PHOENIX — A.J. Preller’s job has been safe since about midsummer.
He had by that time demonstrated he was up to the task of once again remaking a playoff-caliber, sustainable roster — and this time doing it on a budget.
So consider the Padres qualifying for the postseason this week merely a confirmation that the man Peter Seidler trusted to build a team that would bring a parade is trusted by the new regime.
“He came into this season with a lot of pressure on his shoulders, and he’s done nothing but come through with amazing signing, amazing trade after amazing trade,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said Tuesday night in the midst of the team’s celebration inside the visitors clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. “Everything has come together. It has just been everything we could’ve wanted from him this year.”
Preller will complete his 10th season in charge of the Padres’ baseball operations this week. The first half of his tenure was essentially gifted to him by then-chairman Ron Fowler and Seidler as a time to build. The latter five years have brought five teams fully capable of making the playoffs and three that have.
This year’s team has been widely lauded by other baseball people as the most complete of his tenure.
Whenever speaking of how the team has been assembled, Preller talks about his “group.” Tuesday night, as he stood inside the visitors clubhouse at Dodger Stadium, champagne and beer soaking his hair and clothes, was no exception.
“Our baseball group is as good as any in the game,“ Preller said. “Our scouts, our coaches, (manager) Mike Shildt — what a job he’s done — our analysts. We just have a phenomenal group. Third time in five years we’re getting to the playoffs. Super proud of the group.”
A year ago, Preller and that group watched as the previous iteration of the roster they put together was finishing off the most disappointing season in team history and enduring an internal battle of wills, with then-manager Bob Melvin at odds with Preller and his lieutenants over how the team was built and how it should be run.
It was a winter of change, and the changes did not stop. There is a new manager and some new coaches. And there are 18 players on the roster as of Friday who had not played for the Padres before this season, including nine who were not in the organization when the season began.
“It was kind of like each move led to the next,” Preller said recently.
Every move was gold that led to more gold, which was fortunate in that the payroll he has operated with is almost $90 million less than it was last season.
In December, Preller turned Juan Soto into two top-flight starting pitchers and also got a backup catcher who had an incredible month and became the team’s primary catcher.
He brought back a well-liked outfielder who was supposed to be fill-in and ended up being an All-Star.
He pulled off a rare May blockbuster to get a lead-off hitter.
He signed a 36-year-old infielder to a minor-league contract in April and a 36-year-old outfielder to a minor-league contract in May. They both ended up making a big impact when the Padres needed it most.
He bolstered a bullpen with three significant additions at the trade deadline while also adding a veteran starter who has pitched well enough that the Padres have won eight of his nine starts.
And before all that, Preller and his group decided to make a 20-year-old shortstop their starting center fielder.
While it is impossible to do so, here is a ranking of those moves and more:
1. The Soto trade. This wins the tiebreaker to be considered the top roster machination because the Padres pulled off the impossible by giving up a likely future Hall of Famer and not losing the trade. The Padres started scouting the Yankees and their farm system heavily last season knowing that they were one of a few teams that could afford to take on Soto. The Padres rebuilt their starting rotation and made it better by getting Michael King, who has a 2.95 ERA in 30 starts, and minor-leaguer Drew Thorpe, who was the centerpiece of a March 13 trade that got the Padres Dylan Cease, who has been virtually unhittable in vast portions of the season. Also coming to San Diego in the Soto deal were catcher Kyle Higashioka and pitchers Randy Vásquez and Jhony Brito. Higashioka hit 15 home runs in 150 at-bats from June 1 through Aug. 28. Vasquez made 10 starts filling in for Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish. Brito served as a long reliever much of the season.
2. Faith in action: As far as we knew at the time, the Padres did not have a center fielder after trading Trent Grisham. But they did have a top prospect who worked exclusively in the outfield all winter and hit the ground running in center field in spring training. While ranking among the top five in the National League at his position defensively, Jackson Merrill went about compiling arguably the finest season ever by a Padres rookie. And that doesn’t even come close to explaining the value of a player who in a span of 10 games from July 30 to Aug. 10 hit four game-tying or go-ahead home runs in the eighth or ninth inning as the Padres surged into playoff position. He ranks seventh in the NL in average (.290), 13th in OPS (.821) and 12th in RBIs and leads the Padres in WAR (5.0) and infectious enthusiasm.
3. Glue guy: The Padres knew 10-year veteran Jurickson Profar would be great in the clubhouse and figured he could capably play left field at least for a while at the start of the season. They were happy to pay $1 million for that. Profar was hitting .315 with a .907 OPS on July 7 and seemed to almost single-handedly keep the Padres around .500 while Manny Machado’s elbow healed and Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr. spent time on the injured list. He ranks eighth in the NL an .845 OPS.
4. Collaborative spirit: There might be no way to adequately sum up in a few (or few hundred) words how well Shildt has managed up and managed down, working in alignment with the always-on Preller and pushing the right buttons from the start within the clubhouse. Under his direction, there has been a focus on “togetherness” and shared responsibility that has taken pressure off Machado and others and fostered an unselfish approach throughout the team. Players have responded to his relentless positivity and earnest support, which enabled Shildt and staff to make certain demands and enforce certain work habits.
5. Back-end upgrade: The Padres identified early in the season that they would need to reinforce their bullpen before the trade deadline. They certainly did so, acquiring closer Tanner Scott and middle reliever Bryan Hoeing from the Marlins and set-up man Jason Adam from the Rays. With the preponderance of close games they have played, there are at least a half-dozen (and as many as three times that many) wins they would likely not have over the past two months if those relievers had not been added. The oft-overlooked aspect of the Padres being able to come back from more multi-run deficits than any other team is that the bullpen has kept games close.
6. Not waiting: In one of his more aggressive moves ever, Preller acquired Luis Arraez from the Marlins a little more than a month into the season. Even with entering Friday in a 2-for-28 skid, Arraez leads the NL with a .312 batting average and is second in the major leagues with a .369 batting average with runners in scoring position. Teammates have credited him with setting a tone of relentless contact atop the order.
7. Victor Rodriguez, more than average: Shildt had history with Rodriguez dating to when Rodriguez was in Double-A with the Orioles and Shildt was a pre-adolescent clubhouse attendant for the Charlotte O’s. But no personnel move is made without significant input from Preller. The Padres’ eighth hitting coach in 10 seasons has been the one to deliver the right message the right way. Not everything he has preached has been novel, but his simple and straightforward presentation has been a big factor in the Padres leading the major leagues in batting average for the first time ever. They also hit more line drives and strike out less than any team, and they broke their season home run record at homer-swallowing Petco Park.
8. Donnie Barrels: The Padres had been keen on adding Donovan Solano in some fashion for a couple years, and he agreed to a minor-league deal two weeks into the season. He joined the big-league club on May 5 and was the main fill-in at third base while Machado’s arm worked into shape. Solano had big hit after big hit in May and June and had an .801 OPS through late August, when his playing time waned.
9. Peralta hangs on: David Peralta wasn’t ready to hang it up, so after spending time in Triple-A with the Cubs and being released in mid-May, he signed a minor-league deal with the Padres. He was called up May 22 when Bogaerts went on the IL, but he sure looked finished for the first month with the team. His energy and wisdom gained over 10 big-league seasons made him a wonderful teammate, but he almost certainly would have been released had there been a need to find a roster spot. And then, he started hitting and soon became the everyday starter while Tatis was on the IL. In 40 starts from June 29 to Sept.1, Peralta posted an .875 OPS with eight doubles and seven home runs.
10. Good start: Matt Waldron deserves a special mention for how he was practically their only effective starter from mid-May to late June. But he faltered badly, and the Padres made Martín Pérez their final deal at the deadline. The 33-year-old left-hander, who had a 5.20 ERA in 16 starts for the Pirates, has a 2.61 ERA in nine starts for the Padres.
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