As the offseason nears, we’ve started to see some movement of front office personnel across teams. A few clubs have made significant changes to their executive staffs over the past few days.
- Rangers assistant general manager Mike Daly is departing the organization to join the Padres’ front office, reports Jeff Wilson. (Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported this morning that Daly and the Friars were in talks). Daly had spent fifteen years with Texas working in international scouting and player development, the last five of which had come as assistant GM. He’ll now reunite with former Rangers’ executive A.J. Preller in San Diego. Daly becomes the second Rangers’ AGM in as many months to leave the organization; Shiraz Rehman departed in August, as the front office structure in Arlington continues to evolve under president of baseball ops Jon Daniels and first-year GM Chris Young.
- While the Padres added one executive, they saw another depart. San Diego coordinator of advance scouting Preston Mattingly was hired as Phillies director of player development. (Dennis Lin of the Athletic first reported the news). Mattingly, the son of Marlins’ manager Don Mattingly and a former first-round draft choice, had spent the past five seasons with the Friars. The Padres have already seen quite a bit of turnover in the front office on the heels of their second half collapse.
- The Royals announced a pair of promotions yesterday. Lonnie Goldberg has been promoted from assistant GM/amateur scouting to vice president of player personnel, while Danny Ontiveros has been bumped up from assistant director of scouting to scouting director. Both Goldberg and Ontiveros have been in the Kansas City organization for well over a decade, with much of that time spent in the club’s scouting department. Earlier this month, the Royals bumped longtime baseball operations leader Dayton Moore up to president of baseball operations, promoted AGM J.J. Piccolo to general manager, and brought veteran executive Gene Watson back into the fold after he departed Kansas City to join the Angels last winter.
Imagine hiring people away from the Rangers front office
Ah, you must be new here.
Fire Jon Daniels, meet A. J. Preller.
Ironically they were college roomates haha
I hope Mattingly works out in Philadelphia. For a big market team to have that long of a playoff drought with very little homegrown talent and/or minor league depth to show for it is pretty horrific.
Don’t know how long the Padres owner can continue to throw away hundreds of millions of dollars on Preller running that organization.
Excessive spending on name players via free agency and taking on salaries in trades. Players that become decent as role players once SD trades them – although I can’t think of a star player from that vaulted list of youngsters that we heard about for years once he was traded.
Recently saw that the media is not allowed into the Padres clubhouse after games. MLB is not rotisserie baseball where individual statistics are all that matters. The manager, coaching staff and player mix are all on Preller – and it’s only a matter of time before the reasons for the disfunction comes public. Hot dogs and me-first players granted special consideration doesn’t work well in professional team sports. Padres are a low rent version of the Dallas Cowboys – fun to talk about in the off-season, played up early each season, they make excuses when they prove to be ordinary at best.
Padres are 3rd in attendance this year and had limited capacity until June lol Padres may stink right now but the owners aren’t hurting for money either.
bbatardo:
They always draw well no matter how good or bad the team is. The Padres owners aren’t letting Preller spend like he has only to increase the gate. In fact, if revenue was their primary goal, they wouldn’t have given Preller the budget they have. I guarantee you they aren’t content with just making money. They don’t spend like they have if they don’t care about winning.
From 09-2018 padres averaged around 11 of 16 NL teams in attendance so they really haven’t had the fans there. They’ve always been in the lower bottom half.
bbatardo – The Padres are the only professional team in town. They get 100% of the sponsorship money that in most towns would be split between at least two of MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL. Like all MLB teams they started getting a real nice boost in national TV revenue in 2021. They are projected to have $350-360 million revenue in 2022 so they are not one of the small market teams in terms of revenue anymore.
Well, I agree, but it looks like Preller will be there awhile. I was surprised when they extended him prior to the start of this season. That’s looking like a huge mistake at this point. Seems like they should have waited to see the results of this, yet another, go all out for it, season.
Now they have Preller for another 4-5 years. Are they going to continue to let him operate as he has? I guess the options are they let Preller be Preller, cut his budget and wait out the contract, or pay through the teeth to make him go away. I wouldn’t be happy with any of those choices.
That gives Preller enough time to hire and fire a couple more managers. The Padres had 77 wins the year before Preller arrived. They’re on the road to #79 tonight. Not much improvement in seven years. The Giants started their rebuild (or whatever you want to call it) later and have jumped ahead of them.
Back to Preller: From the 2020 trade deadline on, he was making transactions like crazy, as if maybe his job was on the line. I was stunned when he got the extension. Ownership must have bought into Padres Fever and didn’t want to risk losing him after the, um, World Series. One would think he’ll have to operate differently. Tatis is a great talent, but that contract’s gonna sting this winter if he winds up having surgery and missing time in 2022. Best of luck to whoever they choose as manager. Contrary to what some people think here, they are not ready to win.
Oops, I spoke too soon on the Padres’ 79th win. The Dodgers got five runs and four homers in the 8th and end up winning, 11-9. I feel for Emilio Pagan. The guy has been terrible all month and is clearly gassed, yet Tingler keeps throwing him out there. Weird scene tonight. Pagan pitched to five batters in the eighth, giving up three homers and a double to his final batter. After the double, Tingler finally got Crismatt up in the bullpen. But as he was about to throw his first warmup pitch, Tingler went out and double-switched him into the game. Bad bullpen management, even though Crismatt had warmed up earlier in the game.
So, how ’bout those Mariners?
Thank you for jinxing the Padres!
A GM doesn’t make that much money. A bench player like Profar makes more in a single season than Preller will in his whole contract.
@Samuel
As far as star players he traded away, Trea Turner, Yasmani Grandal, & Max Fried in 3 separate 2014 deals.
Trading Luis Castillo for Colin Rea was a bad move too.
And for those three star players he got two clubhouse cancers, one with a clearly underwater contract when he arrived in San Diego, the other who Preller signed to an underwater contract 2 years later and a one-year rental who played decently as a Padre but was never going to stay in San Diego beyond that one year.
France (4.1 bWAR), Lauer (2.93 ERA), Quantrill (2.89 ERA), and Urias (2.8 bWAR) aren’t stars, but aren’t far away.
Preller is the ultimate example of cronyism. Just hire his buddies from Texas. Look who’s managing their team.
Daniels is the worst GM in baseball. Don’t understand how this “ President” keeps his job??
He told his bosses the losses would one day disappear…like magic.
For Daniels, it comes down to Rangers’ ownership not giving a rip about on field product. They don’t care about W-L, only that payroll is kept well down and ownership receives a nice cash payout after each season. DFW is a top 5 media market – yet the payroll levels and grinding over spending are that of a small market. Daniels is tremendously incompetent at judging talent, staffing the player development side and routinely gets fleeced in trades. But he can keep cash coming into the billionaire owners’ pockets.
Dismantling the scouting department that built your formerly uber-elite farm system that you pissed away is astoundingly dumb
Yes, I don’t understand that either. I think the farm isn’t the problem in SD. They were probably overhyped, but I think it is pretty obvious everyone expected the Padres to compete the Dodgers instead of the Rockies. But the Pythagorean W-L has them well over .500. All is not lost in SD, they are not performing that bad, they are just unlucky they are in the same division with the two best teams of the entire MLB.
Totally agree on the overhype. Everyone knew their system was very strong, but we were told by the baseball media and Padres fans that Mackenzie Gore was the next Koufax, Luis Campusano is another Mike Piazza, and that CJ Abrams will be A-Rod all over again. The expectations put on those players is not reasonable or fair.
I agree in that the Padres will likely be much improved next year, due to the return of multiple injured pitchers, as well as another year of growth from their core position players.
That said, this is still a flawed team, and one wonders what avenues for improvement the Padres have open to them, given that they’ve behaved like a large-market team over the past couple of years. It seems that any future “big splash” upgrades of the type favored by Preller will have a high cost in either cash, prospects, or both.
Should be interesting to see this all play out.
we were told by the baseball media and Padres fans that Mackenzie Gore was the next Koufax, Luis Campusano is another Mike Piazza, and that CJ Abrams will be A-Rod all over again.
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This is not particularly accurate. I’ve said the same thing to the RS haters, all prospects are rated by professional organizations. Gore was ranked in the top-10 by BA, MLB, and BP. Campusano is ranked roughly #45. Abrams is ranked roughly in the top-10.
1-What fans think of their prospects is almost meaningless. Most have never even seen the prospects play.
2-What the media thinks of their prospects is almost meaningless. Most have never even seen the prospects play.
Nothing else really matters.
I caught a dozen games that Campusano played in in the 2nd half on MILB.TV and he seems like the real deal. He is just 22, had not played above A ball before getting called up to SD for 1 game in 2020, and catchers often mature later. His batting stats for El Paso, .295 and a .906 OPS with 15 HR in 292 AB, show that he is hitting well against much older competition at AAA and he played good defense and threw out 5 of 15 baserunners in the games I was able to watch. There are only 4 other 22 year old catchers in MLB and none started more than 39 games. All are backups and he probably will be too. Really looking forward to what he can do.
What will happen first: Matt Holliday touching home plate or @Pads Fans providing a credible source that says Luis Campusano’s charges were reduced to a single misdemeanor in January 2021?
I’ve got my money on Matt Holliday…
Phillies really need to clean house. Both in the clubhouse and in the front office. They have been horrible drafting,, especially with #1 picks. There’s no talent ready to help on the farm, and our star players are aging. Some (Didi and Nola) not graciously.
For about the zillionth year in a row the Phillies will have to rebuild their bullpen. There’s no lock down closer, and the others with few exceptions are run of the mill fillers.
Yeah, thanks to mathematics, we’re still playing a meaningful game tonight, But realistically, even if we made the playoffs, which we won’t, we weren’t gonna hang around very long. The starting pitching could match up well enough, but the offense wasn’t gonna carry the ball. .
Dombrowski on line 1……
I feel like adding Barber and now Mattingly are good steps. But there is still so much more to be done.
@Lou Orlando Losing Hoskins destroyed the offense. Realmuto is no cleanup hitter. The defense is horrible. And of course the bullpen stinks. They aren’t far away, but it won’t exactly be easy to fix all these holes. I do like their rotation. Sadly we wasted career years (or close to it) from Wheeler and Harper.
And Eflin. When he and Rhys went on IL we knew it was over.
Agreed. I’m excited about the Phillies rotation next year, but sadly I’m worried about everything else.
All bullpen arms struggle at times. The best teams/pens have a supply of backup arms that you can flush some of the dead weight while maintaining the positive arms. The Phillies don’t have that young core to replenish the scuffling arms.
The defense had a large role in the pen issues, too. The Phils need to rework SS, 3B, LF, and CF to improve both offensively and defensively. Maybe use the potential DH to limit Hoskins at first.
What went wrong for the Padres. Pitching coach, pitching and management.
Preller should not have signed Hosmer and Myers. Those are his two worst extensions.
Injuries: Nola, Tatis
Starting pitching: Decent 1-3, injuries to our #4, 5 starters
Horrible trades.
While Myers is expensive, he is an above average player. He has put up a.267/.341/.491/.833 slashline and 130 OPS+ in 2020-2021 and played slightly above average defense according to Statcast.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/outs_above_average?type=Fielder&startYear=2020&endYear=2021&split=no&team=&range=year&min=q&pos=9&roles=&viz=show
Looking at the multiple season expenditures the Padres have taken on ($640 million for SS and 3B, $134 million for Darvish, Snell, and Pomeranz), Myers $20 million salary has not seemed to be an impediment to them spending on other players.
Hosmer has had league average offensive production and that would have been fine if his defense has stayed at a high level. Unfortunately it has fallen off a cliff. That contract is a huge albatross until his salary falls to $13 million in 2023.
Lol Pads Fans aka Koamalu strikes again Wil Myers an above average player? Please.
And Hosmer’s contract is an albatross even after his salary drops to $13m.
Unbelievable that ownership is allowing Preller to hire another of his buddies from Texas. This is getting ridiculous.
They need to get rid of Preller before Machado’s prime years are used up and Tatis wears out his body.
Probably going to be more Padres-Rangers trades. I hope the Rangers remember to wipe out Daly’s access. Looking at you Astros and Cardinals.
Horrible move by the Phillies giving Preston Mattingly the Farm Director job no experience 34yrs old was a scout for the Padres another cost cutting move by Phils owner Middleton.
This team is the 10 million dollar home with the nice cars in the driveway and boat.When you
look inside it is lawn chairs and boxes.This organization is all window dressing another bad move to set us back another 10yrs
1) Farm directors usually were former scouts.
2) Most of the hot names in organizational terms tend to be younger.
3) He was a scouting coordinator. Scouting-coordinator-director. It’s a reasonable progression.
Is Mattingly the right guy? Can’t say I know. I’m not going to dismiss him just because he’s from a scouting background, or just because he’s young. I can say that the Padres have a better farm system than the Phillies right now.
I understand most were scouts why do we need to be the learning ground for the guy.Hire an experienced guy alot of times will leave places if you pay.The Director of the Padres was let go I think his name is Geany.That would have been the guy but this ownership wants someone to control and to keep the family atmosphere which is bullcrap.I don’t want family I want a winning team.This is what got them in trouble.
I checked – reports were that the Padres let Sam Geaney go because the Padres were having trouble developing Major League talent, particularly MacKenzie Gore. Sound familiar?
They traded all their young players and he took the fall.
How about anybody from the Dodgers or Rays organization PHILLIES ORGANIZATION bunch of lackey LOOSERS im sick and tired of this crap and will never attend or watch another game.See you all in 2030
The Padres recently had a farm system ranked higher than all of them before multiple trades so how about you give the guy a chance?
Mattingly worked for LAD before he was with SD…
Because the Rangers are a bastion of winning and the ultimate example of a well run organization, Preller is bringing on more people from their FO. Great job Rockstar.
Preller should be fired for trading 30+ great young players and prospects for old, aging, declining, injury prone veteran players with huge contracts.
Would rather see more of their young players get major league jobs and chances than have them roll out breaking down veteran retreads from other teams.
Some of the young pitching and position players dealt by AJ Preller have helped competitors compete for and in some cases reach the playoffs. Rays have one of the Padres young pitchers in their rotation and other former Padres contributing.
Rays, Mariners, Cubs and others thank the Padres for rolling over and turning over top talent for guys they wanted to get rid of. Rays have a 70M payroll and the Padres are over 200M?!
Rays are #1 seed in the AL and Padres will watch the playoffs and World Series on their couches?!
.
Teams love trading with and hosing the Padres and AJ Preller.
Cronenworth. Tatis Jr. Musgrove. Preller doesn’t lose all his trades.
In 7+ years on the job he made 3 good trades.
Grading Preller isn’t hard. He has one winning season ever. And even that was the shortened season. No need to get into it any deeper than that. He sucks.
Cronenworth was the throw-in with Pham. Tatis was the throw-in with Erik Johnson. That’s ONE solid trade made in seven years. BTW, if Preller was such a great talent evaluator please explain why he traded away guys like Trea Turner, Max Fried, etc.
so getting a guy doesnt count if you dont think they were the main piece in the trade? isnt it a good thing to have gotten two cornerstones as ancillary pieces?
I’m sick of San Diego turning into The Rangers West. I truly hope this is Preller’s last move before the Seidler Family comes to their senses. The Rangers have nothing for talent in the farm system yet we get one of the guys who helped construct it with another idiot who previously helped too? I can only imagine what Ron Fowler is thinking or saying at this point.
He (Fowler) is screaming into his pillow 24-7, I’d imagine.
No heads are rolling… Yet.
Preller hired his buddy before he gets fired… The guy who set up the FM radio deal for the Padres games set that up and was gone soon after, if I recall correctly.
The Phillies need to clean house whatever it takes Realmuto,Nola heartless loser but the fans have their heads so far up their ass and don’t see it.They will trade Segura which will be
a major mistake.Hoskins should be gone we have seen enough of him to know it will be 3 or 4 yrs before he has another good year so get him outta here while you can get something..Girardi is a fraud and needs to go.
The Rangers suck. So AJ is just sucking the suck over here to San Diego.
His loyalties seem to suck.