PRELLER ON THE PADRES
GM Preller addresses where Padres are and what they need for 2021 season
General Manager A.J. Preller addresses where the Padres are and what they need to succeed in 2021.
“I think we go in with a team where there is not one specif ic area we need to address.” A.J. Preller • Padres GM, on his team for 2021
Padres General Manager A.J. Preller on Wednesday seemed to lay the foundation for a quiet offseason.
“We feel pretty good about the group coming back,” he said in contrasting the team that lost to the Dodgers in last week’s National League Division Series with the roster that had so many holes to plug last year.
On a Zoom call with reporters, Preller also expressed optimism about his top two starting pitchers, Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet, neither of whom is expected to need surgery after combining for one inning (by Clevinger) in the postseason because of arm injuries.
Among the other topics he discussed were the recent stabbing of left fielder Tommy Pham, the success former Padres Manuel Margot and Hunter Renfroe are having this postseason, beginning contract talks with shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., the vacant closer role and Chris Paddack’s status.
What follows is a recap of
Preller’s comments, edited for clarity and length. In bold are summations of the topic with Preller’s answers in quotes and regular type.
Preller was asked to assess what he feels the Padres need to do to take the next step toward competing for a championship.
“We felt like this year we could play with anybody. We felt we had a team that would have been competitive with anybody. I don’t think there are any glaring holes we see. Part of the last few years and last few months was building something that’s sustainable. … I think we go in with a team where there is not one specific area we need to address. … We feel like we have a pretty complete, competitive club. Every year you’re going to try to improve and try to continue to add. We understand the ultimate goal is to win the World Series. But I don’t think there is a glaring area (as) we go into this thing. It’s still that we add
the right type of people.
“Last year we had a clear focus — left-handed bats, rounding out the lineup, improving at-bat quality, adding starting pitching depth. This year we feel pretty good about the group coming back and we’ll see how the offseason lines up.”
Asked what his top priority is this offseason, Preller focused initially on continued growth and health for the players already on the team.
He said one goal is “making sure complacency isn’t there. I don’t think it will be. We’ve got a young team that got a taste of it. … You want to have the foundation. We feel like we have foundation that is here. You want to make sure those guys are ready to go because I think they’re going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for us next year.”
With fans not allowed in ballparks this season and attendance expected to at least be limited in 2021 due to COVID-19, team owners say revenue has been severely diminished. This is expected to affect how many teams, including the Padres, spend in the offseason. Preller was asked what he expects the team to be able to do.
“In terms of payrolls and budgets, that’s really over the course of the next couple weeks we’ll get more and more into those conversations.”
The biggest expenditure the Padres could conceivably make this offseason is locking up a young superstar (who is under team control through the 2024 season).
“With Tatis, everybody has been up front, the job is go get talented players and individuals that fans love to see play and lead to a winning situation. You want to keep those guys. He’s expressed interest. We’ll go down that path. During the season, it was such a short season, such a sprint to the finish, I don’t think there was a lot of (thought) in the middle of that (about) trying to put a contract negotiation in the middle of that. We’ll look more seriously at that this offseason. There sounds like there is interest on both sides, so we’ll see where it goes.”
Preller reiterated the team’s belief, after speaking with police, that Pham was the victim in Sunday night’s altercation. He said Pham, who is out of the hospital, should be fully recovered in “the next three weeks or so” and that he has spoken to Pham several times.
Some of those conversations have been in regard to “understanding about being smart and putting yourself in a good situation. … He understands the responsibility Padres players have, professional athletes have to put ourselves in good spots. I don’t think anybody expects anything like that to happen, but just talking to him about understanding you want to put the odds in your favor, you want to put yourself in good spots.”
Preller said the medical consensus regarding Clevinger and Lamet is that they can recover from their elbow ailments without surgery. The UnionTribune previously reported Lamet was receiving PRP therapy while Clevinger was still mulling options.
“Both guys have gone through the process of seeing doctors at the end of the year. It doesn’t look like either situation is surgical. For both players it’s a rest, recovery situation. Both guys will take some down time from throwing and then kick off their offseason throwing at some point, probably six weeks or so from now. … Doctors feel confident a few weeks down, they’ll be in a better spot and be able to come into spring training full go. I think we got some really good news for both guys.”
It seems left-handed reliever Jose Castillo, who missed the entire season after suffering a lat strain in summer camp and missed all of 2019 with finger and elbow injuries, is also expected to be ready for spring training.
“He was in a spot (during the postseason) where we felt like he was ready to go. Then he had some more irritation or didn’t feel 100 percent like he was going to be able to let it go. He had (another) MRI. It’s a clean bill of health going forward. It’s having the confidence and trust to really go out there. It’s been awhile since he’s been out competing in a real major league game. It’s a matter of him trusting that, as opposed to there being something structurally wrong.”
The Padres got contributions from the three players they acquired from the Rays — Jake Cronenworth, Emilio Pagan and Pham. Part of the cost of getting those players last offseason was sending Manuel Margot and Hunter Renfroe to Tampa Bay. Preller has been watching the pair contribute to the Rays during the American
League Championship Series being played at Petco Park.
“They’re really good people. They’re guys you root for. To see them go out and contribute to a winning club, both those guys are good players. … It’s been fun to watch. I feel really good for those guys. Those are the kind of trades you want to make — where you’re getting what your team wants and guys that are contributing to your team. With Cronenworth, Pham and Pagan, we felt like we got guys who contributed for us this year. But ultimately you want the guys who move on, you want them to move and contribute. … It’s been nice to see that. We wish those guys a lot of luck going forward.”
When answering a question about who the Padres’ closer will be in 2021, Preller began his answer in broad terms and only at the end mentioned Trevor Rosenthal and Kirby Yates, who are both heading into free agency.
“We’ll look at all the different options on the trade and the free agency front. We’ll definitely look internal and figure out who we feel has the potential to pitch late in the ballgame. Bullpens, look at the pen this year, we thought we had a really strong bullpen at the start of the year. Early in the season, our guys, they struggled a little bit. We were able to adjust on the f ly. You look up and there were some different names and faces at the end of the year, but the bullpen was still pretty successful. Bullpens every year, even if you have a really successful one, you have to reshuff le the deck or at least be open. I think we’re going to do that over the next couple weeks or months. The pen usually comes from a lot of different areas.
“I don’t think we can pinpoint something right now and say, ‘This is our closer.’ We’ll have conversations with Trevor Rosenthal and Kirby Yates. … We’ll look at all our options over
the next couple months.”
Paddack was the Padres’ opening-day starter and by season’s end didn’t pitch in the NLDS. Preller reiterated the team’s confidence in the right-hander, who will be 25 entering his third big-league season.
“There is a ton of faith, and I told him that personally. This is the first time in his career he’s struggled. … Last year as a rookie he was pretty successful against the best guys in the world. He had some really good moments this year. For him, that fastball command, getting that heater back, everything comes off the fastball. He obviously has a great change-up and developing breaking pitches. But the fastball command is the biggest thing. We’ve talked about getting the fastball back to the dominant pitch it has been for him in the past and trying to figure out why it wasn’t quite that this year.
“But you bet on people. He’s an extremely hard worker. He’s a very competitive person. This is a unique thing for him in a unique year. He’s not an excuse maker. … He started opening day for us, started the first playoff game for us. We see him as a front-of-therotation type. Making sure next year when we start on opening day that he’s that guy for us, that will be a big priority.”
The team has seemed inclined to pick up the $3 million option on Mitch Moreland’s contract (the alternative is a $500,000 buyout), though the uncertainty over whether the National League will have a designated hitter going forward might make that an unnecessary luxury.
“The DH question is definitely a question all the teams are asking about. It does affect your team planning. When we acquired (Moreland), one of the things for us with (almost) everybody we acquired … there was some carry forward value. We felt that option was something we’d consider. It would help a
little bit having a sense of if there is a DH or not. We’ll try to get a sense of budget and try to get a sense of where he fits in. He was extremely hot when he came over. Early on he cooled down. But he had some big hits for us. We’ll take a look at everything and make that call after the World Series.”
Luis Patiño, the Padres’ second-ranked pitching prospect, made 11 appearances out of the bullpen plus three more in the postseason. Preller was asked about the possibility that allows him to hit the ground running in the competition for a rotation spot in ’21.
“I think with Luis we saw some of the upside and potential that gets everybody excited in terms of the arm strength and no fear, the secondary pitches. I think he (knows) he’s got to get getter. He’s got to tighten up the command component of it. No matter how good your stuff is, it always starts with strike one and getting ahead in the count, especially at the major league level. I think he got a firsthand view of it this year.
“… We’re hoping the experience of playing on a good team, being called on in that St. Louis game to get through a big inning, being called on in that Dodgers series and facing one of the best teams in the league if not the best team in the league, I think all of those things are positives. He’s a competitor. He’s a smart person. Every time he has had a challenge that he’s faced in his professional career, throughout the minor leagues, he’s responded really well. That’s usually what happens. Guys come up, they get a taste of it, show they can hang for a little bit and they end up getting a lot better if they are going to be real good performers. … He’s one of the guys for this offseason that we’re hoping the experience pays off and he attacks the offseason in a way that he comes in next year ready to compete for a spot.”
Top pitching prospect MacKenzie Gore has yet to make his debut. Preller was asked whether Gore and Patiño are expected to compete for a starting job next spring.
“I think we have a good team and we have a really young team. I think there’s the expectation, the way this thing ’s been designed, we continue every year to get people to come up from the system that we believe in, that can impact our big-league club. I think those are two names next year that we expect to come in ready to compete and make our decisions tough as far as who’s going to be on the roster. I think both of those guys come in next year. The message to them in the offseason has been to come in ready to make the club.
Figuring Clevinger and Lamet are healthy and Davies and Paddack hold onto their spots, Preller was asked how many starting jobs will be available in the spring.
“It’s probably too far away. … I think we’d all love to say we have our five and that’s it for the rest of the year. We all know that on the pitching front things change pretty quickly. I think we’ll continue to subscribe to the theory that as many starters as possible, that that’s a good problem to have. We can put guys in the pen, guys can get optioned to the minor leagues, we’re hoping there’s not going to be injury but that’s always a possibility. I think that would be the best scenario — you know, you look up and you have too many starters and kind of deciding what to do. The message isn’t going to be there’s one spot available, there’s two spots. It’s going to be come in ready to compete to the best of your ability and be ready to earn a spot on the team.”
The Padres cut salaries but kept all their baseball operations and scouting personnel through the COVID-19 shutdown. Those contracts expire at the end of October. Preller was asked about whether there will be cuts along the lines of what some other teams have made.
“I think that’s a conversation that we’re in right now and we’ll be in over the course of the next week or so. … We’ve always been a group that tries to address the contracts earlier and get people answers earlier. This year, just a lot going on obviously with the season, the playoffs, everything. We felt like it was better to wait, and we’re in that process now. I think that’s probably the first order of business, to get people answers over the next couple weeks — what direction we’re going, where people stack up. We’ll be cognizant of basically the whole climate and environment and everything going on and try to make decisions that’s best for the organization going forward. That’s the first order of business over the next week.”