Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller met with reporters on Tuesday afternoon as spring camp got underway. Pointing to a “late-developing market,” Preller made clear the team anticipated making a few more acquisitions (link via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com).
“We’ve had, honestly, trade conversations that are still ongoing. Usually at this point in the season, most teams are focused on: They have their roster, getting into Spring Training, going and playing,” Preller said. “We’ve been pretty active. … We’re always going to be looking to add and improve. The team that starts camp here in the next couple days, it’s not going to be the team that, obviously, we finish with.”
That’s self-evident given the state of the team’s outfield. The Padres have two clear openings alongside Fernando Tatis Jr. after trading Juan Soto and Trent Grisham. Light-hitting center fielder José Azocar is the only other outfielder on the 40-man roster. Jurickson Profar will join him once his one-year contract is finalized, yet he’s more of a depth option after a rough season in Colorado.
San Diego has had recent conversations with the Red Sox regarding Jarren Duran. He’s surely one of a number of possible options the front office has considered. With five years of club control, Boston figures to stick to a high asking price on the lefty-hitting outfielder. San Diego has also shown interest in Michael A. Taylor, the top unsigned free agent center fielder beyond Cody Bellinger, this offseason.
Budget constraints have been the prevailing theme of the Padres’ offseason. They allowed a number of key free agents to depart and offloaded upwards of $30MM in the Soto blockbuster. That cut their projected season-opening spending to around $160MM, as calculated by Roster Resource.
Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the team is planning on carrying a player payroll in the $180-190MM range for the upcoming season. That’d leave $20-30MM in remaining spending room, although Acee writes that the team may prefer to keep some of that in reserve for midseason acquisitions. They should be able to bring in a couple low-cost free agents but will have to rely on some internal options to take a step forward.
In the outfield, that could be top prospect Jackson Merrill. He spent much of the offseason training as an outfielder in addition to his customary shortstop work. Merrill enters camp with what appears to be a legitimate chance to make the Opening Day roster as a 20-year-old. He has all of 44 games above A-ball, however. He finished last season with a .273/.338/.444 showing at Double-A San Antonio and hasn’t played at the top minor league level. 22-year-old Jakob Marsee only has 16 games of Double-A experience but put together an impressive .273/.413/.425 showing in High-A and impressed in the Arizona Fall League.
While the outfield is the biggest concern, San Diego could use additional rotation depth and perhaps another bench bat. Preller left open the possibility of bringing in another starter. Only Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Michael King are locks for the season-opening five. Jhony Brito, Randy Vásquez, Jay Groome, Pedro Avila and prospects like Jairo Iriarte and Drew Thorpe could all vie for season-opening roles. Top prospect Robby Snelling also received an invite to big league camp but seems a long shot for the Opening Day roster, as he has made all of four starts in Double-A.
That group is very light on MLB experience. Even King, who is locked into a mid-rotation role, was a reliever for the Yankees until last August. The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reported last week that the Padres were showing some level of interest in free agent starters Michael Lorenzen, Hyun Jin Ryu, and old friend Eric Lauer. Acee recently added Noah Syndergaard to that list.
Acquiring controllable pitching in trade at this stage of the offseason would be challenging. That’s particularly true if the Padres are loath to part with the likes of Snelling and Dylan Lesko towards the top of the farm system. If they were to consider dealing from the MLB roster for help in another area, middle infielder Ha-Seong Kim has been their most valuable realistic trade chip. He’s due $10MM this year and will become a free agent when his 2025 mutual option is declined (very likely by Kim) at the beginning of next offseason.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that interest in Kim from other teams remains very high. Yet Preller didn’t sound urgent to deal the Gold Glove winner, characterizing talks more as due diligence. “With the Kim situation, we were pretty consistent through the offseason. You’re never going to hang up the phone. You’re always going to listen on any player when anybody calls. But it wasn’t something we were pushing,” he told reporters (including Cassavell). “We see him as a huge part of our team. Most likely, if we’re going to play well, it’s Ha-Seong Kim in the middle of the diamond.“
Detroit will give you Manning, McKinstry and Baddoo for Kim and a couple million. Or, I wish.
Preller said that while he will listen on anyone on the team, he has basically told other teams Kim is not available in trade. The interview is available in its entirety in 97.3 The Fan in San Diego audacy.com/973thefansd or in pieces on their Twitter feed.
The thing people need to keep in mind that Kim had a 10.8 WAR the past two seasons. That is up there in the top 15 players in baseball.
By comparison Soto had a 11.1 WAR the past 2 seasons. You saw what the Padres got for Soto, 4 MLB players and top 100 pitching prospect. I don’t think Kim is worth quite that much, but you can be sure Preller is asking for that much.
Now that the former owner died, I wonder if the team is for sale.
No. Team is still owned by Siedler group and Seidler family.
Barring a miracle, this year is going to be brutal.
I bet they have a better record than last season.
It’s doubtful. They had a lot of bad luck last year and they have since downgraded. I could be wrong but I don’t think they are going to be much better, if at all.
I bet they have a better record than last season.
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I’d be interested in that. They lost a lot of pitching, but I consider the Soto trade fairly lateral. And they were a lot better than their record last year.
That’s the magic of baseball. They did have a lot of bad luck, and from what I read, also bad attitudes. Maybe a new clubhouse culture will make an improvement? They still have their fair share of stars: Machado, Tatis, Kim, Boegarts, Darvish, and Musgrove. This team should not be horrible by any means.
Tow as a padres fan for nearly 40 years, let me say this: you don’t understand “brutal”. You apparently don’t understand or don’t remember or just won’t acknowledge that SD routinely had one of the lower payrolls for many many years. Except for 3-4 competitive years about 20-25 of the past years have been “brutal”.
A projected .500 ish team in 2024 with a top 5 payroll and a top 5 farm to replenish or trade from is not “brutal”.
And if you REALLY want to know about brutal, try 1969-1974 when they finished in last place every year averaging 59 wins per year. Still, the mini-season tics were cheap and it was quality time with dad and big bros.
Have been equally as long.
The post 92 firesale of the fab four.
The post 98 tear down.
The 2007 game 163 at Coors with Peavy.
The brutaL 05 and 06 losses.
The run out of gas 10′ team edged by the Giants on their way to 3 championships.
Those 84 and 98 drubbing by the Tigers and Yanks.
Those were the good years.
Now the rest, too many to talk about.
So, yes I know and that’s why I am so vocal.
I have seen patterns with this franchise and I do not want to see them return to those days.
Being content with .500 is an old school Padres fan mindset.
We have 1 team in SD. I want that team to seize the city.
SD is a Padres town, if the Padres so choose.
SD is not the Yankees, Mets or Dodgers re $$$.
Doing a revenue tax reset for 1 year with a likely .500 is far from jumping off the cliff that you are standing too close.
You are so over dramatizing this situation and have found a way to make every move and non move a mountain out of a molehill.
This ownership has to prove it won’t return to the old ways of running the Padres.
I’m a realist. The Pads track record speaks for itself.
Why do they have to prove that they won’t do something?
Sounds like trying to prove a negative to me.
Tow but you’re marking to a different drummer pal. If you were a realist you’d know there is a whale of a difference between the Seidler ownership and the past Joan Kroc John Moores era. They are a top 10 payroll, not a bottom 5. Night and Day. Black and White, Poles Apart
You want fans in the stands, you prove to them you want to win.
Any business wanting to retain its customers has to prove it with a quality product.
How has Toyota stayed in business, or a Nike, a GE?
Innovation and improvement.
You look for ways to constantly improve upon your product.
Correct the flaws and improve on the quality of the build.
Maintaining the status quo is a recipe for disaster.
Last time I checked baseball is a business.
A business has customers.
Customer want a good ROI.
It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
We are assuming it’s the same ownership group as was under Peter Seidler.
The Seidler family deserves a massive amount of credit for their investment in the team and community.
No issue with the Seidler family or a majority of the equity group invested in the Padres under Peter Seidler.
Arctos Partners is concerning.
I don’t care if it was spearheaded by Theo Epstein.
The sole purpose of a group like that is profit at all costs.
When a group like that maneuvers to acquire more control of a franchise they can alter its direction at the behest of its fans.
The Seidler family and Kustenda want to win. I question whether the entire equity group wants a WS for SD or simply to be ‘profitable’.
Tow – you don’t seem to realize that there are 3 teams with unlimited pockets and everyone else is vying to be #4. There is no competing with the top 3 in payroll – at least not year in and year out.
You seem to think spending / winning the off-season free agent race equates to “trying to win”.
Well, you are wrong. Long term sustainability for any franchise not Dodgers, Yankees, Mets means resets every few years. Some teams have to rebuild all the way.
Your mindset expressed here is not how all of the other teams in mlb operate.
I’m glad you are not employed by SD Padres.
Applaud those who yin on the yang of the chronically dissatisfied but going toe to toe with Tow is too much so I gotta demure for now.
Brew, Me too. I came out of retirement for a little while and am back on pause. My helpful nature snuck out for a little bit!
Sustainability = survivability or more or less treading water.
Treading water won’t win you a championship.
I’d prefer SD not have an MLB team if merely being competitive is the goal.
Longtime:
AMEN
Tow as a padres fan for nearly 40 years, let me say this: you don’t understand “brutal”.
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LOL! I say that to RS fans all the time. They think a .500 record calls for a boycott. Having lived thru ’67, ’75, ’78, ’86. and ’03, they don’t have a clue what brutal is.
I dunno Joe, never try to out woe a Padre fan unless you’re from Chicago.
Expect Preller to do something stupid. A nine year trend.
Preller has been given peanuts to.work with.
Matt Waldron. You forgot about Matt Waldron.
And Alex Jakob!
We all know Profar will end up the everyday Left Fielder. The Padres should sign Taylor to play CF and continue to use Azocar off the bench
Yeah Profar is at least starting for the first half of 2024. Perhaps a prospect earns a shot at that point but not sure who that would be.
Acee article tonight (in paper tomorrow) sure makes it sound like Merrill and Marsee both have an OD shot. I think that would be rushing both.
Merrill is a shortstop. And he’s not ready to play at all. Padres need to work a trade out with the Marlins for one of their lefty starters and maybe more.
Brew, Shildt said as much today. Add Graham Pauley to that mix. Said that Merrill will be working out mostly at LF and CF which is where he worked out today exclusively.
Preller said that prospects would have to “take the job” like Tatis did. That they would not be rushed.
Yeah, Acee was just reporting on what both Shildt and AJ said. Definitely gaining traction and explains thinking going into SP. Agree about L SP!
AJ says Jackson Merrill every other word. He says Marsee and Pauley all remaining words. If all three play well in ST one of the two of Merrill or Marsee will be on OD roster, here’s the OD lineup:
Kim 3B/2B
Tatis RF
Machado DH/3B
Bogey SS
Cronenworth 1B/2B
Campusano/Higgy C
Merrill/Marsee/Azocar/unknown#1 CF
Unknown#2/Pauley/Merrill/Profar LF
Unknown#2/Pauley/Batten DH
Oscar Mercado, Eguy, Cal Mitchell also could win a spot
Of Marsee, Pauley and Merrill to be rushed, I prefer it be sweet swingin’ Pauley, but then they might need to find a CF for a year via trade or FA, or just go with Azocar.
I like Michael Taylor, but I don’t think you should pay him much more than you would’ve paid Grisham
Grisham wasn’t a free agent. Similarly talented players but Grisham is an arb 2 guy so Taylor should cost more.
Pads shouldn’t pay more for a worse glove and wrong-handed bat that is 5 years older than Grisham. If they’re seriously considering Taylor, they should’ve never traded Grisham.
Maybe they shouldn’t have traded Grisham.
I’ve heard that it was the Yankees who wanted him as a condition of the trade
Some Padres fans were acting like he had no value at the time and I thought that was nonsense. He’s a quality player one the Padres could use right now.
Yeah, if he can get back to 240 and 20 HRs he’d be awesome. Yanks could strike gold. Hard for Pads fans to be patient with two years of 185 averages though …I get it. I’ll always pull for him to turn it around, good guy.
If what Preller said is self-evident, then the title of the article is self-evident?
Taylor is a legit defensive center fielder which is something you need playing half your games at that park.
Trade Merrill. He has no place to play. The Padees aren’t rebuilding they are balling on a budget and the only way to make that realistic is trades. Merrill would get a nice return.
Azocar is a legit defensive CF. If all you are getting is Grisham light in Taylor, no reason to make that signing at all for the $7-10 million he is asking for.
Bogaerts is going to play SS for the foreseeable future. Shildt said so today. they have not even broached the subject of a move off SS and they have no reason too yet. If they extend Kim, Merrill is 3rd on depth chart at SS.
Trade Merrill as headliner of a 4 for 2 or 5 for 2 package for Luzardo and Sanchez or Arraez.
I think there is room for both Taylor and Azocar. Taylor is a proven big leaguer. Jankowski made more sense imo being left handed but he’s been signed already.
Arraez isn’t happening but Sanchez or the other similar Marlins outfielder could make some sense. I can’t remember his name the other corner outfielder the Marlins have.
Jankowski was a great option and cheap to boot. While I’m sure he took something of a sweetheart deal to stay with a championship squad, I think $3-4M from the Padres would’ve got it done. That’s a relative pittance for the strong side of a CF platoon and a plus glove at all three OF spots. His speed/OBP in front of X/Tatis/Manny against righties would’ve been excellent, and I think you could’ve cobbled together two wins from him and Azocar in CF.
Sadly, the remaining FA LH OF options are pretty dire, minus Bellinger. I think it’s better to accept a diminished offense for a strong defensive OF alignment, barring any trades. Still need depth/lefties in the rotation and lefty DH/bench options, too.
Thank goodness that this will be AJ’s final season in charge. After he & Shildty get the axe in August, Los Pobres can get started on being an actual big league team.
Honestly I feel like AJ ran a class last offseason on how to wreck a perfectly good team on the rise. Same with Mets. They think you just throw pieces together like a video game without any regard for what you already have in place (a perfectly good team coming off a great postseason that built a ton of anticipation, chemistry, and momentum). The story became about the moves instead of the focus being on the postseason success and the players that actually did that.
Only mistake Preller made was allowing Peter Seidler to talk him into Melvin.
I think he made plenty of mistakes but it’s not my money. Even if that’s true hiring the wrong manager for the situation is a very glaring mistake. I always wonder what is because of Preller and what isn’t entirely. Surely it wasn’t Preller s idea many years back to bring in a year of Matt Kemp and Justin Upton in a dumb attempt to compete (giving away Fried in process).
Preller didn’t hire Melvin. Peter Seidler did. It was a huge mistake.
It was Fowler’s idea to “make a splash” in 2015, not Preller’s. Fowler was very public about the fact that he had told Preller to do so. One year later the ownership agreed to follow Preller’s plan to rebuild the organization from the bottom up and announced in mid-2016 that their goal was contend in 2020-2021 and then consistently after that.
Most Padres fans were ok with that after years and years of being just plain bad and bottom feeders in terms of payroll. Most season ticket holders really like the transparency of them basically saying we are going to suck but will come out the other end and crush it.
They also allowed Preller to spend HUGE money on the last international free agent class where spending was not strictly limited.
We have seen how well Preller has done in creating a scouting program by the number of great prospects that have been signed by the Padres. to be back in the top 6 less then 2 years after trading away the huge number of prospects he did for Darvish, Snell, Musgrove, and then Soto/Bell is simply astounding.
Preller did fire Buddy Black
He also hired (and fired) Pat Murphy, Andy Green, Rod Barajas & Jayce Tingler. Any owner would take over that decision making process.
I failed to mention that when AJ fired Buddy, he skipped over Dave Roberts to bring in Murphy. Then never even offered Roberts an interview for the full time gig. Doc has his detractors, but he has a ring & the highest winning percentage of any manager ever.
Now AJ gave the job to Shildty instead of a Latino manger to come in there and whip all the Niños into an actual major league ball club.
They have gaping hole throughout the roster & not enough money to cover up for AJ’s mismanagement anymore.
But tell me more about how AJ deserves more credit…
Well 2023 was clearly a disaster for Mets, how were they ruined? They added a few big pieces to rotation of a 101 win team on relatively short term contracts giving up 0 of their prospects to do so.
They flipped some players added more prospects. All that was lost was some $ from the richest owner in the sport. By no means does that seem to constitute being ruined. Now had they depleted farm system to add a few pieces prior to 2023 with same results, it would be a different story.
I meant they messed up last year’s team. I didn’t say ruined and I don’t mean long term. I simply meant they thought they would put the team over the top by buying a bunch of expensive players when all you’re doing is creating a narrative around your team that is putting a tremendous emphasis on the new players instead of a 100 win team and a ton of pressure that shouldn’t have ever existed in the media. You can’t just bring in a ton of huge dollar guys onto an already very good team and expect that everything is gonna be exactly the same only better. The whole team atmosphere and relation to media and fans is different. They were the hyped up talk of baseball. The second you start losing it spirals.
Breslow said today that CF is Rafaela’s to lose. Duran is extraneous. The Padres already told Breslow no on his ask for Duran and that was a 1-1 for Lesko.
I certainly wouldn’t trade Lesko for Duran. Thorpe for Duran perhaps would be fair.
Padres offered 2 prospects in the back half of their top 30. That seemed fair to me.
Trade simulator disagrees
Trade simulator simp
Prellars pic looks like he’s got the fear of god him as he should. Yet still preaching confidence of a fool. Father Time is coming to atone for those sins. Count blessings not burdens. I honestly don’t know what major moves he could possibly do to save face on this roster. It’s already too late for him.
Duran is not that good of a player. Below average defender. Approaching age 30. Only one half of a good season. Shouldn’t give any of their top 10 prospects for this guy.
Red Soxneed pitching nut we have a surplus of outfielders. A trade with them can solve both our problems since both teams need a spark anyway.
Should’ve grabbed Aaron Hicks
I hope it just came down to Hicks preferring to play closer to home. He would’ve been a solid lefty LF option on the cheap.
Perhaps the Pads should consider (Platinum) Gold Glove outfielder Tatis in CF rather than RF. It’s true that Tatis goes all out and might injure himself, but no more than in RF. And then getting a RF is easier than finding the proverbial “true CF” via trade or sign.
Tatis was asked about this by the media today and his response was pretty much that he thinks he provides more value in RF because of the way Petco plays and his arm.
I think, like you referred to, that kind of depends on who the other OF in that equation is though. If they’re starting Azocar (not ideal offensively) or an actual CF then it’s probably not a big deal. If they’re trying to get some combination of Profar/Merrill to cover CF then yeah there’s more value in Tatis moving over
Who finish last Padres or Rockies I think Rockies are better than Padres, both team need pitching..
You honestly think the Rox are in better shape than my Pads? Where can we meet to make real money bets?
Even as is, Padres will be second place and make the playoffs. Last year was a fluke, they still have a great core of players.
Agreed Vermont
It’s pretty clear the padres will make some more moves. Whether or not any of them are difference makers or depth moves who knows.
With 20-30m to spend left my guess is the spread that money around on 2-3 guys rather than one expensive guy. Though preller did also say he isn’t going to spend on guys that are not seen as true upgrades. Don’t really count Profar in that category since he is basically being paid league min.
While the Merrill and marsee type have a real shot at making the team this year that could change quickly if they add some other players.
I don’t think they will add a dh bat with Machado likely dh’ing for awhile to start the season. This also leaves open a chance that Merrill starts the season at second and Kim covering third. Merrill said he has been taking reps this offseason at SS, 2B, LF and CF.
Harold Ramirez fills the RH’ed DH role as well as some (not great fielder) PT in LF/1st base on occasion. He would cost 4 million for one tear and another arb year left in 2025. That’s a hell of a lot less than what it would cost to add another good hitting FA this inter. And should only cost a couple of young mid range prospects, IMO.
Budman I like HR too for the Pads on a short term deal, much needed OBP guy and trending 300 hitter. Not great defensively so would see a lot of DH. One year bridge to the rookie OFs. Signing Profar may block such a trade though.
Ramirez is signed for $2.2M this year. Pads trade Kim to the Rays for DH/LF Ramírez, LHP Mason Montgomery, 1B Austin Shenton.
I love reading about the Madres. Always something going on.
I’d bring in Steven Duggar on a minor league deal seeing if he and Azocar can platoon CF.
Profar is the LH portion of a platoon in LF and guys like Rosario and Batten probably form the RH portion.
At this point pitching and defense needs to the Padres calling card.
I’d also make the move to move Kim to SS and Bogaerts to 2B where he could easily be a 5-6 WAR player with less wear and tear on his body.
I agree that Merrill has nowhere to play and should be traded to the Marlins in a package for Luzardo. The Marlins are looking for a SS and C. Padres trade SS Merrill, OF Samuel Zavala, RHP Mazur, C Valenzuela, RHP Lizarraga to Marlins for LHP Luzardo, CF Chisholm, 1B/LF Johnston.
Both teams would neither proffer nor accept that deal.
Really? Wasn’t there talk of the Marlins trading Luzardo to KC for 1B/DH Vinnie Pasquantino?
Trade SS Kim to the Rays for LF/DH Ramírez, LHP Montgomery, 1B Shenton.
Should they deplete their infield this year by trading both Kim and Merrill now? And can they stay under CBT by adding Luzardo, Jazz, HRam, Monty?
Yes, they can stay under their CBT goals by adding those players. Should still be $18M under the first tier penalty threshold of $237M, by my rough calculations.
I don’t really look at it as a huge infield depletion. They are really only losing Kim. Merrill doesn’t have an infield position to play right now, and wouldn’t for the next 2 years. By that time the recently signed wonder kid from the DR will be ready…
Renegotiate the top 5 contracts with an Ohtani type of deferral and a 1% ownership stake. See where the team is after the first 30 games and make roster moves based on that. Do that for every 30 games and micromanage the front office for a change. Look around the league…, there are enough Preller castaways to field a competitive team.