We’ve reached the five-year anniversary of a free-agent signing whose effects are still being felt today. It was on Feb. 11, 2015, that the Padres signed longtime workhorse James Shields to a four-year, $75MM guarantee. They beat out at least three other teams to sign Shields, a California native whose homecoming didn’t work out as planned for him or the Padres.
The right-handed Shields was one of several household names the Padres acquired that offseason in hopes of snapping what was then an eight-year playoff drought. Along with adding Shields, general manager A.J. Preller nabbed the Upton brothers (Justin and Melvin), two other high-profile hitters in Matt Kemp and Wil Myers and closer Craig Kimbrel. Despite all those moves, though, the Padres didn’t end their playoff skid that year, nor have they made the postseason since. What’s more, only Myers is still a member of the organization, and he’s now the owner of a contract the Padres would love to clear from their books.
Shields, then 33 years old, joined the Padres off stellar runs with the Rays and Royals. The man known as “Big Game James” and “Complete Game James” debuted in 2006 and threw at least 200 innings in each season from 2007-14. He was at his best in the four seasons preceding his deal with the Padres, as he fired a league-leading 932 2/3 innings of 3.17 ERA/3.49 FIP ball with 7.95 K/9, 2.27 BB/9 and a 46.3 percent groundball rate.
While Shields remained a fairly effective innings-eater in his first season as a Padre, he didn’t offer the type of front-line production he had in prior years. Shields wound up tossing 202 1/3 frames of 3.91 ERA/4.45 FIP ball, posted 9.61 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9, and recorded a 44.9 percent grounder rate in 2015. That went down as his lone full season as a member of the Padres. After Shields got off to an underwhelming start the next year, the Padres traded him and $31MM of the $58MM left on his contract to the White Sox in June 2016. Like the Padres before them, the White Sox were mistakenly under the impression Shields would help them push for a playoff spot. And like the Padres now, they’re still in the midst of a long postseason drought. Meanwhile, Shields hasn’t pitched since 2018 – the last of three rough seasons in Chicago.
While the Shields-Padres union didn’t work out as planned, it’s one that could benefit them for many years. After all, had they not signed Shields, they may not have been able to pull off one of the biggest heists in recent history. The Padres acquired two players – righty Erik Johnson and then-infield prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. – in exchange for Shields. Johnson didn’t amount to anything in a Padres uniform, and he hasn’t pitched professionally since 2018. But the Padres struck gold on Tatis, who was just 17 when they got him and wasn’t regarded as a premium prospect. Tatis eventually soared up prospect rankings, though, and looked like a can’t-miss talent by the time he made his major league debut last season. He delivered in a big way as a 21-year-old, though injuries limited him to 84 games and 372 plate appearances, as he slashed a tremendous .317/.379/.590 with 22 home runs, 16 stolen bases and 3.6 fWAR.
It’s safe to say Tatis is now one of the foremost young building blocks in the sport. Had it not been for a free-agent signing that went awry, he might not even be a Padre right now.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The best worst signing ever?
I’m surprised they didn’t turn comments off for this date in history lol
Tatis may be playing some CF this year latest from Kevin Acee, that means there may be another trade in the works for Lindor or ?
The best worst singing ever!!
How many millions has Preller spent on these types of contracts and never won a division?
Forget never won division he has never won 75 games
In my opinion, you can’t put all of that on AJ Preller. You have to put the burden of what’s happened with the Padres on ownership. They hired Preller and told him to do everything necessary in the first year to make them a playoff team. He pulled out all the stops and acquired a lot of MLB talent that looked good on paper. But baseball is a strange game. It’s not like basketball where you can just assemble talent and immediately win. Ownership also pressured him to buy some big names, so he did even though it didn’t make a lot of sense. And now they’ve told him to make the playoffs but he can’t spend more money. Meanwhile, he assembled the best minor league in the game. I wish they hadn’t forced him to make some of those nonsensical decisions, otherwise the Padres would be sitting very pretty right now. Now like this article says, some of the stuff he was forced to do, he then made better (Shields for Tatis). AJ Preller is a really gifted GM with bad ownership. But ownership pays the bills.
How can you say he is a gifted GM while admitting he made lousy deals and assembled a team that looked good on paper but had no chemistry and was lousy in the field? I don’t think the owners or other GMs forced him at gunpoint to make those deals. I’d say he’s a great evaluator of raw talent and would be a great scouting director. But, based upon the teams he’s built in SD, he’s a lousy GM.
If the Padres never sign Shields then they are never able to trade him for Tatis, so look at it as a glass half full situation.
They would have just traded someone else for Tatis. Like Andrew Cashner or Christian Friedrich.
… Alternatively, Preller could have just outbid the White Sox to sign Tatis in the first place. He only got $700,000.
But that isn’t the way it happened, Jim, so your theoretical is a little bit silly. In fact, you could have slipped on a bar of soap taking a shower, bash your head in, wife calls 911, the emergency vehicle crashes into a bus carrying minor league baseball players on their way to a game, injuring Tatis, leading to his eventual release, which leads him to ramp up on steroids and human growth hormone, an eventual tryout in the Mexican League, where he becomes a star, which leads to minor league contract the Padres, where he climbs the ladder of success and eventually becomes a major league star. And there you have it — another scenario where Tatis becomes a superstar with the Padres. And this time — you were a HUGE part of it. Go ahead, take a bow.
The point is they still would have gotten Tatis if they hadn’t signed Shields.
But they didn’t.
Except you can’t really say that because you can’t say the White Sox would have wanted Cashner or Friedrich. How many trades have the White Sox made with the Padres since?, there is absolutely no way to predict that the Padres ever would have gotten Tatis without the Shields trade.
@Rsox bro if they were willing to give up Tatis for James Shields’ clearly underwater contract they’d have had no problem giving him up for Cashner or Friedrich, neither of whom were owed any money beyond the then-current season.
Tatis was a lottery ticket, Not even a top 30 ranked prospect in the White Sox system. They didn’t know what they were giving up.
Erik Johnson was the main piece for the Padres. He’s had some very good years in the Chisox minors and some decent runs with Chicago. I believe he got injured after the Padres got him and hasn’t pitched since.
NOT TRUE give credit where credit is due Sheep goat
That’s typical Padre fan myopic comment “if we never signed Shields we couldn’t of acquired Tatis. This is typical. The other one is comparing Preller to Luhnow since Astros struggled early
Not a Padres fan per se but it’s the realization that Tatis was not the center of this trade, Shields was. The trade was because the White Sox needed a starter and the Padres wanted out from under his contract, Tatis was a lottery ticket throw in. Erik Johnson was considered the main return for the Padres in the trade. Hindsight says differently now as Johnson flamed out fast but again, Tatis was not the centerpiece and it can’t be said that the White Sox wouldn’t have pivoted to another team to trade for a pitcher if the deal Shields didn’t happen.
Wasn’t the worst of signings.. they got their money’s worth year 1 and then flipped him for Tatis Jr essentially buying him for 31 million.
$31 million for Tatis? He’s worth every penny of that. It’s the best deal that Preller has made so far.
This is totally unrelated to this tread, but here it is. On tomorrow’s MLBTR youtube upload, can yall at MLBTR have Jeff Todd show what additional teams would’ve been in the postseason last year if the proposed postseason system was in place last year? That is my last request.
Clev and the Red Sox would be extra 2 –
Hou would have the “bye”
NYY Minny Oak would get to chose who they want to play outta TB Cle Bos- Presumably NYY would get 1st pick out of those 3 then Minny whould chose who they would wanna play out of the remaining 2 teams not picked by the Yankees-
Those series would be best of 3 and the 3 winners would move on with Hou to essentially form what is now the Division series and it would move along normally after that
Your Rangers would have finished 6 games behind the Red Sox for the “last spot” basically
Thank you, now on to the N.L!… no you don’t have to do that, but thank you
@JD Candello.
P.S, even with almost half the league in the postseason, my Rangers are still just out of it… lol
Nl- Doders bye
Atl Wash Stl in that order chose between Mil Mets and Arz
Cubs finish a game behind Arz for the (7th) and last spot
The Padres always end up taking former Royals players who end up being total crap after putting on a Padres jersey (i.e. Shields, Hosmer, Myers). I bet the Rays would take Hosmer/Myers for a Tatis-like player.
Shields has an unusual legacy. Tampa was terrible, Shields shows up they go to the Series. KC was terrible, they get Shields and they go to the Series. Guy was a horse and a consummate pro.
Kudos to James Shields for helping the Rays and Royals in their efforts to become playoff contenders and reach the World Series once each. That said, “Big Game James” had a lot of help and wasn’t at his best as a postseason pitcher.
lol i like jame sheilds. i hurd he had stellur run with rays and royals. i like james shelds he has fasst arm and good throing arm. he remind me of a yung pedro marteenez with fasst arm and good throing arm. i also hurd he delivered in big way when he wuz 21.
Big (Regular Season) Game James
He was never the same after Bartolo took him deep
Big Sexy ruined him.
Worth every cent the Padres payed him
Exactly the same way the padres will turn out this year lol. Made all these moves only to field a 4th place team hahahaha
“Exactly the same way the” dodgers “will turn out this year lol. Made all these moves only to field” at best, a loser team in the playoffs and especially in any WS. hahahaha
I’ll make a $500 bet that the Padres come in third with at least .500 record put up or shut up Doyer fan
Good for the dodgers to win the division every year but they have nothing to show for it. Your laughing at the Padres but the dodgers are the biggest choke artists around (example last year playoffs- leading in the late innings to give it up) Kershaw is a great regular season pitcher but he can’t handle when it counts in big games. As long as Kershaw is pitching in the post season, the dodgers have no chance with Mookie or not in their lineup.
Pennants and division wins are, “nothing”?
Correct. Win it all and then you can talk. In the meantime, zip it.
Yup, yup, yup and yup. Dump stadium Doyers always stink when in the big games in October. Still, you can’t shut their fans up.
Pads4life when was the last time your team made it to post season? Better yet when was the last time they were not in bottom three in division? Have fun with Machado running his mouth taking you no where! Go Dodgers! DodgersFanforlife
Hey aaronbj: Same putdowns, same stupidity. Hey dummy Doyer fans—my Padres are losers. Yup, I know that. The thing is though, so are your Doyers. Own it. Losers since 1989–over 3 decades and over 2 centuries of being the American Leagues’ PUNKS in the postseason. That’s the only time that counts in MLB.
See this is why i keep telling people the trade wasn’t bad when it occured. Shields just came off a World Series win and Tatis was a diamond in the ruff. Who knows how good he’d be in the white sox organization.
The Chisox own the rights to Elijah Tatis, Fernando’s younger brother. He’s reportedly just as good as Fernando. We shall see in a few years.
Reports say Elijah is more resilient and durable, arguably more talented.
Are these the same Padres that traded Anthony Rizzo for Andrew Cashner?? Ouch
Are these the same Cubs that traded Gleyber Torres for two months of Aroldis Chapman?? Ouch
Cubs at least won a ws with that trade….
Chapman didn’t help them win the World Series. The Cubs won their division by 17.5 games, curb stomped the Giants and Dodgers in the NLDS and NLCS and then in the World Series Chapman almost blew it for them in game 7 but Ben Zobrist bailed him out.
the fact that the WS was that close proves Chapman was important.
Each of the WS games the Cubs won, they would have won without him. Like I said he came this close to blowing game 7 with that Rajai Davis home run.
At least Cashner was serviceable for a few years. Ryan Ludwick for a prospect named Corey Kluber was much worse.
Hey Belurda: Yup, just like the Doyers didn’t draft Mike Trout when thy had a chance. Quadruple ouch!
Beturda, Nice you like to live in the past, LOL
In the space of two days, Preller traded Trea Turner & jasmin Grndal for Kemp Myers. The dude seems to be able to develop a farm, but he has made so many poor decisions on the MLB level.
Jasmin & Trea are nobodies. Preller is ‘Da Man! Joe Brady is nobody.
Preller has never had any direction in what he is doing. Trade young talent for win-now. Then talk about how good the farm is and really none of those panned out, other than Tatis who didn’t start with that organization. Hands out bad contract after bad contract and the. Starts trading all the “ great farm system players”. How does he keep a job.
I remember an article years ago, on Fangraphs. Maybe 2015. The article raised the question of why SD was holding onto Ross and Cashner. FG said that their value would never be higher, and that both were injury risks, and that SD wasn’t a contender.
I remember thinking at the time, Cashner was worth a fringy top-100-150 prospect, and Ross, I think had two control years left, probably worth two top-100 prospects.
He didn’t move either, and both got hurt.
Just thinking about it makes me happy we moved Betts. I think he is the #2 player in BB, but anything can happen.
Hey crazylarry: And your boy Andrew Friedman’s “direction” has got him how many WS titles? The answer is zero, just like my “directionless” Preller.
@crazylarry Which prospects from Preller’s farm “Didn’t pan out?”
love the name.