Padres Editorial: In Preller I Trust

Apr 25, 2015; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller presents left fielder Justin Upton (10) with the Silver Slugger Award prior to a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

So…the dust has settled and Craig Kimbrel, Justin Upton, Tyson Ross among others are still in Friar blue. What is with all the downers I am seeing on social media? I, like many of you, have seen the Padres wheel-and-deal All-Star after All-Star out of San Diego (see Anthony Rizzo, Adrian Gonzalez, Corey Kluber, and David Freese) for years.

Aren’t you sick of that? Aren’t you excited that you finally have a general manager that won’t budge unless it makes the team better now instead of in 2020?

The Padres are finally at the big boy table yet people still find ways to complain. So what if we pay Kimbrel for the next 4 years? So what if Justin Upton might leave San Diego. That doesn’t mean we won’t try hard to re-sign him. This is what big-time clubs do. Welcome to the club. The Padres are playing big boy ball and it’s time everyone jumped on the train.

I trust that Preller heard all of those offers and didn’t want to give away huge pieces for the players that he was being offered. It sounds like the Cubs were playing hoarders with their prospects that Preller wanted.

A.J. Preller has higher standards for the Padres. Higher than trading Freese for Jim Edmonds (.178, 3 XBH in 26 games in SD), Rizzo for Cashner (Rizzo is a two-time All-Star, 32 HRs in 2014) or Kluber for Ryan Ludwick (Kluber won the 2014 Cy Young, Ludwick hit .228 for SD). I am tired of seeing that happen, aren’t you?

Does this team still have holes to fill? Of course! But why fill one hole to make one or two others? Every team has a whole. That’s why no one goes 162-0. Every deal that is done (or isn’t done in this case) is a risk, of course. I trust that Preller did what he thought was best. This is the same guy that got five All-Stars and a former Rookie of the Year to come to the San Diego Padres in one winter. I trust him and you should too.