Padres GM A.J. Preller is back on the job now that his 30-day suspension has ended, though both Preller and the organization may need more time to repair their reputations around baseball. ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required) reports that several teams will adjust how they negotiate with San Diego from now on, while one team has simply refused to consider any trades with Preller and the Padres. There is also still “a river of industry speculation” that the Padres could face lawsuits about their handling of player medical information. Here’s some more from around the NL West…
- In a reader mailbag piece about several Giants-related topics, MLB.com’s Chris Haft doesn’t see San Francisco re-signing free agents Sergio Romo, Javier Lopez, Angel Pagan or Jake Peavy, though there’s a chance Gregor Blanco could return. The probable departures of Romo and Lopez could be part of a wider bullpen shakeup for the Giants, as GM Bobby Evans has said that finding a closer is a top offseason priority.
- The Rockies’ managerial search is discussed by Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post as part of his own reader maibag. Saunders feels the team’s new skipper should come from outside the organization in order to bring a fresh perspective. It seems like Colorado is more apt to hire a manager who leans more towards the front office’s analytical mindset. Former manager Walt Weiss “embraced the statistics and analytics to a large degree,” though ultimately preferred to rely on gut-level calls and felt he was being interfered with by the front office. The well-documented discord between Weiss and GM Jeff Bridich also didn’t help things, as you might expect.
- The Diamondbacks lost three members of the scouting department in part due to the front office uncertainty prior to hiring of new GM Mike Hazen, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes. Assistant director of scouting Brendan Domaracki and longtime scout Howard McCullough (who had been with the D’Backs since the franchise began operations) both left for positions with the Mariners, while amateur scout Frankie Thon Jr. will join the Angels as their new international crosschecker and assistant director of international scouting.
wonder if that one team is boston
It’s sad when media gang up on a GM and small market franchise by creating continuous rumors based off pure speculation on event in which no one is certain what actually happened. Even after they fired their team president that was quoted by a team official as the MLB was glad to see go. Personally, I think this is attempt by other large market GMs to try leverage their future information as sources to use the media to have AJ fired over a guideline violation that has yet to been pinned on him directly. Jealous much? After Boston tried to manipulate their distribution of money to international signings, after their punishment was handed down their was no call for anyones job. The coverage certainly didnt continue for months after a judgement had been handed down. St. Louis and their hacking of the Astros still doesnt get covered despite no judgement be handed down months after a ruling from the courts convicting one of their employees of hacking into the database of the Astros. Move on already.
Lopez is one of the few that I wouldn’t mind having back is a good lefty specialist. The key word is lefty specialist they had to pitch him in non specialist situations and that’s when he was bad. The Giants need to sign one of the big three closers on the FA market. Melancon or Chapman would be best because of the no draft pick compensation but jansen would be worth it as well. Idk what they could get for Strickland but get him out of there yes he throws hard but he throws it right down the middle and he gets raked just get him out of there.
Lopez had two huge issues this season – being used against righties and pitching on the road. Even so, he still wasn’t the Lopez of old against lefties this year though. The only thing that makes me want to take a flyer is the fact that their other lefty options in the organization were terrible.
Don’t be shocked if the Dodgers make a run at both Romo and Lopez
Giants are very, very left-handed. They would thank Sergio Romo for all he did for them, and then crush him, as left-handed hitters usually do.
As a Giants fan, I am sure hoping that San Francisco moves on from Gregor Blanco. I would like to see them retain Pagan for his role. I tend to cringe when I see Blanco enter the game. He is not that great defensively and he tends to have unproductive at bats. I appreciate what he has done in the past, but I am good with him going away.
I agree with you totally on Blanco except I don’t worry about his defense.
I am good with keeping Pagan but you just gotta realize he’s not going to play 150 games. You’re going to get 120 out of him and that’s okay if you have some depth. The problem with SF is that Blanco was the depth. He wouldn’t make the Dodgers 25 man roster. I say resign Pagan and still get another top tier OFer that can play every position and just give them all rest days. Pence included. I know he likes to play but he could do with some time off to recharge.
I’d like to see the Giants give a short term deal to Carlos Gomez and have him try to rebuild some of his lost value
Agreed on Gomez. I like him and wish SF would have taken a chance on him after his release. He rebounded well with Texas and will probably get two years.
The problem with SF was overall depth. After the starter, they lacked major league replacements at every position. It’s one thing to carry a Parker or a Williamson on your roster, but having an entire bench made up of AAAA players isn’t workable. In addition to solidifying the back end of the pen, the Giants could reap major benefits from getting some real MLB talent on the bench. Aside from Tomlinson, the majority of the bench needs an overhaul.
You are exactly right @gmenfan! If SF don’t want to trade away any big players to get a haul of prospects, and I like that they don’t. They need to spend to buy some decent talent and depth.
I agree on Pagan. That’s exactly what I want, 95-120 games, max. He spells Span in center and spells whoever we sign in left.
All wrong
The Giants all three outfielder are trash
Not quality at all now a day one of the outfielder must supply with powers
One must have speed one high average hitting and two must be at least average defense. Giants have non will Hunter defense is okay and Mac Will is very good with home runs
A lot of heat came down on Walt Weiss, but played with the hand that he had been dealt. The front office made a lot of stupid moves.
The commissioner of the league said its over and done. Can’t say I’m shocked that Olney is still trying to keep this story alive. Regardless, it’s pretty clear people that want to bury AJ will hold it against him and people that support him won’t.
Let’s not forget that Prellers prearranged deal ran up the price for the Red Sox to sign Groome..
I will echo what I said previously on the topic of the Padres medical disclosures, where are the named sources from these baseball writers on this topic? It is very poor journalism.
In his latest piece, Olney relies on “a river of industry speculation” to suggest that the Padres could face lawsuits. OK, what exactly is “a river of industry speculation?” I have two major problems with that statement, first, quantify the term “river.” Is that one, two, three sources, etc. When you use an imprecise term like “a river”, it gives the impression you are trying to obfuscate just how many people are substantiating this information. Second, and more importantly, what does the term “industry speculation” mean? To me, that sounds like you are (1) not relying on facts, but on unqualified speculation, and (2) the speculation is not even coming from any teams actually involved in the trades in question, but rather from unaffiliated third parties. If that is the case, it is so far afield from factual reporting, that you could not even say the statements amount to “hearsay,” which although inadmissible in court, would at least be more substantiated then what Olney is giving us in this latest article.
In response to some of the comments, I offer the direct quotes of Jed Hoyer, Executive Vice-President and General Manager of the Chicago Cubs, in a interview from October 13, 2016 with Darren Smith of 1090 AM in San Diego. He says the following:
“There probably are some shades of gray as far as what people put in their files, some teams are totally inclusive and put every piece of information in their files, and some teams may decide that every piece of information is not necessary in there, and I have a feeling that that’s going change going forward because of what happened in this particular situation in San Diego.”
He continues to say:
“My personal opinion on that, honestly, is that there are only thirty teams …teams are not going to just not deal with one team or another because ultimately this is a competitive business and if the Padres have a player that people want, they’re going to make a deal for them, I just don’t believe that people will take teams off the books, I just don’t think that’s going to happen, I think that maybe the medical process will be more scrutinized, even though I think it’ll be changed in the future, but people aren’t just going to take one team off the books, because we can’t really afford to do that in this business.”
You hit the nail on the head. Olney is trying to create news because his readership is falling precipitously. If you look at advertising rates for ESPN Insider, you will find that Olney readership has fallen 60% in the past 2 years. He is desperate to get people to subscribe and read his garbage.
Exactly, Words from an actually GM vs these unnamed sources. It seems as though there reality of the situation which is in stark contrast to the situation these sports writers try to paint perhaps to accomplish their own goals. Which is to get AJ fired.
This is a great quote from an actual reliable source: a legitimate MLB GM. All Olney is trying to do is stir the pot, and keep painting Preller in a bad light (particularly towards Red Sox fans).
This is actually really good, however the reason sources go unnamed is because that is what make journalism. If writers gave the name of their sources every time, either no inside information/rumors would be released or guys would be getting fired left and right for releasing said information.
Exactly. If sources had to go on record we would get stories that follow the company line and everything would read like a team press release. At the end of the day real journalists write what they know or believe to be real. If you don’t like it or believe it, then you’re welcome to dispute it. But when someone suggests that something isn’t real because the source is unnamed. Well that’s just naive.
Yep. And don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are plenty of writers out there who come up with their own rumors (i.e. Make up information and pass it off as a source). However, the huge risk with that is if the writer is consistently off with their info, they lose all credibility. Sure, there are plenty of writers who write some crazy things that is their own speculation, but I would assume that these writers for big companies (like ESPN) have somewhat credible sources when they do cite them. Doesn’t mean it’s a GM or another important front office executive because it can easily be some intern or assistant or some other no-name staffer who just passes along rumors they hear.
Well of course, what else would one expect Hoyer to say when he’s on the record?
Olney is so full of it. You can pretty much guarantee that if he says it, it’s wrong. The Red Sox, the team that Preller traded Pomeranz to tried to trade with Preller again in August for relief pitching. They kept Pomeranz and the player didn’t miss any starts because he wasn’t injured. If anything, teams will be more willing to trade with Preller because they know for certain that he will be completely above board about medicals now that this has happened. That is something they cannot be sure of with other teams. Sometimes you just have to realize that people like Olney will try to CREATE news when there isn’t any.
I think everyone is exaggerating the level of deceit here by Preller.
As far as I’ve seen he only left out Oral medications(Anti inflammatories,etc).
It’s not like he failed to document or disclose actual injuries or serious medical issues.Pomeranz and Rea were both healthy when traded…..just as healthy as Paddack (who the Padres received from Miami) who was injured just about at the same time Rea was.
Madison Bum deserve huge contract
He already proven he is the best pitcher in mlb since 2010
Of course after Clayton Hersaw screw up tonight
CLayton wins lots of games but not was
Mad Bum could easily wins as much just because Giants hitters can’t hit
Mad Bum could of won 21 games easily without Giants hitter and bullpen screw up 10 games for Mad Bum
Therefore Giants bullpen and hitters screw up cy young for Mad too
This would make a lot more sense if proper grammar and sentence structure were used.