Padres Faux Winter Meetings: Behind the scenes of lineup construction

We talk about how the trades and signing went down for the San Diego Padres in our Faux Winter Meetings and how we came up with the lineup we did.

So you want to be the GM of the San Diego Padres, huh? If there is anything I learned in our FanSided Faux Winter meetings it’s that a GM’s job is a lot more difficult than we make it sound on Twitter.

Granted, I work a full-time job and am a site-editor for two sites at FanSided, I didn’t quite have the time and resources to put my best effort into this fast-paced simulation.

Basically, all of the MLB site experts at FanSided were given one week to sign free agents and make trades, while staying within the team’s projected payroll, to build their squad for the 2020 season and beyond.

While this was a lot of fun, I quickly realized how unprepared I was for this simulation.

I knew the holes I wanted to fill for the Padres, but I did not have a list of players put together. And I certainly didn’t have a priority list for the ones I needed to go after the most.

This really put me behind early, especially with the free agents.

The way free agency worked in our simulation is that once a player was posted, you had 24 hours to out-bid the other teams and once those 24 hours were up the highest bid won the player. And, you could only place two bids on one player.

So once you put in your second bid, if someone outbid you there was nothing you could do.

Trades were somewhat difficult because not every site expert is as available and active as others. There were some teams you just weren’t going to be able to make a deal with.

All that aside, it was a very fun and enlightening exercise. Here are how things went down as I tried to revamp the Padres outfield and add to the starting rotation this offseason.

Finding starting pitching ain’t easy

One thing I learned pretty quickly from our Mock Winter Meetings is that every team is desperate to find a frontline starting pitcher or two.

If our simulation is any indication of how this offseason will take place, the prices for free agent starting pitchers will become ridiculous.

The fist starter up for bid was Dallas Keuchel, and he went for 4 years and $60 million. That’s when I knew finding a frontline starter on the free agent market wasn’t going to be easy.

Cole Hamels got a two-year deal for $36 million!

I didn’t even bother getting into the bidding for Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg.

The Phillies got Cole for eight years and $289 million, while the Nationals re-signed Strasburg for six years and $198 million.

That’s almost $20 million more than I felt comfortable with the Padres giving him.

I went hard after Madison Bumgarner and Zack Wheeler placing my two-bid max on both of them.

My final bid on MadBum was five years, $100 million. The Angels got him for five years and $120 million.

I was really close to getting Wheeler with a six-year, $140 million bid, but the Angels got him at the last second with a six-year $150 million bid.

Hyun-Jin Ryu went for three years and $79 million, but I didn’t feel comfortable going that far with him given his age and injury history.

And with that, I was out on finding a frontline starting pitcher through free agency for the Padres.

That left the trade market to try and find a frontline starter.

I had brief conversations with the Red Sox for Chris Sale, but they were able to free up money in another move and decided not to trade Sale or David Price.

Corey Kluber went in another trade before I could even get in on the action.

The Rockies Faux GM said he wasn’t trading Jon Gray, so that narrowed down my options to Matthew Boyd, Kenta Maeda, and Jake Arrieta … not great, I know.

I really liked Maeda, but the Dodgers Faux GM never got back to me.

The Tigers wanted Luis Urias for Boyd, and while I’m not opposed to moving Urias in the right deal, I’ve never been that high on Boyd.

That left me with very little choice but to go get Jake Arrieta.

While I certainly don’t love the move, Arrieta has the potential to be a top of the rotation pitcher and could be a one-year rental.

After acquiring Arrieta, I went back to the free agent market to try and find a cheap veteran to plug in the middle of the rotation.

I went after Julio Teheran but got out-bid. And then I went after Michael Pineda and was able to sign him for 2 years and $12 million.

Looking back, I should have just gone all-in on Wheeler or just done the deal for Pineda.

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.

Prospects on the move

With the free agent market being as aggressive as it was, I was forced to go the trade route, which I think is exactly what’s going to happen with the Padres this offseason, so don’t get attached to any of these prospects.

My theory has always been that prospects are expendable, especially when you’re in a window to win, which the Padres should be.

In this simulation, I moved four Padres’ prospects and three of them were in their top 30.

But, I was able to do all of these moves without trading anyone in the top 5.

Adrian Morejon was the best prospect I traded (by ranking).

I let most teams know that MacKenzie Gore, Taylor Trammell, and Luis Patino were off limits.

Many teams still asked for Patino, and there were several interested in Luis Urias (most likely looking to buy low).

I had one team ask for CJ Abrams and another ask for Luis Campusano.

In the offer I made the Red Sox for Chris Sale, I put together a deal surrounding Xavier Edwards.

Maybe the one that hurt the most was giving up Joey Cantillo and Efrain Contreras in the Arrieta deal.

While neither are top prospects right now, they’re also both very young and have a lot of potential.

All-in-all, I think I did a pretty good job of making trades without depleting the farm system and getting rid of the top guys.