San Diego Padres 2016 Season In Review
The Preller Debacle
This summer, Padres General Manager A.J. Preller made a number of deals. From June 1st until the non-waiver trading deadline on August 1st, Preller made six significant trades with five teams.
- June 4th – Traded James Shields and cash to the White Sox for Erik Johnson and Fernando Tatis
- June 30th – Traded Fernando Rodney to the Marlins for Chris Paddack
- July 14th – Traded Drew Pomeranz to the Red Sox for Anderson Espinoza
- July 26th – Traded Melvin Upton and cash to the Blue Jays for Hansel Rodriguez
- July 29th – Traded Andrew Cashner, Tayron Guerrero, Colin Rea, and cash to the Marlins for Luis Castillo, Josh Naylor, Carter Capps, and Jarred Cosart. (The Rea for Castillo portion of the deal was eventually rescinded by the league)
- July 30th – Traded Matt Kemp and cash to the Braves for Hector Olivera
On August 1st, Major League Baseball found that the Padres had not disclosed an injury that Collin Rea had previously had after he could not complete his July 30th start for the Marlins. The judgement was that the Padres would return Castillo and get Rea back. Rea went on the DL and did not pitch the rest of the season. This was sadly just the beginning.
Rumors began to fly about how the Padres had hidden, or been less than truthful with, medical information in their trades. Some rumors came out about Kemp in Atlanta having undisclosed treatment procedures he was undergoing before he was traded. He was open with the Atlanta medical staff and knew what treatments he has been receiving, and frankly, the Braves wanted Olivera out of town, so it is quite likely that the Braves never filed anything official with the league office.
Then the big bomb dropped. On September 15th, Major League Baseball levied a significant suspension against Preller, suspending him from team operations for 30 days due to the findings from their investigation into a complaint filed by the Boston Red Sox regarding the Pomeranz deal. The league found that the Padres had been not just withholding information in their trades, but that they held their medical information on an entirely different server, unavailable to teams, while presenting a front of openness by opening their supposed entire file on a player before the deal. This is one of the most egregious acts of deception that has been punished by Major League Baseball upon a front office. Reportedly, the Red Sox chose to have the commissioner’s office pursue suspension rather than reverse the trade.
Preller certainly could have been the fall guy for something that was an organizational philosophy that goes even higher than he. He could be taking the fall for something that went on and that he simply didn’t know about. However, the overwhelming evidence is that these actions centered on Preller and his direction of the front office. How the team will recover and be able to work with their fellow MLB teams again in trade negotiations is anyone’s guess, and it may require them to part ways with Preller.