Padres GM Jed Hoyer spoke with Darren Smith of XX1090 Sports Radio about the state of his team yesterday. You can download the mp3 of the 16-minute interview here, and here's a recap of the important hot stove items…
- Unsurprisingly, Hoyer's primary focus is arbitration figures at the moment. MLBTR's Arb Tracker shows that the team still has five players up for arbitration, including Heath Bell and Ryan Ludwick.
- Hoyer believes the team will be able to sign Bell before an arbitration hearing. While the two sides are open to and have discussed the possibility of a multiyear deal, right now the focus is on getting a contract for 2011 worked out.
- Hoyer likes the idea of bringing recently retired players in to just hang around with his young ballclub. Obviously the most notable recently retired player is long-time Padre Trevor Hoffman, who is now working with the club in a front office capacity.
- "As far as Major League deals, I'd never say never, but I think we're pretty much done," said the GM. The team is closing in on deals with Gregg Zaun and Chad Qualls, and they figure to sign a few more players to minor league contracts before camp opens up.
- "I think writing guys off after one year is a mistake," Hoyer said, referring to the recently signed Brad Hawpe. He considers age a factor when determining if a player is on the decline for good, and Hawpe is still just 31 and only a year removed from three straight seasons with no worse than a .879 OPS.
- Free agent pitchers have called Hoyer directly to say they'd love to pitch for the Padres. Hitters aren't as receptive to playing in Petco Park, however.
- Hoyer doesn't think they overpaid Orlando Hudson when they gave the second baseman a two-year, $11.5MM contract. "I think we got him on a very reasonable two year deal."
- Gaslamp Ball rounded up the non-hot stove items for those of you interested in learning about how much playing time they plan to give Nick Hundley as well as how much they value defense.
Hoyer said he was happy to send Adrian Gonzalez to Boston for a bag of crap to help out his old buddy Theo Epstein and looks forward to returning to Boston in 2 years as a special asasistant.
You didn’t get ripped off. Casey Kelly will be a top starter, Anthony rizzo has great power and was our top 1st baseman, and reymond Fuentes could be just like his cousin Carlos Beltran in a few years.
The operative word in your post is “our” when referring to the Red Sox. Of course you think it was a fair deal, but Gargoyle2525 is absolutely correct and here’s why: Hoyer gift-wrapped Gonzalez to Boston without getting one major-league ready and talented player in return, such as Jacoby Ellsbury. Let’s say for argument’s sake, Hoyer is right about the three minor leaguers he got back (not including Patterson, who is nothing more than a journeyman player to be named later) and they all make it to the majors. Well, unless one of those players turns into an All-Star, how from a Padres’ standpoint can this be considered a fair trade? Rizzo is no more of a prospect than Lars Anderson was a few years ago, and as for Kelly, who knows what he can become as a pitcher, but again, let’s say he joins the San Diego rotation in a few years. Unless he’s a top-notch pitcher, or Rizzo turns into a top-notch power-hitting first baseman, and the third guy makes his mark in some fashion, you’ve traded an elite talent in Gonzalez for mediocrity. It would be one thing if Gonzalez were in his mid-30s, but he’s 28 years old and just entering his prime years. On what planet is it considered a truly fair market deal to trade a guy who you already know is an elite talent in his 20s in exchange for a package of players who may not even be major leaguers of any consequence, let alone becoming star quality? This deal is strictly about economics (a rich team and a thrifty one), which is fine because that’s how it works in baseball, but even so, it was incumbent upon Hoyer to at least offer the Padres’ fans some tangible talent he could have put on the field this season. Ellsbury, because he is young and still relatively inexpensive, would have fit the bill nicely in that regard. But instead, Hoyer allowed his old team (and as Gargoyle2525 pointed out, the team that will rehire him when he’s fired in a few years for botching this deal) to obtain an elite talent for a bunch of prospects, which as we all know should really be called suspects since baseball is far and away the hardest sport in which to project young talent. I think it was Branch Rickey who once said with regard to making a trade (I’m paraphrasing here), “unless it truly hurts both teams to make the deal because of what they’re giving up, it’s not really a fair deal at all.” Exactly how many fans do you think are walking around Boston broken-hearted and fearful that the Red Sox made this deal for Adrian Gonzalez? It is what it is, baseball economics, but regardless, Hoyer did not get back enough to have pulled the trigger when he did. Far lesser players than Gonzalez have fetched more, even entering their walk years.
While Ellsbury would have been a good return talent wise, he is entering his arbitration years and Boras would have quickly priced him out of San Diego as well. I suspect that trading Gonzalez was a tough decision for Hoyer, but what was he to do? Keep him and get 2 draft picks for him? Then all of the fans would have said they should have traded Gonzalez this offseason. I guess what I’m saying you can look at this 3 ways, as an optimist, a pesimist, and a realist. 1. An optimist can see all 3 of the players they got in return becoming MLB regulars with 1 or 2 of them becoming All Stars. 2. The pesimist will look and assume all 3 players will fizzle out in the minors never becoming anything of substance in the Majors. 3. The realist will see that the Padres had no way of resigning Gonzalez for top dollar with there monetary constraints. As a Padre fan, unfortunately the only one of those views that can be seen as certain is the realists. Hoyer had a very tough decision to make and no matter what he did fans were going to be unhappy. This isn’t the first time a mid-small market team has had to trade away an All Star and it won’t be the last. If you’re a Padre fan you can hope for the best or keep bashing, either way you’re above post was the longest and most well written post I’ve ever read on this site.
While Ellsbury would have been a good return talent wise, he is entering his arbitration years and Boras would have quickly priced him out of San Diego as well. I suspect that trading Gonzalez was a tough decision for Hoyer, but what was he to do? Keep him and get 2 draft picks for him? Then all of the fans would have said they should have traded Gonzalez this offseason. I guess what I’m saying you can look at this 3 ways, as an optimist, a pesimist, and a realist. 1. An optimist can see all 3 of the players they got in return becoming MLB regulars with 1 or 2 of them becoming All Stars. 2. The pesimist will look and assume all 3 players will fizzle out in the minors never becoming anything of substance in the Majors. 3. The realist will see that the Padres had no way of resigning Gonzalez for top dollar with there monetary constraints. As a Padre fan, unfortunately the only one of those views that can be seen as certain is the realists. Hoyer had a very tough decision to make and no matter what he did fans were going to be unhappy. This isn’t the first time a mid-small market team has had to trade away an All Star and it won’t be the last. If you’re a Padre fan you can hope for the best or keep bashing, either way you’re above post was the longest and most well written post I’ve ever read on this site.
Ellsbury? Really?
I understand where you’re coming from, but if you bring him into the discussion I’ve lost any faith in your argument. Ellsbury makes VERY LITTLE sense for the Padres. He’s not inexpensive! He’s about to hit a bunch of major arbitration years! And his agent is SCOTT BORAS. How can you possibly think he’ll be affordable for San Diego for more than a year or two? He’s also shown he could possibly have injury issues, and while his outfield range may be spectacular, his instincts aren’t so hot. And in a spacious field like Petco, that could really be a problem.
Now I’m not saying these prospects are guaranteed to be better than Jacoby. But they REALLY ARE inexpensive players for the Padres, who are not nearly as close to their pricey years as Ellsbury is.
And guess what: San Diego wasn’t going to get an equal return for A-Gon that was already Major-League ready. It was never going to happen. It’s pretty obvious that they got one of the better deals they would have been able to get from Boston, and its definitely a better deal than if they just let A-Gon hit free agency. Now, a bunch of other teams could have made a better prospect offer. But they were never making those offers because they wouldn’t have been as confident in their abilities to give him an extension. With the situation San Diego was given, I think they were able to get a pretty nice deal. They had a limited number of suitors, because of the extension issue, and they needed high quality talent that would be affordable for a number of years. And they got Boston’s #1 prospect, plus a couple other of their top 10 guys. I think that’s a pretty good return. There is a lot of risk involved, and they might end up losing this trade badly IF none of the guys pan out, but the ceiling is high enough on these prospects that the trade may be quite a fair one in the long run.
And I’d say that Hoyer had the advantage of knowing Boston’s minor league system better than he knew the Cubs or any other team’s prospects. Hoyer knows better what he got in Kelly, Rizzo and Fuentes than anyone posting on this site does. But yeah if someone shows me why another potential deal that actually could have happened would have been better, I’ll reconsider.
Well said.
You hit the nail on the head here. Hoyer and McLeod drafted all 3 of those players and know everything about them. Why wouldn’t he want to bring these guys in? Last off season Kelly was untouchable on this site, now he has a bit of a down year in AA as a 20 year old and he’s not worth trading for. This deal had nothing to do with his relationship with Epstein, rather his knowledge of the players. When these 3 guys are all regulars for the Padres in 5 years this deal will look great.
It would have been foolish to let Gonzales walk for no compensation. This was a great deal.
Considering the wall he was up against in dealing Gonzalez, Hoyer is having a very nice offseason.
I like all the Jed moves this year…..the Pads will have some more entertaining baseball again this year…It all turned around on 7/31/09..we have been winning ever since…Go Pads+++
This Hoyer guy sure seems like he knows what he’s doing. I too have like all of his moves, except for Ludwick. Not because he struggled down the stretch last season, but because he just doesn’t seem to fit the mold of what Hoyer has said to be an outfielder for Petco, and athlete. The Padres need 3 guys who can go and get it out there and right now they only have 2. I guess Hoyer’s there for a reason though, Go Padres..
Listening to that interview, it sure doesn’t sound liike Bell will be back next year. I really hope they can maximize the return around the trade deadline. Look what the Nats got for Capps (Ramos) and Bell is a way better pitcher than he is. If Qualls gets his career back on track, with Adams, Gregerson and Frieri could still have a very deep and good back of the bullpen.
Maybe this is just me, but Hoyer seems to be working just how I would imagine Epstein would work with such a small budget. He definitely seems to be following in Theo’s footsteps, and I have a feeling it’s going to pay off. 2011 is going to be a tough year for the Padres; they’re not going to have the great luck carry over from 2010, and without A-Gon their offense is nearly non-existent. But he’s making the right moves to improve the team while not having much to spend. And with the A-Gon trade, and what looks like to be an inevitable Bell trade, he’s doing a great job to strengthen their farm. He also is working -with- his big park, not trying to force a home-run hitting lineup or anything. I’ll be keeping a close eye on San Diego for the next couple years…they could be scary soon.