{"id":28832,"date":"2025-07-01T03:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T03:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/28832\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T03:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T03:37:13","slug":"a-j-prellers-padres-dont-appear-to-have-much-purchasing-power-as-trade-deadline-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/28832\/","title":{"rendered":"A.J. Preller’s Padres don’t appear to have much purchasing power as trade deadline nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a good thing that A.J. Preller responds well to challenges. Because it looks like the Padres\u2019 president of baseball operations won\u2019t have a whole lot of purchasing power going into the July 31 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Start with team ownership and the club\u2019s ability to increase the payroll.<\/p>\n

This is the team\u2019s first summer trade market under John Seidler, who was approved as the Padres\u2019 control person by Major League Baseball on Feb. 6. The ongoing legal dispute among Padres shareholders means it\u2019s even tougher to project what decisions will be made on payroll \u2014 and even who will make them.<\/p>\n

The case for raising the payroll, if that\u2019s even possible, starts with this: the Padres \u2014 now 45-39 following Monday\u2019s 4-0 loss to the Phillies in Philadelphia<\/a> \u2014 \u00a0have a realistic shot at earning their fourth wild-card playoff berth in six years.<\/p>\n

With Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts in their early 30s and due about $300 million and $200 million, respectively, there\u2019s an argument for pushing harder now before their peak years recede further. Yu Darvish, 38, would fall into the argument, too, if the Padres are confident he will return this season.<\/p>\n

Padres fans deserve consideration, too. They\u2019ve enabled the club to outdraw the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets in home attendance this year, trailing only the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

Should Padres ownership reciprocate, spending more?<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the Padres\u2019 payroll sits ninth out of 30 MLB teams. More additions would trigger a luxury tax and possibly a second-level tax that\u2019s more punitive, per FanGraphs.com. I don\u2019t see this year\u2019s team on par with the past three Padres teams, in terms of potential to win the World Series.<\/a><\/p>\n

Regardless of what ownership decides in terms of payroll, Preller doesn\u2019t seem to have many compelling trade chips.<\/p>\n

On the big-league team, there may not be one attractive trade chip outside of the bullpen. The farm system sits in the mid-20s as ranked by mainstream media analysts.<\/p>\n

Draft capital matters, too. Because the Padres lack a second-round pick and a competitive balance draft in the amateur draft July 13-14, replenishing the system will be extra challenging. The Padres won\u2019t be making their second selection of the draft until the 99th overall pick. Wild-card race rivals such as the Brewers and Cardinals, for example, will have made five and four picks by then.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any comfort, it\u2019s this: Preller has done some of his best work when confronted by larger challenges.<\/p>\n

Preller\u2019s 2016 trade for Fernando Tatis Jr. heads the list. The Padres landed the future star by trading James Shields, a classic case of turning vinegar into fine wine.<\/p>\n

Preller\u2019s response to having to shrink the 2024 payroll by $90 million was also worthy of a chef\u2019s kiss.<\/p>\n

Preller traded Matt Carpenter to the Braves, freeing up $5.5 million. To make the trade work, Preller included reliever Ray Kerr, who \u2014 once in Atlanta \u2014 sustained a torn elbow ligament that cost him the season.<\/p>\n

Prreller acquired Luis Arraez from the Marlins only after convincing Miami to pay about $8 million of the hitter\u2019s salary.<\/p>\n

Paid just $592,796 by the Padres last season, Arraez improved the team\u2019s offense by batting .366 with men in scoring position and posting an adjusted OPS that was 8% above MLB\u2019s average. The key prospect who went to the Marlins, first-round draftee Dillon Head, suffered a season-ending hip injury. He\u2019s having a subpar 2025 season in the low minors.<\/p>\n

Jason Adam provided the Padres with good relief down the stretch following last summer\u2019s trade with the Rays. Accuracy issues have continued to plague pitcher Dylan Lesko, the Padres\u2019 2022 first-round pick who went to Tampa in the deal. Lesko has logged only 17 innings since leaving the Padres organization.<\/p>\n

No prospect Preller sent to the White Sox for Dylan Cease has come close to panning out.<\/p>\n

The Marlins are feeling good about their trade that brought Robby Snelling, among others, in the summer trade for closer Tanner Scott and Bryan Hoeing. The left-hander, 21, shows a 3.74 ERA and good underlying stats in 12 Double-A starts this year. Preller was right about Scott, though. He fueled the Padres\u2019 run to the postseason and overwhelmed Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani in the National League Division Series.<\/p>\n

Compared to 2024, Preller doesn\u2019t appear to have as many appealing prospects to deal this year \u2014 although, to be fair, the Padres\u2019 farm system has exceeded its media grades many times over the past five years.<\/p>\n

Per a veteran MLB scout, the Padres\u2019 top prospects are shortstop Leo De Vries and lefty pitcher Boston Bateman, both in Class A. It would be surprising if either is dealt.<\/p>\n

But Preller\u2019s high volume of trades suggests he can make a useful addition or two, and that a trade partner will have interest in players signed by Padres scouts out of Latin America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a good thing that A.J. Preller responds well to challenges. Because it looks like the Padres\u2019 president…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-28832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114775893245142808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}