A.J. Preller Discusses Padres’ Rotation
Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller met with reporters (including Dennis Lin of The Athletic and Jeff Sanders of The San Diego Union-Tribune) on Tuesday afternoon. While the ramifications of Mike Shildt’s resignation were the main topic, Preller also touched on the Friars’ uncertain rotation going into 2026.
San Diego’s front office leader acknowledged that the starting staff “is a clear area of need” as they face free agent losses of Dylan Cease and Michael King. Cease is a lock to reject a qualifying offer and has long seemed likely to sign elsewhere. King will decline his end of a mutual option in favor of a $3.75MM buyout. The Padres seem likely to issue him a QO as well, and there’s a good chance he rejects that even after an injury-riddled season.
The Padres could try to bring King back. He was on track for a nine-figure deal until he suffered a nerve injury in his throwing shoulder. That initially seemed to be a minor concern but wound up costing him almost three months. King missed a couple more weeks in August with knee inflammation and did not look as sharp in September. The Padres didn’t fully trust him in the postseason, using him out of the bullpen in the Wild Card Series. It’s possible the rocky finish drops King from a five- or six-year asking price to a two- or three-year deal with opt-outs. That could be more in the Padres’ financial wheelhouse than a $125-150MM commitment would have been had King stayed healthy.
For the time being, the Padres need to operate as if Cease and King will not be back. That leaves Nick Pivetta as the clear #1 starter. Joe Musgrove should be on track for Opening Day after undergoing Tommy John surgery during last year’s postseason. The Padres could keep an eye on his innings total, however.
Yu Darvish is signed for three more years but is coming off a 5.38 earned run average and entering his age-39 season. Randy Vásquez made 26 starts with a sub-4.00 ERA without missing any bats. Deadline pickup JP Sears was rocked over five MLB starts after the trade. He’s not a lock to be tendered a contract at a projected $3.5MM arbitration salary. The Padres should decline their $5MM option on Kyle Hart, while Matt Waldron is on the roster bubble after struggling in Triple-A.
It’s a thin group after the Padres traded Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek to the Royals for catcher Freddy Fermin at the deadline. That’s true even assuming Darvish returns. Kevin Acee of The Union-Tribune wrote earlier this month that Darvish has not firmly stated that he’ll play out his entire contract, which runs through the end of the 2028 season. The veteran righty missed most of the first half to elbow inflammation and just had the worst numbers of his career.
Preller didn’t provide many specifics but noted that he has had some conversations with Darvish early in the offseason. “We’ll keep talking to him over the course of the next couple of weeks to see what it all means for him,” he added. It doesn’t appear that Darvish has made any decision, but that’s another question hanging over an already light starting five.
It’s a familiar position for the Friars, who seemingly enter each offseason with one or two rotation holes and uncertainty about their ability to add short-term financial commitments. Two years ago, that manifested in building the Juan Soto return around King and pulling off a Spring Training deal to land Cease from the White Sox. They waited out the market last offseason to add Pivetta on a heavily backloaded four-year free agent contract.
The Padres have also had a decent amount of success building relievers back into starting pitchers. They gave Seth Lugo that opportunity after he spent years as a reliever with the Mets. King flourished in San Diego after beginning a rotation experiment with the Yankees. Kolek clearly wasn’t as impactful as Lugo or King had been, yet he also found enough success as a starter to pique the Royals’ interest in talks on Fermin.
That history led to speculation about the Padres giving Mason Miller another rotation look as soon as San Diego landed him from the A’s. Miller has been arguably the most dominant reliever in MLB over the past two seasons. He had limited rotation experience — 15 starts in the minors and six starts as a rookie — before the A’s moved him to the bullpen.
That wasn’t a question of talent so much as durability. Miller had fought shoulder and elbow injuries in the minors and lost most of his rookie season in 2023 to forearm tightness. He has stayed healthy as a reliever aside from a three-week absence in ’24 when he fractured his non-throwing hand (reportedly after hitting a table in frustration following a poor outing).
Adrian Morejon has been a full-time reliever for almost four seasons. He also moved to relief because of health concerns but had been a top starting pitching prospect. He had multiple shoulder and elbow injuries, one of which required Tommy John surgery in 2021. Morejon has been healthy for consecutive seasons and developed into one of the game’s best relievers. He’s coming off his first All-Star season and just fired 73 2/3 innings of 2.08 ERA ball in 75 appearances.
Preller didn’t commit to roles for either pitcher but left open the possibility of stretching one or both back out. “We’ll definitely get Mason’s thoughts and hear what he thinks is best. We’ll see how the offseason plays out, roster-wise. Then we’ll have some clear direction for him of what that looks like,” he said regarding Miller. Preller expressed a similar sentiment on Morejon. “(He’s) a lefty that’s throwing three plus pitches with command and the ability to use him in different places in the game. I think that’ll be a conversation as we get into it, similar to Mason, about what that looks like here for next year.”
Moving either pitcher to the rotation would obviously deal a significant hit to a bullpen that was the best in MLB over the season’s last two months. The Padres already seem likely to lose closer Robert Suarez, who’ll opt out of the remaining two years and $16MM on his deal and could command upwards of $15MM annually on a two-year contract in free agency.
Miller would be the heir apparent in the ninth inning if he’s not starting. If they move Miller to the rotation, Jeremiah Estrada probably becomes the favorite to close. Jason Adam could be in the mix as well, but he’s coming back from a season-ending quad rupture. David Morgan and Bradgley Rodriguez showed late-inning potential as rookies and could pitch their way into leverage roles if they’re able to throw enough strikes.
Latest On Mike Shildt’s Resignation As Padres Manager
Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller met with reporters (including The Athletic’s Dennis Lin) in the team’s season wrap-up press conference yesterday. As expected, a lot of the focus was on Mike Shildt’s decision to step down as the team’s manager on Monday, which Preller characterized as “probably more of a surprise than a shock,” given how the two had spoken near the end of the season about the health issues Shildt cited as a reason for his departure. Shildt also asked for a week off at his home in North Carolina once the Padres were eliminated from the playoffs, which created some speculation within the organization about the skipper’s future.
Shildt expanded on his decision in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Kevin Acee yesterday, and said that he hopes to return to baseball in a player development role in the future. However, it appears as though his managing days may be through, as Shildt was worn down in every day from the day-to-day grind of running a team. Beyond just the on-the-field stress, Shildt said he received some death threats late in the season.
Since the news broke of Shildt’s departure on Monday, there have been multiple reports about discord among San Diego’s coaches. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that Shildt had a “very poor relationship” with some members of his coaching staff, with one coach almost coming to blows with the manager after the coach felt Shildt insulted him.
Acee also explored some of the internal criticisms leveled at Shildt by some Padres staffers, including the view that Shildt had a short temper and was too quickly heated over any questions about his decision-making or thought process. With Shildt giving the Padres players a wide berth to police their own clubhouse, Shildt was accused by some of micro-managing and being too harsh with his coaches and other team staff members.
“I can accept I had a high standard and I held people to a high standard for the betterment of the players and organization,” Shildt said. “That’s my job. I am completely aware I challenged the staff….I acknowledge and won’t apologize for having high standards. I own that. I had to have hard conversations with players and staff.”
“And of 80 people in a clubhouse, a high percentage of those, I was able to partner with and work toward a common goal. And clearly that was effective, as reflected by our record on the field. There are going to be people who are going to push back and you’re not going to please. And after trying to partner with people, I had to hold people accountable. I understand people don’t like that….That standard is very high for me, and I take it very seriously. To the point of burnout.”
As noted by Shildt himself, the criticisms of his approach were “eerily similar in the two places I’ve managed,” referring to his previous stint as the Cardinals’ manager from 2018-21. Shildt led the Cards to postseason appearances in his three full seasons as the Cards’ skipper, yet was surprisingly removed from his position following the 2021 campaign. Acee writes that multiple St. Louis coaches and staffers were threatening to quit their jobs if Shildt was brought back in 2022, which contributed to the Cardinals’ decision to part ways. The situation wasn’t quite this intense with the Padres’ staff, though Acee notes that “multiple coaches indicated they would leave if they found opportunities elsewhere.”
Still, Shildt was ultimately expected to return as manager in 2026, leaving the Padres now in the midst of another managerial search. Preller said there isn’t any timeline for hiring a new bench boss, which makes sense given how Shildt’s unexpected departure is still so fresh. The next hire will be the ninth different manager (both full-time and interim) to run the dugout since Preller took over the front office in August 2014, adding to the tumult of what has been a very eventful 11-plus years for the PBO.
Preller’s latest contract is up after the 2026 season, and he didn’t provide any details on extension talks apart from saying “I look forward to having conversations with [team chairman John Seidler] and the group here this offseason.” In Lin’s view, an extension could be a matter of time since there doesn’t appear to be any sense that Preller’s job is in danger. Despite the many ups and downs of Preller’s tenure, San Diego has reached the postseason four times in the last six seasons, after getting into the playoffs just five times in the franchise’s previous 51 years of existence.
Twins To Interview Nick Punto About Managerial Vacancy
The Twins’ search for a new manager has taken them to a familiar name, as The Athletic’s Dan Hayes and Dennis Lin report that the club will be speaking with former utilityman Nick Punto. The Padres currently employ Punto as a coach on their big league staff, and granted the Twins permission for an interview with the 14-year MLB veteran.
Seven of Punto’s seasons (2004-10) were spent in a Twins uniform, and his nickname of “the Shredder” sums up Punto’s style of play. Despite below-average hitting numbers for his entire career, Punto enjoyed a long career based on defensive versatility, speed, and a focus on solid fundamentals. As Hayes/Lin note, Minnesota team president Derek Falvey stressed that the next version of the Twins is “going to be a really good base running team, we’re going to be on the details, we’re going to be leaning into the fundamentals.”
On paper, this would seemingly make Punto an ideal match, plus his past ties to the Twins organization certainly help. What Punto (who turns 48 next month) lacks in comparison to other candidates is a lot of coaching or managerial experience, certainly at the big league level. Punto was a manager in MLB’s Prospect Development Pipeline League in 2021 and he coached at the high school level in 2023-24 before taking the job on San Diego’s staff. Punto didn’t have a defined role with the Padres, but Hayes and Lin wrote that his duties included “working with the team’s infielders.”
Punto is the fourth candidate publicly linked to the Twins’ search for Rocco Baldelli’s successor. Former Pirates skipper Derek Shelton is the only known candidate with MLB managerial experience, as Punto, Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, and Red Sox bench coach Ramon Vazquez would all be first-time managers (apart from Vazquez’s single game as a fill-in for Alex Cora when Cora was attending his daughter’s graduation this past May).
“Another hot name internally” for the Twins is Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty, according to Hayes and Lin, but it isn’t known if the Twins have yet been given permission to speak with Flaherty. Already a popular name amidst the many managerial vacancies around baseball this fall, Flaherty has been cited as a likely candidate for the Padres and Orioles jobs. Flaherty has bench coaching experience with the Cubs and Padres but would be another first-time skipper at the MLB level.
Mike Shildt Steps Down As Padres Manager
In a surprising move, Padres manager Mike Shildt has announced he is stepping down from that role, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego-Union Tribune. The decision was Shildt’s, Acee adds. He has managed the club for two years and had two years remaining on his contract.
“The grind of the baseball season has taken a severe toll on me mentally, physically and emotionally,” Shildt wrote in a letter to the Union-Tribune. “While it has always been about serving others, it’s time I take care of myself and exit on my own terms.” He went on to thank the Padres organization, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller, and the players for his time with the team and wished them future success. In a statement released by the team, Preller said of Shildt, “His dedication and passion for the game of baseball will leave an impact on our organization, and we wish him the best in his next chapter.”
Shildt, 57, has led the Padres to a 183-141 (.565) record since the start of 2024. The club made the postseason in both of those years, reaching the National League Division Series in 2024 and the Wild Card Series this year. In that time, the team has gotten strong performances out of Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Jake Cronenworth among others, while also seeing the emergence of Jackson Merrill. The club is tied for seventh-best in the league with a 107 wRC+ in that time. Pitching-wise, the team ranks fifth in the majors with a 3.75 ERA and seventh with a 15.7% K-BB rate since the start of 2024. That success includes strong performances from starters Dylan Cease, Michael King, and Nick Pivetta, along with relievers Adrian Morejon and Robert Suarez. If not for the perennially excellent Dodgers, the Padres may have had a shot at first place in the NL West in those two years. Even then, it is hard to consider Shildt’s tenure with San Diego as anything other than a success.
Prior to managing the Padres, Shildt held various roles in the Cardinals organization, acting as quality control coach and third base coach in 2017 and bench coach in 2018. He was named the interim manager upon the firing of Mike Matheny in July 2018 and became the permanent manager in August of that year. He held that post through the 2021 season before departing the organization due to what were described at the time as “philosophical differences.” Shildt was hired by San Diego in a player development role in January 2022 and became the manager in November 2023 following Bob Melvin’s departure for the Giants. In all, he has posted a 435-340 (.561) record in parts of six seasons as a big-league manager and has twice finished in the top two for the NL Manager of the Year Award, winning it in 2019 with the Cardinals and finishing as the runner-up last year with the Padres.
Per Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Shildt is not necessarily retiring from baseball altogether. Rather, he is simply not looking to continue managing in the immediate future. When asked about the possibility, Shildt said, “Not at the moment. I need a break and take care of myself.” That’s not a definitive declaration that he’ll return to the dugout at some point, but Shildt left the door open for potential future opportunities. A return under those conditions would hardly be unprecedented; we’ve recently seen both Bruce Bochy and Terry Francona return to big league dugouts at older ages than Shildt.
With the Padres now looking for a new skipper, a staggering 10 out of 30 teams will enter 2026 with a different manager than the one with which they opened the 2025 season. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller thanked Shildt for his “significant contributions to the Padres and the San Diego community over the last four years” in a press release this morning and added that the search for a new manager will begin immediately.
Ryan Flaherty Expected To Be In Mix For Orioles, Padres Managerial Searches
Mike Shildt’s decision to step down as San Diego’s manager opens an eighth vacancy around the game. Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty could be in the mix for at least a couple of those positions.
Joel Sherman of The New York Post listed Flaherty and Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla among those to keep an eye on as potential options to replace Shildt. Meanwhile, The Post’s Jon Heyman writes that Flaherty could be among the top choices for the Orioles position. (Heyman adds that Baltimore still hasn’t closed the door on giving the full-time job to Tony Mansolino, who held the role on an interim basis after Brandon Hyde was fired in May.)
Neither Flaherty nor Niebla is confirmed to have scheduled an interview. The Padres are surely in the very early stages of the process. Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Shildt informed the team he was stepping down on Saturday.
Flaherty has ties to both the Padres and Orioles. He spent the majority of his playing career with the O’s, appearing in six seasons between 2012-17. Even though neither owner David Rubenstein nor president of baseball operations Mike Elias were part of the organization at that time, Flaherty surely has some connections to the club.
He’s also a known commodity to the San Diego front office. The 39-year-old began his coaching career with the Padres and quickly worked his way up to bench coach. He and Shildt were the top internal candidates for the managerial job after the Friars parted ways with Bob Melvin two years ago. Flaherty interviewed but was granted permission to explore other opportunities once the Padres hired Shildt. He took the bench coach role under Craig Counsell in Chicago, a job he has held for the past two seasons.
Niebla, 53, has built a reputation as one of the sport’s top pitching coaches. He was an assistant in Cleveland until landing the pitching coach job with San Diego over the 2021-22 offseason. His hiring came a few days before the Padres tabbed Melvin, and he has held the role under a pair of managers. The Friars signed Niebla to a multi-year extension last offseason.
It’s not all that common for pitching coaches to jump into managerial roles. The bench coach position is typically more of a springboard to the top gig. Still, that’s not entirely unheard of — former Cincinnati manager Bryan Price was a pitching coach both before and after his managerial stint, as one example — and the Padres’ front office clearly values Niebla’s work with the pitching staff.
Sandy Alomar Sr. Passes Away
Former All-Star infielder Sandy Alomar Sr. has passed away, per an announcement from the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. He was 81 years old and would have turned 82 this coming weekend.
The father of big leaguers Roberto Alomar and Sandy Alomar Jr., Sandy Sr. enjoyed a 15-year playing career of his own. From 1964-78, he suited up for the Angels, Yankees, White Sox, Braves, Rangers and Mets. The elder Alomar made the 1970 All-Star team as a member of the Angels during a season in which he batted .251/.302/.293 and played in all 162 games while providing quality defense and 35 stolen bases.
In all, Alomar hit .245/.290/.288 in 5160 major league plate appearances across his decade and a half as a big league player. He played primarily second base but also logged more than 1200 innings at shortstop and made a handful of appearances at the hot corner. Alomar was known for his glove and speed more than his bat; he totaled just 13 career home runs, 126 doubles and 19 triples but piled up 227 career stolen bases. He’s one of just 300 players to ever steal at least 225 bags in his career.
Beyond his career as a player, Alomar logged parts of 16 season as a coach in the major leagues, spending time with the Padres (third base coach), Cubs (first base coach), Rockies (third base coach) and Mets (bench coach, first base coach). He also managed in the minor league ranks for both the Cubs and the Mets and spent several seasons coaching and managing teams at home in the Puerto Rican Winter League.
Our condolences go out to each of the organizations Alomar impacted, as well as the Alomar family and friends, and the countless fans he accrued over a baseball career that spanned more than 50 years.
MLB Disciplines Jose Iglesias, Xander Bogaerts
Major League Baseball has announced that infielder Jose Iglesias has received a one-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for his conduct towards umpires after Game Three of the Wild Card series against the Cubs last week. It does not say if Iglesias will appeal. If the suspension is either uncontested or upheld, Iglesias would serve the suspension next season. Fellow Padres infielder Xander Bogaerts has also received a fine for the same incident.
Bogaerts and the Padres were obviously upset by a strike call that was made as the club’s season was on the line. The best-of-three series was tied one game apiece and the Padres were trailing 3-0 going into the ninth inning. Jackson Merrill led off with a home run off Brad Keller to pull the Padres within two. Then Bogaerts worked a 3-2 count and took a pitch down and outside, as seen in this video from MLB.com. Had it been called ball four, Bogaerts would have drawn a walk, bringing the tying run to the plate for the Friars. Instead, home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn called it strike three.
The on-screen strike zone from the broadcast certainly made the pitch look like a ball. Some other pitch-tracking sources, such as Statcast, made it look like it clipped the bottom of the zone. Regardless, Bogaerts and the Padres certainly felt it was a ball. The Friars then got a couple of men on base via hit-by-pitches but fell 3-1, ending their season. Later, fan footage emerged of the umpires being berated as they left the field through the away dugout steps, per @padsfanatic.
With the Padres having been eliminated, Iglesias can’t serve his suspension now. He is an impending free agent. MLB’s announcement notes that, pending an appeal, he will serve his suspension “on his first day as an active player on a Major League roster during the 2026 regular season.”
It’s possible that becomes somewhat notable as Opening Day nears. Iglesias, 36 in January, has been a minor league deal guy for a while now. He’s had to settle for a minors pact in three straight winters. He didn’t get called up in 2023. Last year, he returned to the big leagues and had a phenomenal run with the Mets, hitting .337/.381/.448. Despite that excellent season, he still had to settle for a minor league deal with the Padres coming into 2025.
With the Friars this year, he wasn’t nearly as effective, finishing with a .229/.298/.294 line. He will likely be receiving minor league offers again this winter. If he is in the running for a job come March or at any point next year, the signing club would have to be willing to select his contract and play short-handed on Opening Day or whatever day they give him a 40-man spot.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images
Padres Expected To Retain Mike Shildt and A.J. Preller
San Diego was bumped from the postseason by the Cubs in the Wild Card round. Despite the early exit, the club is not looking to make major leadership changes on the field or in the front office. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that both manager Mike Shildt and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller are expected to maintain their roles heading into the 2026 season. Shildt has two years remaining on his contract after signing an extension last offseason. Preller is entering the final year of his deal.
The Padres have reached the playoffs in both seasons under Shildt. They beat the Braves in the Wild Card round last year before falling to the Dodgers in the NLDS. San Diego had earned a postseason berth just twice in the 21st century heading into the shortened 2020 season. They’ve now done it in four of the past six seasons.
Shildt took over in 2024 after Bob Melvin jumped ship to manage the Giants. He’s piled up 183 wins with the team. Shildt had previously helmed the Cardinals from 2018 to 2021. He first took over in an interim capacity after Mike Matheny was fired midway through the 2018 campaign. Shildt guided St. Louis to a 41-28 record and shed the interim label before the season ended. He took the Cardinals to the playoffs in the next three seasons, but was fired after 2022. He latched on with San Diego as a player development consultant and interim third base coach in 2023.
Preller has been with the team since 2014, first signing on as general manager. He was handed a contract extension ahead of the 2021 season and given the title of president of baseball operations. That previous extension came when Preller was entering the final year of his contract, which is the situation he finds himself in once again. Acee mentioned that some of the same sources that said Shildt and Preller would be back in 2026 also expect an extension for the latter to be announced soon.
Preller made waves immediately after taking over as the lead decision maker in San Diego. In his first offseason, he completely retooled the Padres’ outfield through trades for Matt Kemp, Wil Myers, and Justin Upton. Preller then secured an elite closer by dealing for Craig Kimbrel. While the transaction-heavy winter didn’t translate to positive on-field results, as the Padres scuffled to a 74-88, it set the tone for Preller’s tenure. He’s been one of the more active executives over the past decade, both in the trade market and in free agency.
San Diego had its first winning season under Preller in 2020. The Padres received a Wild Card bid after going 37-23 in the shortened season. They dispatched the Cardinals (and Shildt) in the first round, their first postseason series win since 1998. Preller was back at it that offseason, revamping the pitching staff by trading for Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, and Joe Musgrove.
Preller has inked some of the biggest contracts in history, including Manny Machado‘s 10-year, $300MM deal and Xander Bogaerts‘ 11-year, $280MM pact. San Diego’s payroll exceeded $250MM in 2023, though the club has trimmed down expenses in recent seasons. After coming in at around $211MM this past season, FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool estimates the Padres’ payroll at roughly $194MM for 2026.
San Diego is set to lose some key contributors this offseason. Luis Arraez and Dylan Cease are free agents, which will subtract from the top of the order and the top of the rotation. Robert Suarez is expected to opt out of the remaining two years on his contract. Preller already acquired a replacement for Suarez when he landed Mason Miller at the 2025 trade deadline, but he’ll need to find fill-ins for Arraez and Cease. The potential loss of Michael King, if either side declines their end of his mutual option, will press Preller to find multiple rotation options behind Nick Pivetta, Darvish, and eventually Musgrove (recovering from Tommy John surgery).
14 Players Elect Free Agency
Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents. Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.
To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back. These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.
We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion. These free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.
Catchers
- Jason Delay (Braves)
- José Herrera (Diamondbacks)
Infielders
- Jacob Amaya (White Sox)
- Trenton Brooks (Padres)
- Zack Short (Astros)
Outfielder
- Sam Hilliard (Rockies)
Pitchers
- Luarbert Árias (Marlins)
- Luis Castillo (Orioles)
- Mike Clevinger (White Sox)
- Chris Devenski (Mets)
- Joe Jacques (Mariners)
- Tyson Miller (Cubs)
- José Quijada (Angels)
- Jake Woodford (Diamondbacks)
Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images
MLBTR Podcast: Mike Elias On The State Of The Orioles
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias to discuss…
- Elias’s promotion from general manager to president of baseball operations (1:45)
- Why the Orioles underperformed in 2025 (3:30)
- The club’s lack of investment in free agent pitching (5:25)
- The decision making about playing time for prospects when they don’t find immediate big league success (9:20)
- How Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo can co-exist on the roster (12:35)
- Getting six prospects from the Padres in the Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano trade (14:50)
- Trading Bryan Baker to the Rays for a draft pick (16:55)
- Seeing the potential in O’Hearn before his breakout (18:45)
Plus, Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors joins the show to discuss…
- The Cardinals going into a rebuild, which should put a bunch of interesting names on the trade block (21:50)
- The Rangers parting ways with Bruce Bochy with questions about how aggressively they will be trying to contend in 2026 (33:20)
- The Mets just missing the postseason with Pete Alonso becoming a free agent again (42:10)
- The Nationals hiring Paul Toboni as their new president of baseball operations (52:45)
- The Blue Jays putting Alek Manoah on waivers, who is claimed by the Braves (1:00:55)
Check out our past episodes!
- The Tigers And Astros Try To Hang On, And Brewers’ Rotation Issues – listen here
- The Struggling Mets, Bryce Eldridge, And Trey Yesavage – listen here
- Talking Mariners With Jerry Dipoto – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman, Imagn Images