Padres GM A.J. Preller is back on the job now that his 30-day suspension has ended, though both Preller and the organization may need more time to repair their reputations around baseball. ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required) reports that several teams will adjust how they negotiate with San Diego from now on, while one team has simply refused to consider any trades with Preller and the Padres. There is also still “a river of industry speculation” that the Padres could face lawsuits about their handling of player medical information. Here’s some more from around the NL West…
- In a reader mailbag piece about several Giants-related topics, MLB.com’s Chris Haft doesn’t see San Francisco re-signing free agents Sergio Romo, Javier Lopez, Angel Pagan or Jake Peavy, though there’s a chance Gregor Blanco could return. The probable departures of Romo and Lopez could be part of a wider bullpen shakeup for the Giants, as GM Bobby Evans has said that finding a closer is a top offseason priority.
- The Rockies’ managerial search is discussed by Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post as part of his own reader maibag. Saunders feels the team’s new skipper should come from outside the organization in order to bring a fresh perspective. It seems like Colorado is more apt to hire a manager who leans more towards the front office’s analytical mindset. Former manager Walt Weiss “embraced the statistics and analytics to a large degree,” though ultimately preferred to rely on gut-level calls and felt he was being interfered with by the front office. The well-documented discord between Weiss and GM Jeff Bridich also didn’t help things, as you might expect.
- The Diamondbacks lost three members of the scouting department in part due to the front office uncertainty prior to hiring of new GM Mike Hazen, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes. Assistant director of scouting Brendan Domaracki and longtime scout Howard McCullough (who had been with the D’Backs since the franchise began operations) both left for positions with the Mariners, while amateur scout Frankie Thon Jr. will join the Angels as their new international crosschecker and assistant director of international scouting.
wonder if that one team is boston
It’s sad when media gang up on a GM and small market franchise by creating continuous rumors based off pure speculation on event in which no one is certain what actually happened. Even after they fired their team president that was quoted by a team official as the MLB was glad to see go. Personally, I think this is attempt by other large market GMs to try leverage their future information as sources to use the media to have AJ fired over a guideline violation that has yet to been pinned on him directly. Jealous much? After Boston tried to manipulate their distribution of money to international signings, after their punishment was handed down their was no call for anyones job. The coverage certainly didnt continue for months after a judgement had been handed down. St. Louis and their hacking of the Astros still doesnt get covered despite no judgement be handed down months after a ruling from the courts convicting one of their employees of hacking into the database of the Astros. Move on already.
It doesn’t matter. If you manage an organization and one of your employees messes up, you take the fall.
And he did, the org was fined 7 figures and he was given 30 unpaid suspension.
To a greater or lesser extent, keeping him in the organisation will cause problems in trade negotiations. Not sure that the trade off with his international and drafting skills is worth it, especially with the reputational damage that will hang around long after he’s fired. If I’m SD I get rid now.
Disagree, there are only 30 teams in baseball. To refuse to open yourself up to possibly trading for a player thats available would be foolish. Medicals will be highly scrutinized going forward by MLB and other teams. After all, this will all probably result in changes to the CBA and medical guidelines will be more detailed rules of how medicals are to be exchanged with little flexibility. The only GM other than Boston to comment on the record in public about this stated he (Jed Hoyer) thought it would be foolish to eliminate a team from the pool to trade with and that ultimately he saw teams trading with AJ in the near future.
Between Colin Rea and Drew Pomeranz, it’s hard to see that being valid. Would you buy a car from a dealership if two of your friends had been sold lemons by it? Unlikely. This is what the Padres will face going forward. And I think it persists with or without Preller there, because it’s the organization that GMs are now suspicious of.
NO IT WILL NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One actual GM (not one of these journalists) said himself that no one is going to limit the market to one less team and they all know that MLB will be keeping extra tabs on Preller now and so he will be extra careful to follow the rules.
I could be wrong, but wasn’t there a report a few weeks ago (that was even posted here) that Preller (or at least someone in the front office) specifically told the trainers to limit the medical information? And what do other teams have to be jealous of?
And while I’ll agree with the St. Louis situation, the Boston situation was a bit different. Boston deliberately cheated but had to forfeit all the players that were found to be part of that “scandal”. The Padres bent the rules by limiting the amount of medical information given to other teams, but completely lost the trust from other teams/front offices. The Padres specifically withheld medical information most likely to get better value for their players. While injuries can happen to any player at any time, it is important to know whether a player has been getting any sort of treatment for a sore spot/actual injury/fatigue. Those are all red flags that could lead to injury and it should be within a team’s right to know whether or not a player they are interested in has an injury treatment history.
Let’s go a step further. Withholding crucial medical information also puts the player at great risk should he be traded. What if the Padres had instead withheld something life threatening about Pomeranz or Rae? I’m surprised this scenario doesn’t get brought up more often.
The best thing for the Padres to do is fire Preller. With him at the helm, they are at a disadvantage as they cannot negotiate as freely with teams second guessing everything. Moreover, I don’t think many free agents will want to go there knowing that there are questionable practices around medical records.
Since they’ve already come out and publicly supported him, they won’t make moves now. But should they start the season slow, that will probably be sword they use to cut off the head.
While I agree what happened affected relationships due to the perceived advantage they gained by the lack of information. At the same time how much of that has to be pinned on the teams that went forward with these trades knowing there was a lack of information. It has to fall both ways. Even after Boston was given the opportunity to rescind the trade they choose not to. They could have done without Pomeranz and had back their phenom SP. That was their choice to keep him.
As for the jealousy part, I think the teams are upset that the Padres took advantage of the international landscape and spent the most on signings there. Boston is upset AJ took them in two straight trade of Pomeranz and Kimbrel. They signed the greatest amount of high school talent in the Draft in the current CBA system and teams are worried about the man that helped build Texas is building in San Diego and notoriously works 24/7/365 to do so. Industry perception of San Diego is different from the fan perception. While outside fans see the failure of 2015 acquisitions, the front office turned those players over and brought in young future talent. The lower levels of the organization are stocked and the future is bright,
The teams didn’t know there was a lack of information at the time they made the trades. And comparing the Boston situation pre-trade deadline to the situation afterward, while they are in a playoff race, is simply just not the same. There were no other options for them at the time they were allowed to rescind he trade because the deadline had already passed.
No one is jealous of SD. You can take your tinfoil hat off.
This isn’t on the other teams. That’s ridiculous. If a player complains of a sore ankle, they treat it but don’t add it to the players medical file. How is the acquiring team meant to know that wasn’t there?
If MLBTR removed your post above, would it be the other readers fault that we didn’t know about your comments?
So to answer your question ZERO of that should be pinned on the other team.
That logic is removed the realm of this conversation, if my post were to be removed it would have everything to do with those who remove it and they reserve the right to remove it due to the fact it is their website.
However the teams know the average number of medical logs per player, especially having seen the players past medicals from other organizations like Pomeranz who was with the Rockies and Athletics. The inadequacies of keeping detailed logs on a player by the lack of entries has to send red flags and give warning. If it doesn’t then that falls on the teams that pursue the trades based on knowledge or lack of knowledge their is a lack of detailed medical information.
As @chesteraarthur pointed out, Boston only took the Pomeranz deal because it was either Pomeranz or nothing, there wasn’t any time to do a different/another deal.
Also, I highly doubt other teams are jealous of the Padres because they spent a lot on international signings (maybe small market teams that can’t afford multiple million dollar prospects) and I doubt teams are jealous of the prospects taking a bunch of HS’ers in the draft. I’m all for your optimism, it’s what makes a true sports fan, but the failures of that 2015 season put them back multiple steps. The team went all-in that year and failed miserably. While they definitely got some good looking prospects in some of their secondary trades, they lost tons of value in other trades. The Kemp trade has been a bust, the Justin Upton trade hasn’t done much for them and even the Wil Myers trade is probably a loss (considering Trea Turner looked better than Myers last year). At the very least, the Padres took a step back as a result of that offseason but they still haven’t taken that step foward. What’s to stop Preller from dealing all of his prospects again or what’s stopping those above Preller from firing him in a year or two if the team continues to struggle and blowing up the whole process anyway?
There was a complete understanding of how medicals worked and the number of entries in the logs of the players being acquired. Those same inadequacies were used as evidence of SD lack of compliance with the guidelines. There were a couple articles discussing the average number of entries by any given player by that point in the year and how SD numbers fell way short of that. Those were things they new at the time yet pursue the deal anyways.
If they chose to keep Pomeranz regardless of his medicals, I think that is telling as to the state of his condition. Regardless if they lacked the opportunity to freely trade with someone else for someone else is belated butthurt nonsense. He didnt even start in the playoffs or the last few weeks of the season. The decision to keep him negatively affected Boston based on their decision to do so. Whether they would have dealt for anyone else of consequence would all be subjective and the prices for starting pitching was at a all time high due to the lack of valuable options this offseason.
Lol tinfoil hat!! That was a good one haha
So they should assume that unlike the 28 other teams in baseball, the Padres are lying? Are you serious? grasping at straws much?
That’s the issue, though. Olney’s piece details how much Preller was manipulating the system. The only reason Boston didn’t rescind the Pom trade was because it was after the trade deadline and they were in a pennant race and therefore the choice was Pom or nothing (or a waiver pickup or etc.). Doesn’t absolve Preller of malfeasance.
And Pomeranz didn’t start in the playoffs or the end of the season because he was hurt. Remember, the fake medicals?
They had little choice but to keep Pomeranz, because by the time that the Commissioner’s office had given the Red Sox an opportunity to void the trade, the non-waiver trade deadline had passed. Boston was forced to choose between going for it now, or having a prospect returned that was nowhere near ready. When you’re in a pennant race, the choice is obvious; you need to take a chance with the player that can help you. Thing is, they didn’t have the player they thought they had, thanks to misleading info from the Padres. Your franchise got off super easy, but the real
Punishment will be from the minimal
future trade activity with the other 29 teams.
What minimal future trade activity? The Red Sox tried to trade the Padres for relief pitching just a few weeks after the Pomeranz trade went through! If the Padres have something that another team wants and are offering trades that the other team feels is fair, they will take it. And they know that MLB is keeping tabs on Preller so he will be extra careful to disclose what needs to be disclosed.
Busters story stated that but without stating who said that and specific details given it is still unnamed sources and speculation. I still go back to Manfrd said it has been fullly investigated, punished and the matter is over.
A lot of Padres fans would be thrilled if no one trades with AJ as the local perception is talent will always get traded away.. For me, AJ has come the closest to achieving the ultimate goal. Fill the ML roster with better talent and stock the farm system at multiple levels. Towers didn’t do it, Alderson didn’t do it, Hoyer didn’t do it, Byrnes didn’t do it..
Agreed and well said. I look forward to seeing what they pull with the 3rd overall pick to add to what they have. I hope we get a comp A pick.
Actually, Hoyer and Byrnes did do it. Quite a few of their draft picks are starting on other major league teams right now.
Hoyer picked Hedges, Spangenberg, Kelley (who was in El Paso in 2016), Joe Ross (with the Nationals), Jace Peterson (with the Braves), Matt Wisler (with the Braves), Quackenbush, Colin Rea, and Burch Smith in 2011. That is 8 guys with MLB experience out of the only draft he was responsible for the picks.
Byrnes had 3 drafts. 2012 was Max Fried, Travis Jankowski, Eflin (with the Phillies), and Mallex Smith (with the Braves). 3 MLB players and a top prospect. In 2013 he drafted arguably our top prospect right now, Hunter Renfroe. He also drafted Trevor Gott (reliever with Angels & Nationals), Jake Bauers (a good prospect with Rays), and Dustin Peterson( a good prospect with the Braves). In 2014 he drafted Trea Turner (rookie of the year candidate for the Nationals) and HS Michael Gettys.
The prospects that are hitting the majors in the Padres system are not Preller’s picks. At this point, Preller has traded for some good prospects, but we have yet to see anything materialize at the MLB level other than the cup of coffee for Margot and a few games for Asuaje.
I’d agree that Jed Hoyer did great with what he had the brief time he was here. Brynes had many spoilers and almost a lack of international signings that made his tenure bittersweet. I dont think either Hoyer or Brynes had a long enough tenure to consider it a fair shake. Hoyer especially seeing he was here for the Moorad years, which were incredibly frugal budgets in those years while he was purchasing the team on layaway. Which is in part I believe the main reason Jed took the job with the Cubs.
Lawsuits by teams wouldn’t be part of an MLB investigation.
Yeah I think the credit for these international signings should go to ownership, more so than Preller. Any GM can stock a farm system if their given a massive budget.
Jealous of what exactly? Perhaps of the weather at times but certainly not of the baseball. Important medical information was withheld, and either the GM was directly involved or he is guilty of negligence. 30 days suspension is a joke compared to the severity of the situation.
Jealous much? Who is jealous and if what?
Lopez is one of the few that I wouldn’t mind having back is a good lefty specialist. The key word is lefty specialist they had to pitch him in non specialist situations and that’s when he was bad. The Giants need to sign one of the big three closers on the FA market. Melancon or Chapman would be best because of the no draft pick compensation but jansen would be worth it as well. Idk what they could get for Strickland but get him out of there yes he throws hard but he throws it right down the middle and he gets raked just get him out of there.
Lopez had two huge issues this season – being used against righties and pitching on the road. Even so, he still wasn’t the Lopez of old against lefties this year though. The only thing that makes me want to take a flyer is the fact that their other lefty options in the organization were terrible.
Don’t be shocked if the Dodgers make a run at both Romo and Lopez
Giants are very, very left-handed. They would thank Sergio Romo for all he did for them, and then crush him, as left-handed hitters usually do.
As a Giants fan, I am sure hoping that San Francisco moves on from Gregor Blanco. I would like to see them retain Pagan for his role. I tend to cringe when I see Blanco enter the game. He is not that great defensively and he tends to have unproductive at bats. I appreciate what he has done in the past, but I am good with him going away.
I agree with you totally on Blanco except I don’t worry about his defense.
I am good with keeping Pagan but you just gotta realize he’s not going to play 150 games. You’re going to get 120 out of him and that’s okay if you have some depth. The problem with SF is that Blanco was the depth. He wouldn’t make the Dodgers 25 man roster. I say resign Pagan and still get another top tier OFer that can play every position and just give them all rest days. Pence included. I know he likes to play but he could do with some time off to recharge.
I’d like to see the Giants give a short term deal to Carlos Gomez and have him try to rebuild some of his lost value
Agreed on Gomez. I like him and wish SF would have taken a chance on him after his release. He rebounded well with Texas and will probably get two years.
The problem with SF was overall depth. After the starter, they lacked major league replacements at every position. It’s one thing to carry a Parker or a Williamson on your roster, but having an entire bench made up of AAAA players isn’t workable. In addition to solidifying the back end of the pen, the Giants could reap major benefits from getting some real MLB talent on the bench. Aside from Tomlinson, the majority of the bench needs an overhaul.
You are exactly right @gmenfan! If SF don’t want to trade away any big players to get a haul of prospects, and I like that they don’t. They need to spend to buy some decent talent and depth.
I agree on Pagan. That’s exactly what I want, 95-120 games, max. He spells Span in center and spells whoever we sign in left.
All wrong
The Giants all three outfielder are trash
Not quality at all now a day one of the outfielder must supply with powers
One must have speed one high average hitting and two must be at least average defense. Giants have non will Hunter defense is okay and Mac Will is very good with home runs
A lot of heat came down on Walt Weiss, but played with the hand that he had been dealt. The front office made a lot of stupid moves.
The commissioner of the league said its over and done. Can’t say I’m shocked that Olney is still trying to keep this story alive. Regardless, it’s pretty clear people that want to bury AJ will hold it against him and people that support him won’t.
Let’s not forget that Prellers prearranged deal ran up the price for the Red Sox to sign Groome..
I will echo what I said previously on the topic of the Padres medical disclosures, where are the named sources from these baseball writers on this topic? It is very poor journalism.
In his latest piece, Olney relies on “a river of industry speculation” to suggest that the Padres could face lawsuits. OK, what exactly is “a river of industry speculation?” I have two major problems with that statement, first, quantify the term “river.” Is that one, two, three sources, etc. When you use an imprecise term like “a river”, it gives the impression you are trying to obfuscate just how many people are substantiating this information. Second, and more importantly, what does the term “industry speculation” mean? To me, that sounds like you are (1) not relying on facts, but on unqualified speculation, and (2) the speculation is not even coming from any teams actually involved in the trades in question, but rather from unaffiliated third parties. If that is the case, it is so far afield from factual reporting, that you could not even say the statements amount to “hearsay,” which although inadmissible in court, would at least be more substantiated then what Olney is giving us in this latest article.
In response to some of the comments, I offer the direct quotes of Jed Hoyer, Executive Vice-President and General Manager of the Chicago Cubs, in a interview from October 13, 2016 with Darren Smith of 1090 AM in San Diego. He says the following:
“There probably are some shades of gray as far as what people put in their files, some teams are totally inclusive and put every piece of information in their files, and some teams may decide that every piece of information is not necessary in there, and I have a feeling that that’s going change going forward because of what happened in this particular situation in San Diego.”
He continues to say:
“My personal opinion on that, honestly, is that there are only thirty teams …teams are not going to just not deal with one team or another because ultimately this is a competitive business and if the Padres have a player that people want, they’re going to make a deal for them, I just don’t believe that people will take teams off the books, I just don’t think that’s going to happen, I think that maybe the medical process will be more scrutinized, even though I think it’ll be changed in the future, but people aren’t just going to take one team off the books, because we can’t really afford to do that in this business.”
You hit the nail on the head. Olney is trying to create news because his readership is falling precipitously. If you look at advertising rates for ESPN Insider, you will find that Olney readership has fallen 60% in the past 2 years. He is desperate to get people to subscribe and read his garbage.
Exactly, Words from an actually GM vs these unnamed sources. It seems as though there reality of the situation which is in stark contrast to the situation these sports writers try to paint perhaps to accomplish their own goals. Which is to get AJ fired.
This is a great quote from an actual reliable source: a legitimate MLB GM. All Olney is trying to do is stir the pot, and keep painting Preller in a bad light (particularly towards Red Sox fans).
This is actually really good, however the reason sources go unnamed is because that is what make journalism. If writers gave the name of their sources every time, either no inside information/rumors would be released or guys would be getting fired left and right for releasing said information.
Exactly. If sources had to go on record we would get stories that follow the company line and everything would read like a team press release. At the end of the day real journalists write what they know or believe to be real. If you don’t like it or believe it, then you’re welcome to dispute it. But when someone suggests that something isn’t real because the source is unnamed. Well that’s just naive.
Yep. And don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are plenty of writers out there who come up with their own rumors (i.e. Make up information and pass it off as a source). However, the huge risk with that is if the writer is consistently off with their info, they lose all credibility. Sure, there are plenty of writers who write some crazy things that is their own speculation, but I would assume that these writers for big companies (like ESPN) have somewhat credible sources when they do cite them. Doesn’t mean it’s a GM or another important front office executive because it can easily be some intern or assistant or some other no-name staffer who just passes along rumors they hear.
Well of course, what else would one expect Hoyer to say when he’s on the record?
Olney is so full of it. You can pretty much guarantee that if he says it, it’s wrong. The Red Sox, the team that Preller traded Pomeranz to tried to trade with Preller again in August for relief pitching. They kept Pomeranz and the player didn’t miss any starts because he wasn’t injured. If anything, teams will be more willing to trade with Preller because they know for certain that he will be completely above board about medicals now that this has happened. That is something they cannot be sure of with other teams. Sometimes you just have to realize that people like Olney will try to CREATE news when there isn’t any.
I think everyone is exaggerating the level of deceit here by Preller.
As far as I’ve seen he only left out Oral medications(Anti inflammatories,etc).
It’s not like he failed to document or disclose actual injuries or serious medical issues.Pomeranz and Rea were both healthy when traded…..just as healthy as Paddack (who the Padres received from Miami) who was injured just about at the same time Rea was.
Madison Bum deserve huge contract
He already proven he is the best pitcher in mlb since 2010
Of course after Clayton Hersaw screw up tonight
CLayton wins lots of games but not was
Mad Bum could easily wins as much just because Giants hitters can’t hit
Mad Bum could of won 21 games easily without Giants hitter and bullpen screw up 10 games for Mad Bum
Therefore Giants bullpen and hitters screw up cy young for Mad too
This would make a lot more sense if proper grammar and sentence structure were used.