San Diego Padres: 4 worst moves by A.J. Preller since 2014

San Diego Padres: 4 worst moves by A.J. Preller since 2014

2. Sending Max Fried to the Atlanta Braves for one season of Justin Upton in 2015

As we said earlier, swinging a lot means you'll miss plenty, too. And A.J. Preller didn't hit too many times in his first attempt at building the Padres into a contender heading into the 2015 season.

In addition to the Trea Turner misfire, the Padres also traded a package of prospects, not the least of which being left-hander Max Fried, to the Atlanta Braves for a one-year rental of outfielder Justin Upton.

The good news for Preller is that Upton did produce an All-Star season for San Diego in 2015, so this trade wasn't a complete wash. However, the Padres failed to re-sign the veteran outfielder after the season, which leads us to Max Fried.

Since debuting for Atlanta, Fried has anchored the Braves' rotation, quickly becoming the team's ace. In 2022, Fried even finished second in NL Cy Young voting.

In the years since trading the talented southpaw away, the Padres have plugged and played multiple starting rotation options, eventually going all-in to land veterans Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell. But none of them have had quite the kind of success that Fried has found with the Braves, especially of late.

San Diego Padres: 4 worst moves by A.J. Preller since 2014

3. Firing manager Bud Black midway through the 2015 season

Sensing a theme with this 2015 season? It didn't go well for the Padres.

One of the mistakes A.J. Preller made that season wasn't player-related, though. Rather, it was the decision to fire veteran manager Bud Black in June.

Black never qualified for the postseason as Padres' skipper, but he is a respected figure in MLB and landed on his feet within two years after he was canned from San Diego, landing the manager's gig with the Colorado Rockies in 2017. Black is still serving as Rockies' skipper, and as much as Colorado has struggled since back-to-back playoff appearances, he isn't the one to blame for that. Nor was he really to blame for San Diego's misfortune in 2015.

The main culprit behind the lack of success for the Padres in 2015? Poor roster construction. A scapegoat is always necessary, though, and Black. unfortunately, was ripe for picking.

After Black was fired, the Padres employed Andy Green and Jayce Tingler as their next two managers before finally landing Bob Melvin prior to the 2022 season. It's safe to say neither of Green or Tingler worked out too well. Perhaps the Padres should've just retained Black...

San Diego Padres: 4 worst moves by A.J. Preller since 2014

4. Signing first baseman Eric Hosmer to the then-largest contract in franchise history

The intention behind this signing was understood. That doesn't change the fact that this move didn't work out as anticipated.

Hosmer, coming off a career season with the Kansas City Royals in 2017, signed an eight-year, $144 million contract with the San Diego Padres prior to the 2018 season. A.J. Preller wanted to make a splash to indicate that his team was once again ready to emerge from the depths of rebuild. But the numbers Hosmer put up didn't align with the contract's valuation.

Adding insult to injury, Hosmer only ended up spending four-and-a-half seasons with the Padres, as he was traded to the Boston Red Sox at last year's trade deadline, leaving Preller and his team on the hook for the remainder of the contract.

Trading a player with substantial years and money still owed to him is effectively admitting defeat. Sometimes, it's simply the right call to do so.