Last winter's Juan Soto trade was the biggest in a long while -- probably the most significant since the previous Soto deal. The Padres were slashing payroll and didn't want to accommodate a salary north of $30MM for his final year of arbitration. Extension talks never got off the ground. The Padres were about to lose four potential starting pitchers to free agency, leaving them with Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and a bunch of questions.
San Diego determined to build their return for Soto around MLB-ready starting pitching. They'd not only shed payroll but directly address the biggest need on the roster. It's impossible to trade Juan Soto and not deal a huge hit to the lineup, but the Padres could mitigate some of that loss by bringing back rotation help. Even the San Diego front office probably didn't envision it turning around the staff to this extent.
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It really has worked out well for both teams.
And the Nat’s
Imagine them facing each other in the WS.
Actually the Yankees won the series 15 years ago in ‘09
ChiSox won in 05, but that is a funny little factoid.
You are delusional if you think an organization who has an owner that has publicly admitted he sees his baseball team as more of a hobby will have that team in position of winning a World Series before two larger market owners who make sure their teams are perennial post-season contenders,
Preller for GMotY
“GMotY”..I do be-knight thee as “Big time seller Prellar”. He never seems to run out of top, exciting prospects to market, which means he’s a big time drafting stud.
Just goes to show that while you might be able to buy a ticket to the party, you won’t always be the star. The regular season is a much better judge of teams buying their way into success through buying big names and more importantly buying depth. The playoffs are a complete crap shoot because any team can win a series and depth is not a factor at all.
hiflew – Yes and no.
Yes, large payrolls don’t guarantee deep postseason runs especially if two large payroll teams play each other.
No, winning a series (assuming you mean World Series) isn’t equal odds for all postseason teams.
FACT: Every World Series winner since 2004 has been a Top 17 payroll team.
Talent is expensive.
Sad Met Fan I guess
King is a stud, then trading Thorpe as the main piece for cease was huge. Higgy has also provided stability at catcher along with some power.
Then the Arraez deal which gave the padres an identity on offense.
The padres pen minus three dudes the fire half was pretty bad. Then he added three great pen arms. Plus Perez has settled down the 5th spot in the rotation.
All that and two key pieces were adding Peralta and solano. Peralta played great while Tatis was out and solano has been steady all year.
The padres don’t always win or even always play great but almost any time someone beats them they have to really earn it.
Isn’t Thorpe injured?
The Padres have their best team since the 90s
Did the Padres use a piece from the Soto trade to get Arraez or are you just including him as a good move?
No they didn’t, I was showing the moves preller made. Left a few off but the ones that had the biggest impact.
Gotcha, thank you.
You forgot the Profar for 1$ Simm!
I seem to remember many padres fans including legendary harambe being adamant padres wouldn’t be able to compete without Soto and only trade Soto if you got Abrams Hassell Green etc back.
As it turns out. They’re playing significantly better than they ever did with Soto.
Could me players meshing together could be manager styles but this years team plays every facet of the game well- getting on base, coming up with crucial hits, pitching, and small ball.
Jackson Merrill deserves a lot of credit too taking over for Trent Grisham.
But King, Higgy, and Vasquez have all played huge parts to the padres success this year.
For sure they were many people in this camp.
Now I don’t think it’s because Soto was a me player. When you look at the fact that they some how got a massive season from Profar who replaced him. That made the Soto loss alone less than what would have been expected. Then as you stated you add in the massive difference in center between the Merrill and Grisham and they are better than the mix of Soto/grisham vs profar/merrill.
You do catcher and the padres prob been a little better this year since Nola played a lot last year and was really bad.
The other massive upgrade was Arraez vs carp/cruz dh combo.
Bench wise Peralta solano have been way better than anything they had last year.
Pen is much deeper now than a year ago.
Padres rotation was really good last year when healthy. This year probably close to the same as last year when healthy. Of course neither year was fully healthy but the padres have gotten better fill in starts than say dick mountain gave them last year.
Can argue about managers but obviously Shildt has done a good job as well. Of course winning changes a club house more than anything.
correct…you need to look at the whole trade/reshaping of the OF. Profar & Merrill s great seasons make it look like trading Soto was a wash offensively.
In 2023 the Soto/Grish Combo in 1037 Abs
164 R 48HR 150 RBI 283K 367/443/811:
in 2024 the Profar/Merrill Combo in 1062 Abs
161 R 47HR 169 RBI 192K 354/483/837
Its weird how similar those 2 combo seasons are. But in the end it means the Padres saved 35M in payroll, gained #2/3 starter (king) & used the savings + prospect from the trade to gain a #1 starter (cease) to overall make the team better than if they hadnt made the trade.
Some of the Padres fans were crazy over Soto. They were badmouthing Abrams, Wood & Gore, and Hassell a little. Then came a couple of months of posts about how Soto was building some huge mansion and was on the verge of signing an extension because the Padres had an unlimited payroll.
Then reality set in. FWIW, as soon as Preller made the trade, I opined that this was his best off-season of his life. And that is something I have never said about Preller.
@JoeBrady
Preller’s best offseason followed by his best in-season followed by his best trade deadline.
The man has had the Midas touch in 2024. It is cool to see.
FWIW, California real estate records are public record and Soto did build a home next to Machado. Players rarely live full time where they play, so I don’t think that is a big deal. Especially since Coronado is an absolutely gorgeous little town across the bridge from San Diego. Padres fans obviously did think it was a big deal.
The Padres got a great deal from Soto. A deep run into the playoffs, fan excitement that filled the stands in record numbers, and they are miles ahead in WAR on the trade tree. I believe that while they were expecting more in trading for both Soto and Bell that first season, the FO of the Padres would have to be ecstatic the way it’s turned out.
Now Soto will get what he always wanted, the spotlight on him. Oh, and huge piles of cash which to him is the same as the spotlight.
Coronado surf, where the TJ US biohazard hits the fan. San Diegans not to protest in the streets about this ecological tragedy
Need to protest in the streets with the vast seals leading the parade
Navy Seals, I think I’m done posting with an Android
Mets were last in the World Series in 2015. At no point are did they continue to cry about fellow cheaters, the Astros, till this day.
Statements like these are why I don’t subscribe.
“The Padres were slashing payroll and didn’t want to accommodate a salary north of $30MM for his final year of arbitration. Extension talks never got off the ground.”
Padres made him an extension offer. His agent, Scott Boras, said so. Boras also said that Padres payroll was not an issue. The team said that they had engaged in extension talks. Padres talk show host and sometimes announcer Tony Gwynn Jr said that the Padres had made an offer over $500 million.
When you guys start reporting your own opinions as fact instead of that the actual parties involved have said, I start to discount everything you say. You already have Nick Deeds who makes stuff up at will and gets basic facts wrong in nearly every article, and then this garbage? Yeah, you are not getting my money with that level of content.
@Pads Fans
Link the show where Gwynn said that.
The Pads never made an offer. Preller himself said the vibe they got was Soto would not sign, so there were no negotiations.
Boras said Seidler wanted to re-sign Soto. That’s it.
They never made an offer. I don’t know what else to say.
reddit.com/r/Padres/s/ppM1m2Hv7Z
I remember Boras saying that Seidler had indeed made an offer and that the Padres payroll was not an issue. Boras made multiple miscalculations of the market last offseason. As to the rest of what both of you said, it’s all speculation.
Are you serious? You have to scroll through and listen to each individual show. I linked it at the time. Do your own homework.
Boras said at the Winter Meetings that Seidler made an offer and that they had been in negotiations prior to his death. It was on National TV. Take it up with him.
Preller said nothing of the sort that I can find. Do YOU have a link?
Maybe don’t say anything when you don’t know.
Boras definitely said him and Seidler were in talks. Feel free to send a link of one of them saying an offer was made. Reports are no offer was made.
I’ll wait…don’t bother replying with anything other than evidence. The rest is not worth reading.
@Pads Fans
Back right off. You are making stuff up and the burden of proof is on you to back it up. T Gwynn should sue you for making a false statement about him.
Someone posted a link with video of Preller saying the team never made an offer. It is right there. I don’t want know what planet you are on. The only person with no journalistic integrity here is you. This is not the first time you’ve told this lie nor been set straight about it. I would not tolerate this anymore if I were MLBTR management.
@Informed Sportsball Discussion
Pads Fan also aggressively argued that there was no way Ohtani’s AAV could be lowered from $70MM/yr. with the deferrals.
It was on TV. You could just watch MLB Network. Don’t need ax link when you do more than read. Reports don’t change what Boras said on TV.
So zero proof. Got it.
There has been no credible source that has said the padres made an offer to Soto. There was mention that PS wanted to keep him but there was no real offer. If there was any kind of offer, it would have been reported all over.
The padres have never made an offer that anyone can report from a credible source.
Boras which sound similar to prellers comments. Said they talked to boras about an extension. Now boras made it sound like Seidler became sick and that stopped the talks. Boras made it sound like they may have been able to get something done if Seidler didn’t unfortunately pass away.
Nobody knows for sure if that would have happened. The bottom line is once Seidler died the money or big money spending died with him. So they did have to slash payroll. They now are running a team more within their revenue generation. Seidler was comfortable spending above their revenue generation. Hence the 50m loan and them having to show mlb a plan to lower their debt.
Boras’ exact words in that interview at the Winter Meetings was that he had “been in negotiations on an extension with Peter Seidler”. Even the NY Post carried that news it was such a big deal.
As many have already shown, the Padres borrowed $50 million to finalize the purchase of land from the city of San Diego for some type of building project. All 30 teams had to show MLB a debt plan after the loss of revenue during the 2020 season. San Diego was no different. Only a handful of teams had to make changes in their payroll or other spending because of it. San Diego was not one of them or it would have happened in 2021-2022 offseason when MLB required it of the other teams.
The Padres are a revenue sharing payer since 2023. That means their revenue is over $400 million. They can spend with any team other than maybe the Dodgers and Mets. Judging from their new controlling partner’s comments about payroll not being constrained by the CBT and continuing Peter Seidler’s vision for the team, it would seem that going over the CBT to get players they believe would allow them to win.
Even the biggest revenue teams including the Yankees and Dodgers drop under the CBT Threshold every few years to limit player payroll costs. That a mid-revenue team like San Diego did it for a season makes perfect sense. What doesn’t is saying they are struggling financially when everyone involved has said that is not the case.
I am far from a Padres fan and live a continent away and even I know those things. How is it you don’t Simm? You claim to be a fan.
Some of these things you are saying are assumptions that’s why.
For example while the padres do have plans to expand the parking lot area. Nothing has been reported that 50m was for that. The padres brass said they borrowed it because sooner or later that would need it.
Also yes the chairman said they would continue Peter’s vision but that doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to payroll until they actually do.
I stated in my other comment about Peter negotiating with boras before he became ill.
The facts are nobody knows what the padres will do payroll wise in the future.
Yes everything you said could turn out to be correct. Problem is we don’t know yet. Seidler was a different type of owner and we just don’t know how much will change in the future. Year one without Seidler they slashed payroll. Yes every team does that at some point so this could just be a reset. With the fact that Seidler was trying to extend Soto means he probably didn’t care about doing that this season. Yet the new group in charge did. Time will tell just what we can expect in the future.
Boras is pretty credible. Only Soto and Seidler would know more.
Pads fans:
Your raging boycott has a huge net effect of … zero.
It has a net effect of $29.89. More than zero. Pay attention son. Notice you don’t pay for the site either. Apparently it has a net effect of more than you thought or YOU would be paying too.
Glad Soto is not a Pad anymore and thrilled that Dylan Cease is. Soto was terrible with the Pads and not because he doesn’t possess the talent; he just didn’t wanna. If I were any team other than the Yanks or Dodgers, I would steer clear of a Soto acquisition. That boy likes the dazzle associated with big market teams.
He was pretty good with the Nats if I remember correctly.
Soto was good with the padres. The weird thing was he was his normal self on the road but never really hit at petco.