Despite being 50-53 and an afterthought in the playoff race, the Padres surprisingly opted not to sell at the trade deadline yesterday. Here more on what they did, or didn’t do.
- One of the most discussed aspects of the Padres’ decision not to sell was that they asked the Diamondbacks for Paul Goldschmidt in return for Craig Kimbrel, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes. D-backs GM mentioned the Goldschmidt discussion on KTAR-AM and clarified it later. The Diamondbacks, of course, couldn’t reject the deal fast enough. “[W]e don’t talk about Goldy in any deals and no team has approached me in the almost year that I’ve been here about Goldy, so I was kind of shocked to hear that,” said Stewart. “Like I said, I don’t know if there was sincerity in it, but, yeah, the name did come up.” Piecoro notes that the Padres deny the request was serious, and it surely wasn’t. As FanGraphs’ Kiley McDaniel tweeted yesterday, it’s not uncommon for GMs to make wild offers. What is perhaps uncommon is for other GMs to reveal them. What the Goldschmidt discussion might suggest, though, is that the Padres were not particularly interested in trading Kimbrel.
- There are a number of hypotheses as to why A.J. Preller and the Padres decided not to sell, as ESPN’s Jayson Stark writes. “They never knew what they really wanted,” says a rival executive. It would take a brilliant stretch run for the Padres to make the playoffs, and they’ll be in a tough spot — they won’t have gotten anything (except a draft pick) for free agents like Justin Upton, Ian Kennedy and Will Venable, and they’ll still be on the hook for Kimbrel, James Shields, Matt Kemp and Melvin Upton, who will be so expensive collectively that they might have trouble making other moves to get better. They’re putting themselves in a difficult position, and Stark writes that the other teams are mystified by what they’re doing.
- The Yankees were willing to give up shortstop prospect Jorge Mateo and to take on at least part of the Jedd Gyorko contract in order to acquire Kimbrel, but the Padres declined, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman tweets. Gyorko is in the midst of a second consecutive disappointing season and has $33MM remaining on his contract beyond 2015, so such a move would likely have helped position the Padres for the future. Mateo, meanwhile, ranks third on MLB.com’s list of the Yankees’ top prospects, earning praise for his outstanding speed in particular. He has a ridiculous 70 stolen bases and a .271/.341/.379 line at Class A Charleston this season.
- It might also been seen as strange that, given the Padres’ decision not to sell, they also didn’t really buy, as Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune points out. They only added Indians reliever Marc Rzepczynski. “You have a lot of teams that are in the hunt,” says Preller. “That makes it harder for teams to really look at moving a lot of their pieces, because I think a lot of people, rightfully so, think they’re in contention.” One might think, though, that such conditions might make the more obvious route of selling even more attractive. “We were working through all different scenarios to try to add the club and other scenarios in which other teams were asking about our guys,” says Preller. “Ultimately, we didn’t feel like we got the value that we wanted to get to.”
- Unsurprisingly, Padres players and management seem excited the team didn’t move any of its top players, as MLB.com’s Corey Brock reports. “It’s a relief,” says Justin Upton. “I think just the sense around the clubhouse is that this front office wants this group, so we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that they didn’t make the wrong decision.”
No Big League Choo For Yu
That is just plain disrespectful. As a GM, have enough sense not to make such a ridiculous offer because either you are assuming the other GM is a complete moron with no idea what they are doing or you are just wasting each other’s time. It looks more like the Padres GM has no idea what he is doing.
A'sfaninUK
To be fair, it’s also disrespectful to ask for your previous season’s first round draft pick just to clear a measly $9M, but Stewart already did that, so he already has set a precedent for making terrible deals for dumb reasons, Preller was just seeing how bad a GM he really is.
No Big League Choo For Yu
Yes, the DBacks GM is dumb, BUT he was just not valuing a prospect ik that scenario. Goldy is one of the best at the MLB level and is on one of the best contracts in baseball. That’s a big difference in scenarios.
A'sfaninUK
Your first post opens with “that’s plain disrespectful” but then you call the GM dumb, my point is, can you disrespect a dumb person?
BTW plenty of teams ask for every teams best player. Last year Beane asked for Jimmy Rollins and RAJ said he’d take Sonny Gray for him. Its not disrespectful to ask. Its dumb, but who knows? Maybe there’s internal reasons for moving a guy, like Donaldson?
jb226
It’s both dumb and disrespectful, and I don’t think citing RAJ as another example of people doing that improves the point. He’s not exactly well-regarded as a GM either and one of the criticisms about him has been unrealistic trade targets.
prestigeworldwide
How many millions do you think Touki is worth? Toussaint has a 5.70 ERA and a 1. 49 whip through A ball. He isnt exactly setting the world on fire. Considering he was high risk high reward draftee Dave Stewart, TLR and crew may see him as a bust or future bullpen guy so they are selling him while he has lots of prospect gold dust on him.
I imagine ownership had a say in this as well.
Ray Ray
You gotta love some fans’ attitude about money. $9 million is more than probably 90% of people will make in their entire lifetime and you refer to it as “measly.” I get that there is a lot of money rolling around the sports world, but $9 million dollars is not measly to anyone.
22Leo
It’s all relative. To say $9 million isn’t measly to anyone is ignorant.
cookiemonster
one word. Dodgers.
sdtrojan
I tend to agree.
chicothekid
“They’re putting themselves in a difficult position, and Stark writes that the other teams are mystified by what they’re doing.”
I’ve been mystified by what they are doing since Preller took over. I know WHAT they were trying to do, but that doesn’t mean it was possible. It’s not. But it sure has been funny to watch.
No Big League Choo For Yu
I’m not even sure if someone on this site made such a bogus trade proposal during the trade deadline, even as a joke.
thecoffinnail
I saw one that had Cashner going to the Yankees for Severino, Judge, Sanchez and a couple of “lower” prospects.. Best one of this year was Niese going to the Cubs for Baez and Russell..
A'sfaninUK
It does seem odd in that KC, SF & NYM gave up arguably their current mid-season list #1 prospects for rentals (Manaea, Mella & Fulmer), grabbing a teams #1 for Upton makes sense, but also getting draft picks and/or re-signing Upton makes sense too, seeing as next years’ draft is very strong.
Matt Galvin
Still have August and never be a Tradedeadline.
rct
Fulmer is not the Mets #1 mid-season pick, no matter how many times you suggest it. He’s pitching great this year, but he has barely been able to stay healthy. Gsellman is ranked higher, as is Nimmo (I know you hate him for some reason, but every prospect ranking list has him higher than Fulmer). Amed Rosario and Gavin Cecchini are higher as well. Conforto may also end up getting sent back down, so there’s that, too.
Ray Ray
Manaea and Fulmer were not their team’s #1 prospect. I think Fulmer was like #4 for the Mets and Manaea was a distant #2 behind Mondesi for the Royals. And yes, Mella was the Giants #1 prospect, but the Giants didn’t have a single prospect in the top 100, so he’d be the #4 or #5 prospect in almost any other system.
stl_cards16 2
I think Preller is in my fantasy league.
22Leo
I think he is in his own fantasy league, and Padres fans were right there with him before the season started. They aren’t quite as cocky these days.
3000BongHits
Only Wil Myers can save us!
walterj
I don’t think either gm have half the brains to run a team .
Vandals Took The Handles
As I wrote below…..
Preller has made it clear to just about every player on his major league roster short of Kemp that he either wanted to trade them, or he wants to replace them. Not a healthy situation. Those players know they’re in a business where they can be gone in a day, but this kid is just a fantasy league player with no idea whatsoever about how to construct an organization. Forget any free agents with an option to sign with another team to go with the Padres in the future. And forget any experienced GM to waste his time talking to Preller unless he pretty much knows he’s going to fleece the kid.
For the life of me, I don’t know how some of these young GM’s get hired. They have experience in one area, and talk a good game in an interview. One would think an owner would be looking for well-rounded candidates that worked their way up the ladder in multiple areas that they will be overseeing.
sdtrojan
I agree, Vandals. I think Preller made a big splash by bringing in some MLB proven guys (Kemp, Upton), signed a big FA (Shields), and made a trade for Kimbrel that had a lot of baggage attached (Upton Jr.). Now he is kind of stuck with them. Upton is gonna want his payday, and the Padres will NEVER be able to stomach that kind of contract if they are sitting on Kemp, Kimbrel, Shields still. So, Upton goes away after having moderate success (although he is only batting .169 in the last 30 games). So other GMs, knowing the Pads aren’t going to be able to land him as a FA, probably figure they will take a shot at him in the off-season.
Preller is (at best) an experience Latin-American talent scout who managed to weasel his way into a MLB GM position. It will be interesting to see how long he lasts. As much as I hated Bud Black as Manager, it’s apparent AJ probably pulled the trigger too soon and should have let him ride out the rest of the season.
Math&Baseball
At the end of July last season the Padres were- 48 and 60. Despite all the issues they’re 50 and 53 even with pitching not being as stellar as it has been in past seasons. They’re 3 games under .500 compared to 12 games under .500 last season. This is why Preller was hired because this years club is 9 games better than last years at the same time.
Every player on every team that is not in the playoff race is available for sale for the right price- the price may be steep but they’re available nonetheless. It’s the nature of the business. Always has been and always will be. Everyone outside Franco and Nola on the Phillies were available for trade. Nobody is taking Howards contract, utley is a shell of his former self and has struggled to stay healthy, Brown forgot how to hit and Revere and Hamels were traded.
The Padres only had to move Venable and Benoit as they’re not getting a QO- Kennedy, if he pitches well in the 2nd half, and Upton for sure are getting QO. If, and when, they sign elsewhere the Padres get two 1st round picks. Teams don’t even need to sacrifice their 1st to sign Kennedy- they could forgo a 2nd or 3rd round pick and we still get a 1st if he signs elsewhere. We don’t know what was offered but it seems the QO pick was more valuable than what was offered for both. Also, you can still trade players in August.
I guarantee the Cubs tried to pawn off Castro’s horrendous contract on Preller for Ross or Cashner in a trade and he refused. Would you be happy if he acquired Castro’s contract and other prospects for Ross? Doubt it.
jb226
“One would think an owner would be looking for well-rounded candidates that worked their way up the ladder in multiple areas that they will be overseeing.”
Does that ever happen though? You’re promoted within your area of expertise, whether that is scouting, analytics or what-have-you. Eventually you get an AGM tag and broaden a little bit, probably sitting in on most decisions, but I’m assuming you don’t find that to be enough given that Preller himself had an AGM tag before he was hired in San Diego.
I’m sure anybody who has ever held a GM job was regarded by their interviewer as a well-rounded candidate or they wouldn’t have hired them, but I can’t think of anybody who has held a diverse set of jobs coming up through an organization before being named GM.
As far as Preller, I think he’s caught trying to save face. He clearly wanted to go for it; he probably even pitched “I can turn this team around pronto!” as a major selling feature of his hiring. The cost was most of his farm system, and now that it didn’t work out he’s finding the offers don’t make up for what he gave up to begin with. Missing your goal and making your system WORSE in your first year doesn’t exactly look good. I think he’s hoping it improves in the offseason but I really have no idea what he’ll do if it doesn’t.
clutchcutch22
Quite possibly the most ridiculous trade proposal I’ve ever heard.
Ray Ray
The biggest problem here is that we should have NEVER heard it. Dave Stewart publicly announced the actions of another GM. Why would any GM ever want to deal with him again if you think your confidential negotiations are going to be leaked to the media? I get that we as fans crave this info, in fact this site wouldn’t exist without it, but think about it from the other GM’s perspective.
Allismileo
This is an excellent article in regards to just how bad Preller has been as the Padres gm. Not even the much maligned Ruben Amaro jr would have made so many devastating moves in such a short amount of time (regardless of how hard he might try…)
grantland.com/features/aj-preller-mlb-san-diego-pa…
Math&Baseball
Let’s see
Jesse Hahn- done for the year with arm/shoulder problems which he’s already had TJS
Max Fried- still recovering from TJS
Burch Smith- TJS got him this year
Jace Peterson- .242/.321/.333- he’s sinking as a hitter and has drastically cooled off the past 2 months. Pitchers have learned how to pitch to him and he’s not making adjustments.
Yasmani Grandal- all star and batting .285/.394/.500 but he’s sporting a -0.3 dwar as a catcher and only catching 28% of steals. Excellent pitch framer, but awful defensively in many areas.
Rene Rivera/Ryan Hanigan- not even going to say how bad they are.
Seth Smith- well considering they have 4 years of Brandon Maurer while Smith is hitting .263/.336/.467 on a 2 year contract
Alex Torres- FIP of 5.68 and xFIP 4.68- yeah we really miss those numbers…..
Matt Wisler- so far pitching estimators haven’t been nice to his work- 5.57 k/9, 4.01 FIP, 4.65 xFIP.
So far the only real losses are Joe Ross and Trea Turner.
I wouldn’t waste your time reading that link. A lot of the numbers I posted they fail to even mention.
Sign all the Cubans
LOL…Padre fans would KILL to still have Grandal in that disjointed lineup. You cherry-pick stats to try to justify your takes, but according to Fangraphs, he’s been a 2.7 win player thus far, and projects to be a 4 win guy by season’s end. Indeed, Grandal’s numbers would be tops on the sorry Padres lineup if he were still there.
Bottom line is, people who know baseball knew that Preller assembled a horribly flawed team at excessive cost to the farm system. That Grantland article nails it perfectly, and the writer has credibility because he predicted this would happen before the season started.
Assembling a bunch of big NAMEZ doesn’t guarantee that you have a good team, as AJ Preller has proven. And now that he chose to neither buy or sell at the deadline, the team is buried. Yes, they’ve gotten hot at the expense of some bad teams, and the schedule through about August 20th looks pretty soft. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them climb a few games over .500 by then, only to fall back again once the schedule gets tough afterward.
Now that Ruben Amaro is a lame duck in Philly, Preller is officially the worst GM in baseball.
Math&Baseball
LOL- he’s awful defensively. I never said he wasn’t great offensively. I listed what he was batting. Catcher, 3rd base, Center field and Short stop are premium positions defensively. Grandal, outside of pitch framing, is a horrendous defensive catcher. He is below average at throwing guys out for majority of his career and cannot block balls as effectively as other premium guys- hence his negative dwar rating- among other things he’s sub par at. Thanks for trying dude, you failed miserably though.
I also enjoy how you picked out Grandal, but ignored everything else I mentioned about everyone else we trade. LOLOLOL who’s cherry picking now dude? That “farm” we traded, including guys I listed, hasn’t done much or looks as great outside Turner and Ross.
cookiemonster
considering framing is the most valuable contribution a catcher can make i’ll take that. and isn’t 28% caught stealing the league average? lol
Math&Baseball
Cookiemonster- 28% is league average- but MAJORITY of his career he’s been below average at throwing guys out.
Math&Baseball
Yeah, worst GM in baseball, which is why the Padres are 50-53 this year compared to 48-60 which they were at the end of July last season. Clearly the worst GM in baseball that has gotten his team 9 wins above where they were last year, 3 games below .500 vs. 12 games below .500. He’s definitely awful…LOL!
Definitely the worst GM for having a QO in his back pocket and not trading Upton for a lower price than he’d take. If they received anything reasonable for Upton Preller would have taken it. The Mets offered Zach Wheeler for 2 years of Gomez, but did not offer him for a rental in Cespedes. So if Preller wanted Wheeler doubt the Mets offered him for Upton. Everyone knew Preller had to trade them- I guarantee the offers were low balls and he said no. Now, he can wait in August for someone to get hurt or a team to under perform and hold the cards with Upton, Venable, Benoit, and Kennedy. LOL, didn’t really think this through did you?
cookiemonster
it’s better to be worse than in the middle and not make the playoffs. higher draft picks+ more draft pool money. not too mention they have 0 farm system now for when these guys deals are done.
nypadre66
Actually, they’re only 4 1/2 better than last year. They’ve played 5 less games, if they lose all 5, they’re only 2 better. If they win all 5, then they’re 7 better. You conveniently forgot all the other pieces given away. Maybin’s playing better than any/all of our CF’s…Mallex Smith has climbed to AAA as a 22 year-old, and Zach Eflin’s having a good year in AA. The bottom line is that Preller wasted away the Padres’ future for a bunch of name players who can’t play defense or play together. The experienced GM’s took advantage of the kid and robbed the Padres.
Math&Baseball
Prime example- Cj Wilson is out for the season apparently- you don’t think the Angels would like to have Cashner or Ross or Kennedy? They’re in the race and with him done could use someone like them.
Allismileo
The problem is, it’s not just about players traded away… It’s about giant un-tradable contracts taken for key position players (Kemp), the one year rentals in exchange for long term prospects (Upton), and the redundant high level closer (Kimbrel is pointless if the Padres aren’t leading going into the 9th 65% of the time.) It Preller had let go at least one of these in exchange for replenishing the farm, it’s almost a non-issue.
All this and more, then add what the Padres gave up, it’s not pretty. But then again, the article I posted says it with a lot more eloquence than I could
cookiemonster
the angels are loaded with pitching. they were willing to trade a starter for offense before he got hurt. so no they wouldnt want them.
Math&Baseball
Yeah, the angels are loaded with pitching…
which is why Weaver has pitched to an xFIP of 4.78 this year, Shoemaker has a 4 xFIP, Cj Wilson is done, Richards has an xFIP of 4, and Hector Santiago has an xFIP of 4.37…that’s really impressive for pitching estimators to conclude 4 rotation guys are 4 or over for pitching. I can see how much pitching they have.
They couldn’t possibly use someone like Ross who has an xFIP 3.12, Cashner who has 3.77, or Shields who has 3.32
3000BongHits
I would much rather have a Kemp than Springs, Preller could have a trick up his sleeve this August so stay tuned! I don’t miss that “switch hitting” catcher at all. His slump is coming soon, better find an alternative to biogenesis.
jtt11 2
Bigh- I made a similar point when that grant land article was posted. One thing that needs to be mentioned about grandal is that he wasn’t getting regular playing time, Rene reviera was getting a good portion of the at bats that should have gone to grandal. Grandal was never able to get into a rhythm. Turner looks like a legit prospect, and to a lesser extent so does Ross. Those two are the really the only serious hits to the farm.
People are being way to hard on preller…
Math&Baseball
Yeah- the odd issue is people seem to think Grandal is this all around great catcher. He’s not. His pitch framing is boosted by the fact he gets to catch Kershaw and Greinke- Greinke is especially precise when pitching. He’s awful defensively which is why he has a negative dwar…….pitch framing is important, but he’s getting credit for the excellence of two of the premier pitchers in the game. That downgrades his ability to pitch frame at least some what compared to where it is currently.
Catching 28% of base runners doesn’t help when your pitch framing doesn’t help the 3-5 starters the Dodgers have used and put men on base via walk or hits.
Math&Baseball
Preller took 1 giant contract via trade in Matt Kemp, which came at a reduced price when the Dodgers sent over $18 million. We gave up Yasmani Grandal who is not a “key” position player. He’s great offensively, but as I have stated aside from pitch framing, which even then his ability is enhanced by the reputation of Kershaw and Greinke as strike throwers, he’s below average defensively as a catcher.
As for “long term prospects” until they actually produce consistently at the big league level why is everyone holding Preller accountable? What if Mallex Smith, Jake Bauers, Matt Wisler, Jace Peterson, etc don’t ever amount to their talent? Minor league numbers are great, but they’re useless if you don’t produce in the bigs. Minor league numbers also don’t guarantee success in the big leagues.
5 picks before the 3rd round assuming Kennedy gets a QO and signs elsewhere as well as 2016 international signings replenish the farm Preller tore down. He already brought in 2 top 30 talents from this past years international signings.
Furthermore- its august 1st- we have an ENTIRE month before Preller can no longer make trades. Depending on what happens to the rest of league we will see Preller trade players.
TheAdrianBeltre
I would have traded the rentals, but it was bold(and possibly foolish) that he didn’t. But he has been bold since he has been there, and he didn’t panic because the first season hasn’t gone well. I think the players can respect that he plans to roll with the team he put together this offseason, and that he still expects them to be winners.
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
Paul Goldschmidt in return for Craig Kimbrel,
Hahahaha, that is almost as funny when someone said about somebody:
He can’t even buy a pair pants and they call me names, gimme a break!
Salty Dog
The problem with asking for Goldschmidt is that Dave Stewart’s blind spot has already been established. He values MLB payroll space and undervalues prospects, as seen with the Touissant trade. If you want to make a favorable deal with him, you don’t ask for proven MLB players on affordable contracts. You ask for prospects in return because you know Stewart undervalues them. It wasn’t disrespectful, but it was absolutely the wrong approach to take. When you’re negotiating, yes, you want to ask for a lot, but you don’t want to ask for something that is so ridiculous to the other party they’ll pass it on to the media as a punch line.
stymeedone
Wouldn’t trading Goldschmidt clear some payroll space?
stl_cards16 2
Nope. Goldschmidt it making less than Kimbrel. His contract is possibly the best in baseball.
Salty Dog
With respect to Preller’s approach: I don’t agree the fantasy baseball approach per se is the problem. It’s the players he’s targeted. Preller’s blind spot appears to be that he overvalues certain things (power specifically) and undervalues positional scarcity and defense. There’s an argument to be made for increasing payroll and bringing in a lot of MLB-level talent to “go for it”. Acquiring Matt Kemp isn’t a part of that argument.
Preller also tends to overlook payroll. Again, “going for it” is fine, but you can do that without taking on huge $$$ to future payrolls. He seemed to overlook the cost of taking on the bad contracts from the Braves. He backloaded the Shields contract to fit it in this year’s payroll, again seemingly without appropriate consideration to how that would restrict his ability to add talent over the next three years if the “go for it” plan didn’t pan out.
All that said, it’s way too early to say he’ll never be successful. My recollection is that the early years of the Dayton Moore regime were fairly poorly thought of. He’s managed to turn the perception around. Conversely, the first few years of the Jack Zdurencziek regime were very well thought of, and he’s flamed out (ditching Mr. Blengino didn’t work out too well).
Finally, some blame likely goes to Pads ownership. My guess is they wanted to be sold on a GM who had a “win now”‘plan. Preller can’t do what he did without ownership OK’ing the budget. True, he didn’t make the most of that budget, but it’s likely their impatience to build a solid foundation over several years contributed fo the problem. When other teams know you’re desperate to improve quickly it’s like throwing chum in the water. The sharks start circling.
stymeedone
Dayton Moore is not a good GM. He didn’t trade for Wade Davis to be in his bullpen. He didn’t draft Hochevar to be there either. He felt Gordon should be at 3B. His manager has bailed him out superbly, by getting the most out of what he was given. He still cant develop any starting pitching. I will give him and his scouting good marks for drafting (could give Dombrowski a lesson there).
Dock_Elvis
The same Ned Yost that might have singlehandedly cost them the AL Central last season by lousy pen management? And the same Yost that came within about a hair width of botching that play in game and being run out of town? Draft? Some of these guys were Baird draftees….
Difference in Moore and Preller is that Moore really hasn’t locked up the payroll….and they’ve made adjustments.
3000BongHits
Technically AJ targeted Pablo Sandoval and Yasmany Tomas first and luckily we missed the boat on those guy. We would be in much worse shape with them in the middle of the lineup, I am still happy with what we ended up with.
JoeyPankake
As a Giants fan, I’m thankful to have these two making decisions for NL west teams.
22Leo
lol the Padres asked for Goldschmidt? It wasn’t a “decision not to sell,” it was simple delusion.
3000BongHits
Maybe he actually values Kimbrel that high, since he is one of the best closers in baseball. Obviously he wasn’t taking Stewart seriously, I am sure he had other things on his mind..
sdryder278
First of all there is no way we should even know the Goldschmidt offer happened. Secondly maybe Preller straight up didn’t want to trade to the Dbacks. Sounds like a quick answer to get them not to ask about Kimbrel any longer. I don’t know what Preller is doing either and I thought for sure Kimbrel would be gone as he is a commodity. He’s been on the job for a year so this isn’t the last convo about him
mike156
given how quiet Cashman has been during the trade season, that kimbrel deal kind of boggles the mind. I’m glad it didn’t happen. The Yankees has had a nice run this year, with older players who are on the decline, but have been productive. They should be gradually moving to a younger cohort–and not trading your prospects except for good value is part of that.
harveybirdman
You guys are funny.
You’re telling me that none of you, in your fantasy baseball dealings or on this site or whatever, have ever responded to a question like “What do you want for _____?” with “Oh, I’ll take Mike Trout har har har”? I have no doubt in my mind that Preller was just making a joke and Stewart, for whatever reason, decided to tell the public. And the press being the press took it out of context and made it seem disrespectful or a serious offer or whatever. I mean come on.
As for the Padres’ decision not to sell, I don’t think it’s as bad of a move as everyone says it is. They don’t play a team with a winning record for three weeks, and if they’re still way out of the postseason picture by that time, Venable and maybe Kennedy will probably clear waivers and they can work move Benoit and/or Kennedy to whoever claims them (or anyone in the unlikely chance they clear). Upton will get them a draft pick in a very strong class, or the QO plus his relatively weak season might be enough of a damper on his price so the Padres might be able to re-sign him. Everyone else they can hold on to for another run next year or move in the offseason or at next year’s trade deadline.
ashley
A lot of the comments here are roasting Preller for asking for Goldschmidt. Gee, it was only last January that a certain GM asked Billy Beane about a third baseman named Donaldson and if he could be had. None of the other GM’s bothered to ask and when Beane traded Donaldson, the backlash and hatred shown was overwhelming because others were jealous that they didn’t have a chance to grab him. What is the difference now between Arizona and San Diego? There is always a starting point in discussions and it started with Kimbrell, which could have then escalated to a Ross, Cashner, or other players that would have created the trade. In 2012, it was again the Blue Jays AA that called Miami about Jose Reyes and it turned into a 12 player trade between the teams. We just saw a 14 player trade involving the Dodgers in a 3 team trade. Where do those originate? It starts with one GM asking another team about a player. The way it sounds on the board here, the fans don’t believe any GM should ask about a good player or they are incompetent and should be replaced. I would fire the GM that didn’t at least ask.
thebuccosjanitor
When it says the management staff and players were happy to see no changes were made, but how happy are the people that spend their hard earned money to buy the tickets..good luck padres fans, you will need it.
rexhustler
The trade proposal for Goldy was a joke…people are getting so emotional about it hahaha
prestigeworldwide
I think Stewart knows this and didnt really get the opportunity to explain. The radio host just sensationalized his bizarre offer. AJ is just in hot water, this just adds fuel to the fire for some people. AJ almost bet the entire farm this season with trades (largest salary in franchise history) and now his inaction after failing is making things worse.
3000BongHits
The Padres rarely have a good farm to begin with, we might have some setbacks now from what the old GM’s did. But Preller wants to replenish it with his own guys, and he most likely couldn’t acquire them at this time.
rexhustler
One thing that people outside of San Diego don’t understand is, this franchise was in a very fragile state due to horrible past owner situations.
The worst thing they could have done right now is trade off their big players for prospects in pieces. Trust me, locally, local fans were so burned and disenfranchised by the team that if they just traded off Kimbrel, Upton and Shields it would take another decade for people to let themselves care about the team again.
We’ve been hurt here man, we’ve traded off every single good player we’ve had for peanuts for the last decade…and fielded teams that offensively weren’t even major league teams. Look at our hitting stats for the last 3 seasons and come back to me. Name me a player that a fan could buy a jersey of and actually be stoked about it.
Prellar did what he had to do to bring actual major league talent here…it hasn’t gone as plan, but this is season on in what he calls his 1/3 and 5 year plan.
I know what he did really annoys baseball blog nerds, keyboard GM’s and people who worship Billy Beane and would rather their own team be 35-55 right now but have young controllable talent and a “plan”…but give me actual players that are worth the ticket price and the high beer prices when I’m at an actual game. Because that’s what real fans do, they actually leave their houses, go to games and cheer on their team rather than analyze them from behind a keyboard everyday. I will gladly buy an extra beer at every game I attend the rest of the year before a late inning Justin Upton at bat. It’s cool with me!!!
cookiemonster
that’s just not true, winning cures all ills.
Gautham Pawnday
IDK, to me it sounds more like the Dbacks called the Padres about Kimbrell, and Preller responding by saying that he would only trade him for Goldschmidt (meaning Kimbrell was completely unavailable). So Stewart goes to the press out of spite for Preller’s sarcastic proposal.
Math&Baseball
Pretty much- why would the Padres call up the Diamondbacks and offer Kimbrel for Goldschmidt? The DBacks inquired as a back up plan in case they didn’t get Chapman, which they didn’t, and I guarantee their offer was either 1. what would it take or 2. we will give you x y z for Kimbrel and preller said you want Kimbrel we want Goldschmidt. Preller knew they wouldn’t do it, but it’s a nicer way of saying “no way in he!! are you getting kimbrel”.
ratty1
Hats off to AJ for asking for the moon…Why worry about political correctness in baseball …It’s a competition right down to negotiation ….Time for the good old boy’s to move on and bring in the aggressive Young Executives to Lead in the future of baseball.
jb226
How did the Aggressive Young Executive do with that strategy?
Sign all the Cubans
LOL…I’d prefer a smart young executive to an aggressive one, every day of the week.
Dock_Elvis
Love blanket statements…good old boys vs new young executives. As if the game isn’t littered with Ivy League degrees now.
libertyfighter
The Padres are 12 – 4 in their last 16 games; moreover, their August schedule is very very weak with the possibility of another 18 wins. If this comes to pass many of you know it alls will have to eat your words. Look at what the Padres were before AJ, they were terrible and did not have that many bonafide Major League players. While AJ did trade away 2 – 3 prospects who most likely will go on to decent MLB careers, the Padres now have some decent MLB talent, something lacking in SD for a long long time. That article on Grantland is stupid and not accurate. An assessment of where the Padres are now: Their bullpen has become shutdown [over the last two months], almost on the level of KC. Kemp is starting to heat up and the starting rotation is finally pitching consistently. The Ownership Group has indicated that the Padre payroll will indeed go up in 2016 and the Padres plan to be big spenders in the International Market when many of the usual big spenders are tapped out from overspending in the last two years. All of this mockery towards AJ Preller is a bit premature. Considering how the Padres have handled themselves over the last decade, AJ Preller is a breath of fresh air and I will wait until next April – May to assess what is going on with the Padres.
prestigeworldwide
Keep drinking the Koolaid. In a nut shell, he swapped controllable young guys for older expensive players. Also, your farm system is crap now. But hey, you have some bonafide players now 🙂
cookiemonster
yaaa mediocrity!
anoff
I think Preller is way more active in trade talks than most GMs, and he inquires about everyone on his roster, and on the other team’s roster. Because of that, and the fact that he made big moves over the winter, everyone just assumed he was going to make more big moves. But if you followed the news over the winter, he was in on almost every transaction that took place, not just the trades involving the padres. That hyper level of activity seems to have set an expectation in every one’s head that he’s going to make a bunch of moves, when instead, he’s just finding out as much info as he can. If a team asks about Ross, Preller is going to turn around and ask every team about Ross, and try to one, properly gauge the value, and 2, hopefully get someone to overpay.
You combine that with the relatively modest performance on the field and this unsubstantiated expectation that the Padres are broke and need to save cash, and everyone in the world expects them to trade guys for pennies on the dollar, either as a salary dump, or so they could dump another salary asking with it.
The fact is, Preller didn’t make any moves because no one offered up enough value. Sure, maybe the padres won’t make the playoffs this year. But Ross, Cashner, Kimbrel and Shields can all help next year, and most of them the year after that too. Trading then to either shed salary or for a bunch of 19 or 20 year old prospects makes the team substantially worse next year, so why would he move them? It might’ve be nice to move one or two of the pending FAs (maybe Benoit could’ve fetched the same return as Soria?), but Kennedy and Venable are actually pretty important cogs to the team this year, and losing them would make the team substantially worse (no SP depth, no LHB, no quality 4th OF). Why trade them for a bag of baseballs, when you could keep them, keep playing competitive baseball, and show the fans that the team IS serious about fielding a contender with a reasonable payroll? Fans are still scared from the early 90s fire sale, and they saw what the marlins did, so it’s worth a little more in SD, from a marketing perspective, to not blow up the team in a dramatic way.
cookiemonster
because they are costing themselves draft pool money for next year, prospects the system needs of any quality and quanity. this is basically saying we are hosting the asg so have to pretend to think we can compete short term.
nypadre66
There’s no pitching depth because Preller gave it all away. IMO, they didn’t make any trades because the returns they received would have shown how much he overpaid in the off-season to acquire this talent. Both Joe Ross and Matt Wisler made it to the majors as 22 year olds, Jesse Hahn was starting for the A’s and Joe Weiland has pitched for the doggers. The Padres are throwing 2 mid to late 30’s independent league reclaimation projects (Lane and Chris Smith) in their AAA rotation because they have virtually nothing left in the organization.
jtt11 2
Wisler made the rotation of the Atlanta Braves…. Hahn, who I like, made the Oakland A’s rotation. I’m an avid baseball fan and active in fantasy baseball- so I know most teams rosters. I can name 3 guys in both of those teams rotations, combined. I can name everyone in the Padres. And it’s not as if any of the guys the Padres traded are blowing the doors off the competition…