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers for decades, handed down from Walter O’Malley to his son Peter.

Now, Peter O’Malley is part of a group that has an exclusive window to complete a purchase of one of the Dodgers’ divisional rivals, the San Diego Padres. Scott Miller:

Padres owner John Moores and a group fronted by local businessman Ron Fowler and including the O’Malley family have entered into an exclusive negotiating window as Moores works to sell the club, according to CBSSports.com sources.

Fowler will play a much more prominent role in the new ownership group than previously known, CBSSports.com has learned.

It is not known when the exclusive negotiating window between Moores and the Fowler group expires, though the two sides hope to conclude the deal by the All-Star break.

The sale of the Padres is expected to be for somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 million, which would be the third-largest sale price ever for a MLB team, behind the $845 million paid for the Cubs in 2009 by the Ricketts family, and the $2.1 billion recent sale of the Dodgers.

Miller says there should be no controversy surrounding this sale:

Because both the O’Malley family and Fowler have been involved in an ownership capacity with major league baseball, unlike as was the case with Moorad, the sale is expected to be approved without any problems. The next owners’ quarterly meetings are scheduled for August.

For more on the Padres, please visit Gaslamp Ball.