San Diego Padres: Are the Padres Cleaning House?

The San Diego Padres have already made several minor moves to begin the offseason. Does this mean they are cleaning house, or just making minor adjustments?

The San Diego Padres have a lot of decisions to make before the 2017 season commences. They have an abundance of players who are either arbitration eligible or free agents that the front office must make a decision on.

General manager A.J. Preller has made it clear that the front office is keeping their options open. They will consider re-signing each player individually, while throwing in the possibility of widespread change as well through waiver claims.

The question is though, are the Padres really going to clean house? The answer is; not really.

Sure, there will be various transactions in the next month, as Preller admits. But as he goes on to say, these moves are “natural”, as flexibility is necessary and players are coming off of the disabled list. In the end, the Padres are not going to make the widespread transactions as they have in past years.

The young core has been established. Manager Andy Green is entering his second season with the team, and most would think that patience would be exercised. There are no players on the roster over the age of 30 who are under contract through 2017. Certainly, the Padres won’t be looking to get rid of their young talent which is relatively affordable for them. That wouldn’t make any sense.

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The pitching staff is still problematic, as Clayton Richard and Edwin Jackson have uncertain futures. These two players account for what many fans view as the best 40% of the team’s starting rotation. If the Padres do not seek help in this area, they could have one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball, far worse than last year’s, which was ranked 23rd.

But the Padres aren’t going to go through a mass roster turnover. In all likelihood, the same young core of Hunter Renfroe, Manuel Margot, Ryan Schimpf, and Wil Myers will all return in 2017. The team doesn’t really have any other choice. To do anything different would be counterproductive in their rebuilding process.

Next: Roster Trimmed, Requirement Reached

San Diego’s release of Mike Dee and their recent minor transactions are undoubtedly only a start. But is the team really expected to “clean house” this offseason? Not exactly, as it doesn’t appear that the Padres are starting over. It will be a busy offseason, but not a very unusual one.