In a subtle way, baseball\u2019s summer trade season benefits the Padres more than several other teams.<\/p>\n
A.J. Preller and scouts glean truths that otherwise would remain hidden to them \u2014 truths about what other teams actually think of their own players and Padres players, be they big leaguers or minor leaguers.<\/p>\n
Though all 30 teams engage in trade talks, the Padres go further down those roads than most teams, evidenced by Preller\u2019s high number of trades in his 12-year run atop the team\u2019s baseball operation.<\/p>\n
No other wheeler-dealer, save perhaps the Phillies\u2019 Dave Dombrowski, parts with more prospects who appear in the top 100 of the MLB rankings or top 20 of team listings compiled by former scouts.<\/p>\n
Preller\u2019s peers know the Padres have dealt several prospects who became stars, such as Trea Turner, Max Fried and James Wood.<\/p>\n
Preller\u2019s not one of the GMs who refuse to ever move a Grade-A prospect.<\/p>\n
The combination of Preller\u2019s credibility and the franchise\u2019s ability to replenish the farm system with players who attract serious interest leads to this: Preller can extract nitty-gritty information from every trade season, rather than work strictly on the edges. And compared to the less active clubs, he can get more of the real stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always an interesting process, always a good process,\u201d he said on Monday, trade deadline day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt enables you to have fun conversations and consider different options. That\u2019s what these last couple of weeks are about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preller added this: \u201cWhen you get a chance to see what others in the industry think about your players, it gives you a very clear picture of how they see your organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Serious trade talks serve as truth serum, like in poker when cards must be revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to see a ranking or publication about how somebody values a player from the outside or a media chair,\u201d Preller said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re there and you\u2019re actually talking about, \u2018Would you do this player for that player?\u2019 \u2026\u00a0 You get a very clear sense in real time about the actual value of your players and other players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of this summer\u2019s deadline, Preller ultimately did what he typically does.<\/p>\n
He traded minor leaguers for big leaguers, landing starting pitchers Robbie Ray and Casey Mize.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t see the intel that Preller and staff gathered from another active trade market.<\/p>\n
But it exists.<\/p>\n
And it may become known to us via future trades or free agent signings.<\/p>\n
For example, although Preller didn\u2019t provide details on trade talks involving uber-closer Mason Miller, the Padres\u2019 descent into perceived seller territory, six to 10 days before the deadline, may have brought him revelatory inquiries into the 27-year-old righty, who\u2019s under team control through 2029.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The information) helps us in future deadlines and the offseason,\u201d Preller said, speaking generally.<\/p>\n
He also said: \u201cAgain, when you have talent, it gives you the ability to have flexibility and options. I hear at times about players signed to multiyear deals, but the industry spoke over the last week or 10 days that they see a lot of our players \u2014 contracts, stats, everything that comes with them \u2014 as super valuable players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller isn\u2019t a prospect, but Preller got him last summer for Double-A shortstop Leo De Vries, baseball\u2019s top-ranked prospect as judged by former and current MLB scouts.<\/p>\n
The Padres have a few heavy contracts on their roster.<\/p>\n
In such situations, teams sometimes move that contract by packaging it with a high-value big leaguer or prospects.<\/p>\n
Will the summer-market intel lead to Preller making blockbuster trades this offseason?<\/p>\n
Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a subtle way, baseball\u2019s summer trade season benefits the Padres more than several other teams. A.J. Preller…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":["post-427827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}