San Diego Padres: Reviewing the offseason and what could have been

Now that the offseason is pretty much complete, we look back on the moves the San Diego Padres made and how things could have gone differently.

It was a very active offseason for the San Diego Padres as GM A.J. Preller hopes to put a winning team on the field in 2020.

But now that we’re gearing up for spring training, it’s a good time to go back and look at the moves that were made and the ones that weren’t made.

Going into the offseason the biggest needs for the Padres were finding a frontline starting pitcher and some big bats — primarily in the outfield.

They also opened up a need at second base when they traded away Luis Urias.

But the biggest move of the offseason came when they signed reliever Drew Pomeranz to a four-year deal worth $34 million, but only $6 million of that goes towards the 2020 payroll.

And then they traded Urias, Eric Lauer, and either cash or a player to be named later to the Milwaukee Brewers for Trent Grisham and Zach Davies.

San Diego effectively took on $5.25 million towards the 2020 payroll in that deal with Davies. And while he isn’t the frontline starter we were hoping for, he does give them solid depth in the rotation.

And Grisham helps fill a hole in the outfield and is a good on-base guy, which the front office seems to be targeting.

Now with the vacancy at second base, they traded catcher Austin Allen and a player to be named later (Buddy Reed) to the Oakland Athletics for Jurickson Profar.

They took on $5.7 million in this deal with Profar, which means at this point they have added nearly $17 million to the 2020 payroll.

Then Preller made perhaps the best trade of the offseason (at least before the Mookie Betts trade) by acquiring Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth from the Tampa Bay Rays for Hunter Renfroe, Xavier Edwards, and a player to be named later.

This deal adds another $4.6 million towards the 2020 payroll. But it also gives the Padres a big bat in the outfield.

And don’t sleep on Cronenworth who is getting great reviews as a possible two-way player at the big league level as early as the 2020 season.

Finally, the Padres made another move to improve the bullpen by signing Pierce Johnson to a two-year, $5 million deal.

We know they tried hard to trade Wil Myers this offseason to free up money, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. And Preller was in on almost every big trade target but was unable to work a deal.

All-in-all, he spent about $24 million this offseason. That’s the amount of money we’ll use for this exercise to see how it could have been spent better.

A better solution at starting pitcher

To be fair, the cost for starting pitching this offseason was absurd. And I’m only looking at free agents that were signed and trades that were made.

Doing that, getting Zach Davies may have actually been the best option.

But if the goal was to just get an innings eater at the back of the rotation, I would have rather seen them sign Julio Teheran.

He’s still just 29 years old and he’s thrown at least 174 innings in each of the past seven seasons with an ERA of around 3.75 during that stretch.

If you want to talk about a model of consistency and performance, Teheran is the obvious choice.

Now, I understand that Davies is younger, cheaper, and more controllable. But you also don’t have to give up two promising prospects to get Teheran.

The Anaheim Angels signed Julio to a one-year deal worth $9 million, which takes up a good bit of our remaining money.

Other options they could have considered include Alex Wood at $4 million, Rich Hill at $3 million, or Ivan Nova at $1.5 million.

Wood has a lot of upside, but probably not the guy we’re looking for if you want somebody to eat up innings.

I would have been all for Hill or Nova as guys to eat up innings at the back of the rotation, and they would have been cheaper than Teheran and Davies.

But for the sake of this exercise, let’s go with Julio, which leaves us $4-6 million to find another outfield bat.

Another bat

I really don’t see another outfield bat that was either signed or traded for this offseason for $4-6 million that would be a significant upgrade over what we already have.

Maybe you stretch that a little bit and sign Corey Dickerson who got two years and $17.5 million from the Miami Marlins. Or perhaps Kole Calhoun who got two years and $16 million from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But in the end, I don’t think either of those are huge upgrades and I would rather see the guys we have battle it out.

Franchy Cordero looked good and healthy in winter ball. He gives us hope that perhaps he can stay on the field and live up to his potential.

You still have Manuel Margot, Josh Naylor, and Wil Myers who would be in the mix as well.

Edward Olivares was added to the 40-man roster this offseason after a good showing at Double-A and he could push the envelope at some point in 2020.

I get that all of those are unknowns, but so is Grisham at this point.

If you just needed a veteran body out there to push the young guys, they could have signed Matt Joyce for $1.5 million or Steven Souza for $1 million.

What would this look like

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• Padres barely missed out on high-end veteran starting pitcher

In complete fairness to A.J. Preller, he really didn’t have much to work with this offseason. Twenty-four million dollars is not a lot when you’re trying to plug multiple holes.

And again, that’s mainly his own fault because of bad signings/extensions that are hampering him.

But to recap, I would have done the Pomeranz signing, the Pham trade, and signed Teheran.

Here is what that lineup would look like:

Tatis Jr – SS

Pham – LF

Machado – 3B

Hosmer – 1B

Cordero – CF

Myers – RF

Urias/Cronenworth – 2B

Mejia/Hedges – C

That’s not too terribly different than what we actually have now, and it’s certainly not an improvement.

But we do still have Allen, Urias, Reed, and Lauer as trade assets, as well as an additional $4 million.

Here is what the rotation would look like:

Paddack

Richards

Teheran

Lamet

Lucchesi

Again, not too terribly different than what we actually have, but I do like the dependability of Teheran in the rotation over Davies.

If anything, I think this exercise just shows you how difficult it was for Preller to maneuver this offseason.

With only $25 million to spend in the offseason, there was never really a chance to make a huge splash.

He did what he could to make moves on the margins, but in the end I think he would have been better served to stick with what we already had in place.

Looking back, the Pham trade is really the only move this offseason that made a significant difference.

Perhaps Profar bounces back and has a big year, but I’m not banking on that happening. And maybe Grisham breaks out in his first full season, but I’m not counting on that either.

Not that I love the prospects we gave up in those deals, but I think they could have been used more wisely to make more significant moves.

But again, Preller didn’t have much to work with this offseason and he did what he could to put a winning team on the field, and I think he has.

What would you have done differently this offseason? Let us know in the comments below.