Recap: How the front office rating works
This is one in a series of assessments of the performances of front offices for the 2024 season. Each front office is given a score based on the total Wins Above Average of the players they either traded for, signed via free agency or extension, or promoted from their farm system, since the conclusion of the 2023 postseason.
A front office’s score also includes the total Wins Above Average of players traded away or lost to free agency since the end of the 2023 postseason. The front offices are being presented in order of their total value from No. 30 (worst) all the way to No. 1 (best).
These ratings do not necessarily reflect the final standings. Front offices are measured based only on the talent they acquired or lost during the past 12 months. Players on multi-year contracts, or already under team control, don’t count toward this rating.
No. 14: San Diego Padres, A.J. Preller, president of baseball operations and general manager, +2.0
Few front office execs in MLB swung for the fences more frequently in 2024 than A.J. Preller. None hit so consistently or missed so spectacularly.
Preller’s decisions impacted a dozen players who went on to produce at least a full game of value (positively or negatively) either for the Padres or for their new team. Only the Orioles and Giants — with 13 such players — had more player moves of that impact. And neither of those teams matched the overall impact of the high-value players either acquired, signed, extended, promoted, dealt or lost to free agency by Preller.
Most moves involving a +/-1.0 WAA value player
Team | Moves | Value (Wins Above Average) |
|---|---|---|
San Francisco Giants | 13 | 24.6 |
Baltimore Orioles | 13 | 16.8 |
San Diego Padres | 12 | 25.9 |
Chicago White Sox | 12 | 20.7 |
Milwaukee Brewers | 12 | 17.8 |
Go big or go home has pretty much always been the Preller game plan in his ongoing effort to overtake the Dodgers for NL West supremacy. Prior to the 2024 season, that meant, among other things, swinging the year’s biggest trade.
Preller sent free-agent-to-be Juan Soto along with Trent Grisham to the Yankees in exchange for five players, four of whom saw big league time with the Padres. The fifth, Drew Thorpe, was among four players off-loaded to the White Sox to get Dylan Cease.
The math on that pair of deals is instructive.
Traded Away (Team) | Value to New Team (WAA) |
|---|---|
Soto (Yankees) | +5.8 |
Grisham (Yankees) | -0.3 |
Thorpe (White Sox) | -0.3 |
Jairo Iriarte (White Sox) | +0.1 |
Steven Wilson (White Sox) | -0.9 |
Acquired by Padres | Value to Padres (WAA) |
|---|---|
Michael King | +2.6 |
Kyle Higashioka | +0.5 |
Jhony Brito | -0.2 |
Randy Vasquez | -0.4 |
Dylan Cease | +2.5 |
In short, Preller dealt away five major leaguers who produced a cumulative +4.4 games of value for the acquiring teams. In return, he got five players who produced +5.0 games of value for the Padres.
Superficially, that makes the exchange a win for San Diego, a neat trick given the quality season Soto produced for New York. But the real eye-catcher is the fact that three of the players involved in those transactions — Soto, King and Cease — all produced in excess of two games of impact for their new teams, with two of those players being imports for the Padres.
Let’s put that in context. Between the conclusion of the 2023 postseason and the conclusion of the 2024 season, MLB front offices made roster changes involving 1,606 major league bodies. Only 53 of those bodies (just 3%) produced an impact of at least plus/minus 2.0 games for their new teams. Yet, in that one series of trades, Preller got three such players involved.
It goes deeper than that. Preller also lost Michael Wacha (+2.0) and Cy Young candidate Seth Lugo (+3.5) to free agency, and promoted rookie-of-the-year finalist Jackson Merrill (+2.5). Again, there were only 53 moves in all of MLB last season involving a +/- 2.0 player; Preller made six of those 53.
Overall, Preller made 63 personnel decisions involving a 2024 major leaguer. Of those 63, 32 worked to the favor of the Padres, 25 were negative, and six produced neutral value.
Previous Rankings
16. New York Mets, David Stearns, president of baseball operations, +1.2
15. Arizona Diamondbacks, Mike Hazen, executive vice president and general manager, +1.9
14. San Diego Padres, A.J. Peller, president of baseball operations and general manager, +2.0
Next: 13. Cincinnati Reds, Nick Krall, president of baseball operations, +2.2