Padres’ Week in Review: New Sheriff In Town

New Padres’ GM A.J. Preller. Mandatory Credit-utsandiego.com

New General Manager AJ Preller

The search finally ended this week, with Rangers’ Assistant General Manager A.J. Preller being handed the keys to the Padres empire and told to bring a championship to San Diego. He has gained a reputation in Texas for being slightly eccentric and a grinder of his people. I feel that this mentality will help a San Diego Sports Culture that for too long has accepted mediocrity, especially when it comes to baseball. I can’t help but think that Bud Black‘s days as the San Diego manager are numbered, if for nothing else than for Preller to bring his own culture and people to the mix.

One interesting news story that came through this week was that current Rangers GM Jon Daniels made very specific rules about who and how many people Preller can bring with him from Texas. Already several front office Padres people have resigned, including former assistant GM A.J. Hinch who took over as interim GM before Preller was named the new full-time GM.

These current Padres have the next 40 games or so to prove to Preller if they need to stay or go. I expect to see more minor league prospects coming up, and indeed Sunday afternoon the Padres already called up top prospect Rymer Liriano to join Tommy Medica, Jesse Hahn, and Kevin Quackenbush as the young Padres that are hoping to be the future of the team for a good time to come.