The Padres have not been to the playoffs since 2006. They also haven’t had a home-grown position player make any kind of significant impact since … well I’m actually not sure. Probably Benito Santiago, who was signed as an international free agent in 1982 and made a splash in San Diego in 1987 when he was named the NL Rookie of the Year.
So the Friars need fixing on two fronts: the Major League level and the minor league level. That means General Manager A.J. Preller is trying to multi-task.
While he’d like to build a contender right now, he still has to be conscious of making sure he re-stocks the farm. Make no mistake … it is a difficult line to walk, as we saw in 2015.
“When we went to the last off-season and we made the moves that we made we felt like we had some talent in the room that we wanted to build around and take a chance,” said Preller on Saturday after trading starting pitcher James Shields to the White Sox for a pair of prospects. “It wasn’t necessarily that we were saying this is all in on this one year, period. It was more of a situation where it was hey, look, let’s see if we can take a shot and compete and contend and win knowing that if that didn’t work out, at a point down the road we had the ability to pump the brakes and go in a different direction. We were going to have some assets that were attractive to other clubs.”
It was the latter that transpired so Preller went with Plan B, trading closer Craig Kimbrel to the Red Sox for a treasure trove of young talent and sending Joaquin Benoit to the Mariners for two more prospects. Then for 2016 they continued with the same philosophy, adding a few veteran pieces like shortstop Alexei Ramirez and outfielder Jon Jay in hopes they would get off to a great start and be in contention.
“We wanted to take advantage of the starters that we had. We wanted to get some excitement and see if we could put a contending club on the field.”
Again, that did not happen. Again, it was time to start parting with established players and bulking up in other areas.
“When you don’t go down there, then you’ve got to make decisions and that’s what led to [Saturday's trade of James Shields to the White Sox for two prospects].”
It must be noted that in their first run at a MLB contender in 2015 Preller gutted the Padres system, parting with most of their better prospects. In repurposing their big league talent the Friars have, by many accounts, actually bolstered their future with more higher-ceiling players (most notably Javier Guerra and Manuel Margot, both from the Kimbrel trade) in the minor leagues.
“Probably the biggest thing is we haven’t been good enough,” said Preller. “We haven’t been good enough as a group, as a team, as an organization. We talk about it a lot; it’s just building towards a championship-level organization.”
The next chance to strengthen the system comes this week in the MLB Draft and this will be the first time we get to see how Preller attacks it. He arrived in August of 2014, missing the Draft by a couple of months, and a year ago the Friars did not have a first round pick.
This time around the Padres pick 8th, 24th, 25th, 48th, 71st and 85th. That’s three selections in the first round and a tremendous opportunity to truly start building a perennial contender. The Yankees know a thing or two about that.
Between 1990 and 1992 New York drafted 204 players. Only a handful of them actually made it to the Majors in a Yankees uniform and most had little to no impact. However, three of them were Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Derek Jeter. In 1990 they also signed an international amateur free agent by the name of Mariano Rivera.
You don’t have to hit on all your picks. You just have to hit on a few and all of a sudden you have a dynasty on your hands. The Padres have a chance to find a few domestic superstars and are expected to go big on the international market when that signing period opens in July. If Preller is able to find just a couple of those difference-makers, he won’t have to worry about multi-tasking anymore.
The Major League portion of the task would be in perpetual good hands.
