A.J. Preller: A Rare Few And Proud

The youth movement is alive and well in San Diego. Both pro sports teams have General Managers that are below there 40’s and deliver a breath of fresh air and a new start. Padres’ fans see the early success so far with G.M. Tom Telesco of the Chargers; Padres fans therefore assume A.J. Preller can hopefully deliver too, with hopefully some early success.

Will that lead to some former Texas Rangers who could jump off a sinking ship in Texas to a lesser sinking ship? Maybe some Dodgers will make the drive down the I-5 to play in America’s finest city after another disappointing League Divisional Series loss? Maybe not the Dodgers, considering Preller worked there almost a decade ago. The Padres need bats QUICK and pitching will be the trade bait.

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Chargers G.M. Telesco used to work for the Indianapolis Colts and has brought in some veterans from the Colts who have contributed to the Chargers already. Maybe Preller can bring in some of his own ex’s, but Preller seems confident in some of the future talent already in-house.

It all started in Long Island, where Preller is from, and takes his only vacation all year for Christmas. Preller would read The Sporting News front to back, before his sixth birthday. It’s clear Preller lives and breaths baseball 24/7. Preller worked his way up as a recent college graduate at the 1999 Winter Meetings in Anaheim looking for any job in MLB to now being one of the few and proud 30 general managers of a professional ball club.

Preller has got some great connections in MLB, but that came from working his tail off, Preller has had nothing but high praise, living up to his potential and beyond. What the Padres will like, is his knowledge in Latin American prospects. Back in 1999 working with the Philadelphia Phillies, he was interviewing then future star and Venezuelan player Bobby Abreu, knowing this was going to be the future of MLB. We can only wonder what else the boy wonder has knowledge of to take the Padres from pretending to contending again.