The San Diego Padres have finally decided on a new GM. AJ Preller, formerly a head scout and assistant GM with the Texas Rangers, will take over front office operations for a team that has been historically inept. While the Padres have turned it around a bit since the All-Star break, they are still a long way from competing, especially in a division with powerhouses like the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Preller has some good tools to work with, though. The Padres have a great stadium, a strong and loyal fan base, and an attractive city to market. With some actual, competent leadership for once, the Friars could turn back into a legitimate force in the National League.
Such a transition will take time and a lot of work on the part of the young GM. Let’s take a quick look at some of the things Preller will need to do to achieve his World Series aspirations in San Diego.
- Find an organizational philosophy: The Padres look like a rudderless ship. What are they going for? They have a solid pitching staff but no real Ace. They have a good bullpen but an overpriced ‘closer.’ Their offense is a mix of speed guys without much speed and power guys without much power. Tommy Medica, Yonder Alonso, and Yasmani Grandal might hit 20 bombs in Cincinatti, but in the power killing confines of Petco, they are middle of the order bats that don’t actually produce middle of the order results. The Padres need a direction. If they want power, go with real big hitters who can get it out of that spacious stadium. Better yet, assemble a team of speedsters, guys who can leg out triples in those massive power alleys. They need a team identity and speed, pitching, and defense isn’t a bad one at all.
- Get a ‘Face’: Whose jersey am I buying in San Diego right now? They need somebody to market.
- Trade Grandal and Alonso: These
two former steroid guys(CORRECTION: Alonso was never suspended in connection with steroid use. Grandal was, however.) are failed prospects from a failed era. They still have some value: use them for the much needed remake. If the Padres want an offensive anchor at firstbase, they need to look elsewhere. Alonso is batting .233 with 6 homers. That won’t work. They also need a new catcher (Rene Rivera is decent defensively, but he’s a backup). They should move the slow, underperforming Grandal (.202 average) before all his value us gone. - Trade Benoit and Kennedy: Both these guys should have been moved at the deadline. Why do the Padres need old, expensive pitching?
- Get over their stupid stance about trading in the division: Rumor had it that San Diego didn’t want to trade Benoit, their second most expensive player, to the Dodgers despite LA’s interest–because they didn’t want him in the division. WHAT? What does it matter where he plays for the next 2 seasons? Is Benoit the only thing that could stand between the Padres and the divisional crown? Not in a million years. Their stupid, nonsensical stance on this cost them millions of dollars and possibly some good prospects.
- Trade Andrew Cashner: Cashner is great when healthy. Problem is, he’s never, ever healthy. The Pad’s have a solid pitching staff even without Cashner and should use the Ace to get a star player to anchor their offense (see ‘Face’ above). The Cubs might be very interested in Cashner and San Diego might want to target Starlin Castro in that deal. They should also talk to Boston and the Yankees about the righty. Cashner’s biggest value to the team might be if he never plays for them again.
- Stop signing bad players: Seth Smith, Jedd Gyorko, Carlos Quentin. All decent players. None of them are the corner stone on a good team yet these are the three guys with which the Padres have hitched their wagon. Smith is a platoon outfielder on a good team, as is the aging Quentin. Gyorko just needs to be better. If the Padres are going to use their limited resources to sign players to longer term deals, they need to make better decisions.
- CLEAN HOUSE: This one is big. There is some compelling evidence that the coaching staff is responsible for a major part of Padres’ woes. A lot of the players who are playing poorly in the majors were highly touted prospects and there is sentiment around the game that part of the reason for their lack of proper development is a lack of good coaching along the way. Bud Black needs to go, but much more important is an overhaul of the lower rungs on the ladder. A rebuilding team needs a more competent minor league staff. The organization could improve dramatically if they could coach their own guys up a bit better. They can’t afford for guys like Hunter Renfroe and Max Fried to be duds.
- Go Brown: Ok, this is actually a big deal. Apparently a major source of angst among Pads fans is the team’s uniforms and color schemes. True fans strongly prefer the brown unis that gave the team its identity to today’s hideous camo and blue getups that are so generic as to be unidentifiable. (Read this. And this. And especially this.) Preller could win fans for life if he advocated for a switch back to the brown.
There’s a lot of work to be done in San Diego but none of the things I outlined are impossible. The Padres are built for nothing right now, and their focus needs to be down the line. While the Dodgers are intimidating, those hefty contracts will begin to clog things up in LA at just about the same time a San Diego rebuild could come to fruition. Every other team in the West is beatable, both now and in a projected future. This could really work if AJ can push the right buttons at the right times.
Good Luck!
-Max Frankel
