Padres Faux Winter Meetings: Behind the scenes of lineup construction

A new look in the outfield

One of the biggest goals for A.J. Preller and the San Diego Padres this offseason will be putting together the outfield.

They have a number of outfielders, but none of them have lived up to expectations to this point.

And more specifically, they need a left-handed hitting outfielder.

The first free agent bid I put out was for Corey Dickerson as he’s an obvious target for the Padres this offseason.

I went in at two years and $10 million. The Reds bumped it to two years and $13 million, and I countered with two years and $15 million (my final bid according to the rules).

However, Cincinnati came in and sniped him for two years and $17 million.

I then went the trade route and was able to land Nomar Mazara from the Rangers.

In hindsight, I was a little too eager to make that move. I should have gone after David Peralta first.

Eventually, I did go after Peralta and was able to land the left-handed-hitting outfielder from the Diamondbacks.

While doing all of this, I was able to move the contract of Wil Myers to the Detroit Tigers to open up room for all these moves.

At this point, I figured the Padres could put Peralta in left and platoon Mazara and Hunter Renfroe in right.

So my next task was finding a center fielder.

There really arent’ any good free agent options, and although I don’t think Starling Marte is a center field, he had already been traded before I could get involved.

I considered trading for some buy-low candidates like Mallex Smith, Harrison Bader, and Albert Almora Jr.

Bader was the choice as I was able to get him from the Cardinals Faux GM in a straight-up swap for Renfroe.

With the outfield set, I looked to free agency to find some depth and someone to pair with Mazara in right.

I tried for Yasiel Puig but got out-bid, but I eventually landed Adam Jones on a one-year, $2 million deal.