Dee On Black, Preller, Kennedy, Benoit

Padres president Mike Dee recently spoke to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal about the team’s future with new GM A.J. Preller. Here are the highlights:

• The Padres “never seriously considered” firing manager Bud Black despite the team’s struggles this season and the dismissal of GM Josh Byrnes, Dee says. He does note that it remains to be seen whether Preller will want Black to continue, but he expresses confidence in Black as a manager and he notes that Preller was open-minded during the interview process about keeping Black.
• Dee says he doesn’t have any directive in place that instructs Preller to make August trades. “That’s going to be up to him,” Dee says, noting that the Padres have both Ian Kennedy and Joaquin Benoit are under control for 2015. “It would have to be tremendous value,” says Dee.
• Preller does not view 2015 as a rebuilding year, Dee says. “A.J. is not looking at this like 2015 is a white-towel year while we restock the reservoir with talent,” says Dee. “He said very clearly yesterday (at his news conference) and he said to us privately, ’As long as you have the quality of pitching that we have, you have a chance to win every night.'”