San Diego Padres: Will Teams Avoid Trading With Preller?

Following a series of mistakes which resulted in an A.J. Preller suspension, will MLB teams hesitate to make trades with the San Diego Padres this offseason?

A major concern for the San Diego Padres coming into 2017 is their less than cordial relationship with some of their past trade partners. Following A.J. Preller’s failure to disclose all medical records of some of the players traded including reliever Drew Pomeranz; it is safe to say that there has been a degree of suspicion towards San Diego.

Preller recently returned to work following a 30-day suspension as a result of this, but questions remain. There is some concern among fans that this scandal will cause future potential trade partners to hesitate before making moves. Fortunately, there is not yet a clear indication that this is the case.

The original victim of this shortage of information was the Miami Marlins organization. If any team would be hesitant to trade with Preller in the future, it would likely be Miami. Thankfully, contrary to what many would think, Micheal Hill will not close off any opportunity. When asked about possible future deals, this is what Hill had to say:

“You want the best players possible. So if they’re in San Diego and you have an opportunity to improve your club or your roster, then full steam ahead. In our game, it’s difficult to make trades, so you don’t want to eliminate anyone or a possible source where you can do deals.”

Many will still be uneasy, and understandably so, since it is hard to take Hill’s word for it. After all, he will act professionally in an interview, but may decline any sort of future relationship behind closed doors. Whatever the case, the Padres shouldn’t feel the impact of possible increased mistrust.

The reaction to San Diego’s latest scandal isn’t limited to individual teams though. Major League Baseball will also have a say in the future of Padres’ trades, as they have defended the organization.

Dan Halem, an MLB lawyer, has indicated that part of the responsibility for the scandal surrounding Preller falls on Major League Baseball. He promised in this statement to do what he could to ensure that this will no longer happen.

“We’ve talked about medical records given the issues we had this season, and I think we’re going to focus on trying to do even a better job of standardizing that process when clubs exchange records.”

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Since baseball is taking part of the blame and promising to do all in their power to prevent a similar event, San Diego can put all of this behind them. Once this happens, if it hasn’t already, Preller will find that finding trade partners won’t be any harder than it was before the scandal.

According to reports, Preller has already received approximately ten phone calls from other general managers inquiring about his players. This is a good sign, as teams are already putting past issues aside while trying to improve their roster. It also means that there may not be any problem to speak of for Preller, even as many are concerned that there will be.

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It appears that it won’t be long before the Padres can truly put what happened in July behind them. Once this is accomplished, Preller and the front office can continue the long process of improving the roster before 2017. With the scandal soon to be in the rear view mirror, fans can finally breathe easy that there won’t be any negative long term effects.