The Padres will immediately designate infielder/outfielder Hector Olivera upon his activation from a suspension on Aug. 2, tweets Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He had just been acquired from the Braves in exchange for Matt Kemp.
The news will sound bizarre to those unfamiliar with the situation or the contract statuses of either player, but the trade essentially boils down to a financial tactic for the Padres, who will save $25.5MM in the deal. San Diego owed Kemp $64.5MM from 2017-19 ($10.5MM of which was coming from the Dodgers via the trade in which they initially acquired Kemp), whereas Olivera is owed $28.5MM from 2017-20. Olivera is currently serving an 82-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy after being arrested and charged with assault of a woman at a Washington D.C.-area hotel back in April. Understandably, neither the Braves nor Padres wanted any part of Olivera , who hasn’t produced at the plate in either the minors or Majors since signing a six-year deal with the Dodgers in 2015 and also comes with a very poor defensive reputation.
San Diego has been rapidly trimming its payroll over the past nine months, shipping out expensive veterans Craig Kimbrel, Melvin Upton Jr., Fernando Rodney and Andrew Cashner in an effort to not only shed payroll but to aggressively accumulate minor league talent. Much of the Padres’ financial savings have been immediately redirected to international free agency, where they’ve been the most active and highest-spending team on the 2016-17 international free agent market. Most notably, the Padres have signed 17-year-old Cuban left-hander Adrian Morejon to an $11MM bonus and 19-year-old Cuban outfielder Jorge Ona to a $9MM bonus (each of which comes with a 100 percent luxury tax because the team has shattered its league-allotted spending pool).
The series of moves represents a significant change in course from a Padres front office that was one of the most aggressive buyers of the 2014-15 offseason. A season and a half of dismal play from the Friars has pushed the team into rebuild mode, and further moves should be expected in advance of Monday afternoon’s non-waiver trade deadline. Derek Norris stands out as perhaps the likeliest remaining Padre to be traded.
Norris. Ross. Jay. Solarte.- all should be moved.
I would keep Solarte unless we get a good prospect back. I think that he provides more value for us than we can get back in a trade. Plus we don’t have really have 3B depth to replace him.
Norris and Jay now, yes. Ross when healthy in the Winter. But solarte still has years of control and is a solid piece
I’d trade Jon Jay to BOS now for Clay Buchholz and the cash difference in their salaries plus a PTBNL prospect from BOS to SD determined on the basis of when Jay returns from the DL and how productive he is for BOS down the stretch.
SD would have three months to evaluate Buchholz and first dibs via his 2017 option in the unlikely but not entirely implausible event that Buchholz improved in August and September.
They won’t be able to trade Ross until he can pitch for awhile to show he’s ok. Jay would probably already be gone if he wasn’t on the DL.
Yeah hopefully he can come back sometime this season and pitch well enough for teams to consider trading for him in the offseason. If not, maybe he will get moved sometime next season.
Basically what Kevro said. Ross’ trade value is in shambles and Solarte probably has more value to the Padres than he could realistically bring in a trade. Agree with you on the other 2 tho.
I really like the Cashner trade by Preller, but he should’ve received more for Upton, more for Shields, and a lottery ticket for Kemp. Taking on salary has value. I was really surprised at how little he received for Upton, especially in a seller’s market.
Why didn’t the Braves DFA him?
They were hoping to unload his contract on another team, which they just accomplished (somehow).
It is somehow possible to unload the Allen Craig and Pablo Sandoval contracts then, just the list of equally horrendous players signed to equal deals gets shorter.
Heck, I’d rather the Padres got Craig and Sandoval than the already-released Olivera. But I doubt Boston wanted to deal with Kemp, who has a bad clubhouse reputation.
cause I don’t think you can’t under the cba while a player is suspended.
Well the Padres just did, so apparently you can.
Lol true
There’s a reason the article begins with the sentence, “The Padres will immediately designate infielder/outfielder Hector Olivera upon his activation from a suspension on Aug. 2.”
They can’t designate him until he comes off the restricted list.
Sometimes people have a problem with reading comprehension 🙂
According to the SB Nation, Matt Kemp’s stay with the Braves will probably be a short 1. Look for the Braves to trade for Brian McCann while packaging Kemp, Inciarte, Vicaino, Swanson, Allard, Jenkins, Sorako, and Touissant for Mike Trout
McCann – DOB already says it won’t happen unless Yankees eat nearly all of his contract.
Trout – Please show the link, because I just looked and it’s calling you a liar.
Tomahawk take
“For Trout, the Braves parted with Swanson, the National League’s 2017 rookie of the year, and third baseman Austin Riley (their No. 8 prospect), plus pitchers Mike Soroka (No. 4), Joey Wentz (No. 8) and Lucas Sims (No. 10).”
This is a lot different than what you had.
“Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Before you read any further, please know that Mark Bradley of the AJC had some fun with this article and it’s all made up in his mind.”
You obviously missed this part also.
Classic Braves4life1 nonsense. Keep trying buddy.
Well he is persistent.
That is one wild imagination you got
I would love to see Trout in Atlanta. But that trade proposal would completely undo everything Coppy has done to rebuild our farm system.
Can MLBTR please just ban braves4life1, please?
I don’t they drop the ban hammer too often, but I’d agree here
I second this notion. Every article, regardless of content/context, has this idiot spouting nonsense and trolling for bs Trout trades. Its risen to the bigpapi4ever level now.
I agree wholeheartedly. He does this in many of the articles, even ones that have nothing to do with the braves. It’s getting really old and ridiculous.
ATL fans are ridiculous. You aren’t getting Trout. You couldn’t even get Salmon or Bass.
Don’t judge all of us by this guy, please.
Only way they get trout is if the Diamondbacks had him
Lol
They will do a package but calm Down on trout
Mike Trout isn’t going anywhere until he is a free agent. Then the Dodgers are emptying the bank. Or he’s going to the Yankees or Mets. Until then he’s an Angel. He’s the only draw Anaheim has. Trout puts 30,000 in their seats a game. NOT an exaggeration. As for Kemp for Olivera, the Padres get rid of Kemps’ salary and the Braves not only rid themselves of Olivera, they get a draw for their new stadium. And isn’t Kemp from the area?
Kemp is from Oklahoma.
some people need to learn how to laugh more. not every posting is serious.
How does the Padres GM still have a job? He should be GM of the year for paying other teams to take players he overpaid for.
because he is a good GM. he is building a nice team. even with Jay on the Dl i thing he might get moved
Buying futures only works in French wine. He has spent the owners money, hasn’t won a thing, and convinced ownership that they won’t know for five years if it will work. Great work if you can get it.
I’ve wondered that too. Some confuse frequent moves with quality moves, and celebrate his success at (partially) cleaning up a mess he created, acquiring Kemp in the first place. He traded valuable prospects to build an offseason contender, and now is selling those pieces for less than he paid to get them, and somehow it’s seen as a success.
In any other GM’s case I’d expect these things to be received terribly. The Padres still aren’t out of the hole Prellar dug them into.
Yeah thats not even remotely true LOL.
He gained more value on the kimbrel trade than he gave up
He used the upton trade to net two top 100 talents in this years draft in lawson and thompson for fried jace peterson and dustin peterson and mallex smith
Valuable prospects? Outside of turner and ross who he got an all star in wil myers for who did they actually give up that will be more than an average player in this league?
He did not pick up more talent for Kimbrel then he have up if you recall he also took on the Upton contract
Margot, allen asjuae, guerrera, hansel rodriguez > maybin quentin paroubeck wisler.
So yeah he gained more than he gave up to get upton jr and kinbrel. Way more.
If you take the contract you give less. Everyone knows that and that is why the padres are obsurving most of the contracts to get good prospects
He wound up, all in, being responsible for about $17M of Melvin’s salary (remember he dumped about 18M of dead contracts on Atlanta in that trade too) for 15 months of 3WAR production. That’s a net positive for him in that deal, not a negative.
I agree with the commenter below. You are being far too hard on Preller. The mess he created? Look at the team he inherited! The Padres were in the worst possible position when he arrived; uncompetitive team with below average farm system. He traded some overrated prospects that he didn’t like for veterans and tried to go for it. San Diego hadn’t been a serious contender since maybe 2007. It didn’t work. Now he has been able to undo his “mistakes”. Instead of rebuilding in 2015, which he would have had to do, he put it off a year and has done it this year. They are in a better situation than when he arrived.
He is certainly doing a decent job of undoing stuff this year but it seems like it is a year later than i would have thought. If the pads were sellers last year they could have sold higher on guys like shields and kemp and most likely guys like Upton would still be around to give returns
“it didn’t work” is pretty much the understatement of the century. The Padres were worse after Preller’s arrival than they were before.
I ike what Preller is doing this year, though, although it seems like he could have gotten more salary relief in the Melvin Upton deal.
It won’t be until 2019 or so until we see real results. Getting some of Kemp’s salary of the books is the best possible result.
Like others have said, you are being much too hard on Preller. He has been doing a pretty good job cleaning things up from last year and setting the team up for success in the next few years.
The farm system has greatly improved and will only be getting better, he is shedding money and big contracts where possible, and most importantly, he a actually has a legitimate plan for success (which is a lot more than could be said about previous Padre GMs/front office regimes).
Yeah,
$17 million for Upton Jr off the books at end of 2017
$2.2 million for Cashner off the books at end of 2018
$5 million for Gyorko off the books at end of 2020
$30 mill for shields off the books at end of 2019
$ 28.5 million for olivera off the books at end of 2020.
He still has a job because the money in 2017 and 2018 is meaningless. Theres absolutely NOTHING the padres could do spending wise to make a playoff and world series run the next two years. As such, why not throw money away and acquire better talent to do so? Theyll be bad the next 2 years might as well be bad enough to acquire top 5 talent in the draft.
2019 is when all the talent the padres have held onto will be MLB ready. The padres have already acquired enough talent to be a top 5 farm system in baseball the past 2 years and will only get better if they draft high in 2017 and 2018. Preller has hoarded a lot of talent.
Espinoza, paddack, margot, allen, asjuae, guerrera, naylor castillo etc through trades
And many others through the drafts and IFAs.
Look at the Cubs and Astros- many years they sucked like no other. Hoarded talent, made wise trades and now theyre reaping the rewards.
That is how you keep a job as a GM.
Padres fans don’t understand how to built they like quality team and be miserable than what Preller is doing. His success will be his mistake of making a run and getting players like shield, kemp, Kimbrel. Why a success becuase he dealt them and tanked the team while getting prospects.
Wil Myers said it best he wants to be a padre because he sees what the team is doing for the future. What they needed this year was pitching there hitting was decent so what they did was get pitching prospects no need for outfielders they have 3 players in El Paso hitting .300 and a SS and 2B they got from the Kimbrel deal. They needed a 1b or 3b in case they move Myers from 1b or 3b and they got Naylor. I expect the next trade they get more pitching.
As for Padres fans stop crying he is finally making a team that could be a contender in the west.
Paddack is having TJ surgery. Naylor looks nice but what does San Diego do with him and Myers? They can’t both play first and Myers can’t play anywhere else without getting hurt. It’s a nice problem to have, I guess; I’m assuming if Naylor progresses as planned Myers gets traded before he gets expensive.
Very true!!!!!!
The Padres absolutely made out like bandits on this whole deal. Props to Preller.
I like the moves Atlanta has made…pay 25 mill more for a player that actually has some value..still can’t believe they hosed the DBacks the way they did..
Yeah. Kemp has hit 23+ homeruns each of the past three years, and he’s now freed from Petco. If he can recover some OBP he might be tradeable again. Despite hip problems and stuff he’s only 31. It’s about an $8m/year gamble by the Braves, but I could see it paying off – eventually, in the next year or two, trading him and saving at least part of that remaining cash.
While Hector Olivera was a totally sunk cost with no way out.
Atlanta definitely couldn’t get trout..they’re better off tryin for a former angel fish great..Salmon!
This makes no sense. Why not keep him around and hope he gets suspended again? They might get free and clear of the money.
Pretty sure they’d still owe him.
Idk what the Braves were thinking.
Preller fleeced the braves big time. Braves are paying matt kemp 18 million a year regardless of however much money they got rid of in Olivera. Kemp is not worth 18 million a year.
Braves would of been better suited to DFA olivera and chase after a guy like Jon Jay or Josh Reddick, if he’s dealt and no QO is attached, or michael saunders if he doesn’t get a QO- iffy situation for the blue jays given their pending FAs.
Preller got tired of hosing the Red Sox Kimbrel and Pomeranz so he moved to the Marlins Rodney and Cashner now he found another farm system to take some prospects from
You’re talking gibberish. Hart convinced Preller to trade something for nothing and then gave Hart an extra 10.5 million for the nothing. The Braves are now spending 8 million a year. Not 18. Get your facts straight.
The Braves fleeced the Padres the second Kemp takes the field for them….. That’s not even up for debate.
What about Shields as well as part of that group?
He actually want designated looks like you guys jumped the gun a bit
*wasnt
It would be really cool to see Kemp turn things around. He has a lot less pressure on him now.
And less Petco Park around him now…
The Padres actually saved $32m. This post is leaving out the remainder of this year’s salary, which the Braves will be paying.
Preller busted into the gm scene pretending to be superman hoping to take the Friars to the World Series in his first year at the helm. He even boldly predicted a World Series for his new club right off the bat. Which was ballsy given the Friars have never won a World Series title. Every move he made was a failure. Stewart with the D’backs is another “superman” wannabe gm who is also failing miserably. Why do these rookie gm’s feel they need to win it all in their first year? Instead they are on their way to ending their careers prematurely.
God the Padres are just a freakin mess.
It’s hard to make sense of just what is going on there. No one is arguing that the Padres should be taking a different path than going into a rebuild, I’m not.
But,
Preller should not be the guy doing it. The owners gave him his chance. Now, he gutted there entire farm system for those players, and now he isn’t getting anything in return.
The only thing he’s getting by trading these players, is saving money, which will be spent on intl teenagers who are years and years away from being ML ready, if they get there.
Show me a team with a better top 30 prospect list? How can you not see what the Padres are doing? Preller’s done a fine job; not a perfect job but I give him credit for improving the team’s future outlook. SD isn’t going to win the WS this year; getting flexibility and seeing what Jankowski and Dickerson can do will help them going into the offseason? My guess Renfroe gets his call soon?.
This seems about right. Preller tried to defib the Padres into contention. When that didn’t work he moved onto a longer-term plan pretty quickly. The long-suffering fans in San Diego probably have few complaints. At least somebody is trying to resuscitate the franchise. That alone is a big improvement.
To the first question: The Red Sox. And Dodgers. And Indians.
To the last question: If you mean early September, then yes, Renfroe gets the call soon.
Isnt getting anything in return? Wtf are you talking about LOL?
Literally, justin upton became hudson potts, reggie lawson, and thompson. Thompson and lawson were both consensus top 100 prospects.
Wil myers JUST had his 1st all star appearence representing the team/city for ross and turner
He sold off 1 top 100 prospect in wisler in the kimbrel and upton jr trade and brought back 2 top 100 prospects in margot and guerrera PLUS allen and asjuae and turned DFA atlanta upton jr into hansel rodriguez
Hes going to trade norris and reap more than he gave up to get him in hahn and alvarez.
Its astonishing people post these comments thinking they are factual and have NO idea how wronf mmg they are. Absolutely amazing.
Upton did not net three players in the draft. And those three were not “consensus top 100 prospects.” Folks generally thought that, if they were healthy and performed to expectations in high school this last spring, they could have been first round picks.
Also, it’s Guerra. Which you probably want to know if you’re going to knock others for incorrectly thinking they are factual.
Upton DID net them those 3 because the competitive balance pick from upton signing with the tigers came with roughly 3 million dollar pool allotment. Potts signed for 1 million leaving 2 million in free money which he used to sign thompson and lawson to Wayyyyyyy over slot deals.
Because of the money saved from potts padres signed thompson and lawson
Also, depending what list you use thompson and lawson were regarded as top 100 prospects.
m.mlb.com/prospects/2016?list=draft this list had potts at 91, lawson at 100, thompson at 109 while others shifted those rankings around
A serious mess!!!!!!
At least Preller is actually trying to fix his mistakes, Dave Stewart looks clueless and has no idea what he’s doing.
It’s sad that the biggest winner in all of this will be Hector Olivera. Provided he doesn’t serve jail time, he’ll have earned $62.5 million (subtract the money lost while suspended and any potential loss of cash if he has to serve time) put up subpar numbers in roughly 2 months of overall MLB action.
Brandon your so right made out like a Bandit and then dime!!!!
Some**
Preller should outright Olivera to AA if possible and make Olivera work for his money for at least the rest of this season.
Cashman appeared to bury Kei Igawa somewhat unfairly in AA for years after his disastrous Yankees tenure. In Olivera’s case, I believe the punishment would fit the crime.
Preller could even follow the Dodgers GM Platoon playbook and suspend Olivera without pay as LA did with Arruebarrenna if Olivera refused to report or defied any other club orders while under contract.
Those sound like fun outcomes for Olivera but it means a lot of agents aren’t going to work with your team in the future
Padres have a top 3 farm system after all these trades. You have to start somewhere and ridding the big contacts is step one. As for his failure last year it actually worked in terms of buzz and season ticket sales, and you think those people cancelled their season tickets the year of the all star game in SD? He suckered them in for 2 years… $$$ what a salesman.
Their system isn’t top 3 yet (some order of Atlanta, Boston, and LAD make up the top 3) but it is vastly improved. As I understand it, Preller comes from a scouting background with Texas, who it feels as if constantly has legitimate prospects to either help their club or swing a deal for an impact player, but I digress- and upon Preller’s hiring he determined he didn’t like the overall talent in the system so decided to go for it. If I remember correctly, the majority of SD fans I interacted with conceded it wouldn’t work, but felt it was worth it simply be injecting some energy and hope into the fan base. In the rebuild since, I think he’s done pretty well and talk of canning him should be tabled for a few more years. I’ll tell you this: the man doesn’t lie and goes all-in for the direction he wants to take his club.
Coppy absolutely fleeced the Pads! 8 million per year for a power hitter over three years? Can’t find that in FA! And no hector Olivera on our team anymore? What a trade! Coppy stays killing it!
LOL braves got ABSOLUTELY destroyed in this deal.
You saved the padres from having to pay kemp 3.5 years 59.75 million. (5 mill this year and 18.25 each of the next 3, thats including the money the dodgers gave the padres).
Braves would of been better off DFA olivera and putting his money AND kemps money towards reddick and others.
Enjoy paying 3 years 54.75 million. Good luck clearing that if he post similar or worse numbers as he gets older.
Even if the Braves had DFA’d Olivera they would still have to pay him. MLB contracts are guaranteed.
The money I was talking about was the money the braves already saved on the olivera deal with the dodgers. They were responsible for what half the original contract or so? I want to say he signed for 60 or 62 million and they saved 30 million over the 4 year span. Could be wrong goijg off the top of my head.
But, 18.25 million + 7.5 million is 27.75 million between kemps number and the money saved on olivera.
Theyd of been better off signing a guy or two with that kind of money over a 3 year span.
They may be saving money overall, but the amount of dead money on the books is unreal
Interesting note on the dead money.
Most of the dead money for Shields could still go away if he opts out. Fun fact: Since the brutal start in CHW, he’s got a 1.72 ERA over the last 42 innings and if he pitches like that (even though the peripherals are ugly) for another month, he could actually choose to do that.
Most of the dead money for Olivera could still go away if he is convicted.
Preller might get extended if he keeps doing this. First he hosed the Red Sox On Kimbrel and Pomeranz then moved to the Marlins Rodney and Cashner and now Atlanta what other farm system is he going to dig hopefully the cubbies and Eloy Jimenez but what he needs is pitching
I am still scratching my head how the Nats got Trea Turner in the 3 team deal btw
We said it earlier with the Pomeranz trade, and we’ll say it again: what is going on with Padres GM???
The Pomeranz trade was viewed as a massive win for San Diego, what are you talking about?
By whom? It wasn’t a massive win. It is a massive gamble. The reason most players are traded for multiple prospects is that most prospects fail. Preller put all of his Pomeranz eggs into one Espinoza basket. It could work, but most people prefer a little diversification for insurance.
Except for the Melvin Upton trade, we have won every single trade…some by a long shot. I do agreement with you’re thinking; however, I would keep Solarte.
How are you judging winning a trade that has literally just happened. That is like judging who had the best draft in 2016 right now. It will take at least until the end of the year and likely a few years to decide who won these trades. Anything else is just guessing.
So is Olivera likely to be released or be sent to AAA after DFA?
Released. The off-field stuff aside, there’s no evidence whatsoever that Olivera is any good.