Padres Ease Into Baseball Winter Meetings

Nothing big happens early on the first day in Las Vegas

Day 1 of the Baseball Winter Meetings started fairly slowly. No major moves involving the Padres, or really anyone else, went down but things haven’t even started warming up yet.

Padres General Manager A.J. Preller said, as of about 5:00 p.m. in Las Vegas, he had not even taken a step outside the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. He’d been talking meeting, and texting with a litany of other clubs trying to lay the groundwork for the rest of the meetings.

“I think it’s the continuation of a lot of conversations from the last week,” said Preller. “I think there’s progress on some fronts, some things where you keep talking and see what comes of it, and some things where you can cross it off the list.”

The Padres are in the market for starting pitching, a 3rd baseman, and a shortstop. Those are the things at the top of the To-Do list.

The Padres have been linked to Marlins All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto but a trade for him might involve a position change. Preller told NBC 7 SportsWrap they want super catching prospect Francisco Mejia to stay behind the plate.

Unless, of course, they trade Mejia, the top-25 prospect they got from Cleveland in the Brad Hand trade. They are certainly not looking to do that but nobody is untouchable this week. And when I say nobody I mean absolutely nobody.

“We go into every conversation open-minded,” said Preller. “I don’t think there’s any player that there’s zero chance that could be moved. I think you always want to hear how other clubs value your players and understand that if there’s a chance to get better we’re going to take it.”

This, of course, does not mean they are actively shopping guys like Fernando Tatis, Jr. and MacKenzie Gore. All it means is if someone comes to the Padres and offers Mike Trout for Tatis ... yeah then you kind of have to listen to the whole sales pitch.

They’ll be hearing and making plenty of those through Thursday.

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