The Editor’s Desk with Billy Brost: It’s Gonna Take Patience And Time

Well, here we are. It’s the third day of the 2014 Winter Meetings in the Padres’ home city of San Diego, and yet, nothing has occurred for the Padres. The blogosphere and various social media sites are currently in a state of extreme polar opposites. On one end, you have sites (such as ours), continuing to report rumors that emerge from said Winter Meetings, and attempt to provide updates on those rumors as they come along. On the other end, you have sites saying, “Nope, not happening, will never happen, same old Padres.” While it may be true, it may not be. The only person who knows what is happening in Friarland right now is A.J. Preller.

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I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon and last night just sitting back and reading Tweets from Padres fans, trying to measure their feelings in preparation for this piece today. Throughout the day, as Jon Heyman of CBS Sports and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported the Padres and Dodgers were working towards a deal involving Matt Kemp and Yasmani Grandal, the mood was feverish. Padres’ fans were excited about getting an impact bat, while not having to give up much in terms of talent, other than a power-hitting catcher.

As the day wore on, fans started to become increasingly inpatient, saying things like “Come on already, get this deal done.” By the end of the night, I think I can safely say most of the fan base had lost complete faith in A.J. Preller and the Padres making any kind of deal. This was on the heels of the Dodgers GM stating that media reports of a deal being close were “wishful thinking.” I posted last night via our Twitter account (@FriarsOnBase), that I’m not buying what the Dodgers are selling. As someone who has covered baseball for many years on multiple sites and platforms, Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal don’t get things wrong too often. If they do, they aren’t off by much, and I tend to remain strong in my belief something is cooking between the Friars and the Boys in Blue.

While it might be a new and unfamiliar feeling for Padres’ fans to have a GM who is actively trying to improve the roster, they need to cut the man some slack. They bitch when the Padres sit idle, they bitch when they miss out on free agents like Pablo Sandoval and Yasmany Tomas, and they bitch because a trade for a former All-Star isn’t completed as quickly as they like. My answer to that? During this holiday season, feel thankful you have a general manager WHO CARES enough to try and improve the team and make them a perennial contender. Don’t punish A.J. Preller for the sins of Josh Byrnes, Jed Hoyer or any of the Padres previous front office leaders who have failed. A.J. Preller is his own man, and this dumpster fire of a franchise is not going to be turned around overnight. As the late George Harrison once sang “It’s gonna take patience and time…to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it RIGHT!” Preller will get it done. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. The Winter Meetings are supposed to be a time of great anticipation and to enables us to scratch the itch of baseball until spring training comes. Don’t ruin the experience by believing a first-year general manager doesn’t care.