doubling its local non-media revenue<\/a> over the past four years, Greupner is widely credited with helping shepherd the Padres through financial turmoil brought on by the accumulation of substantial debt in 2023 and \u201824. Sources said Greupner, who received a small stake in the team from late chairman Peter Seidler, was courted by other organizations in different leagues.<\/p>\nMultiple people across the league opined at the General Manager Meetings in Las Vegas this week that Preller would probably have his pick of available jobs if he departed the Padres.<\/p>\n
That has never seemed to be his intention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love San Diego and the city and the organization,\u201d he said recently. \u201cI enjoy my job and hopefully do an OK job with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sides have talked enough about their mutual interest in Preller remaining, multiple sources said, that an extension could be an inevitability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a conversation that\u2019s happening between John (Seidler, the Padres chairman) and A.J. this offseason,\u201d Greupner said this week. \u201cI think we continue to remain confident that A.J. is going to be our president of baseball operations past 2026. We\u2019re excited to continue to build on the success that we\u2019ve had here.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Padres](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SUT-L-padres-1116-04.jpg\")
Padres general manager A.J. Preller answers questions about the trading of all-star pitcher Drew Pomeranz to the Boston Red Sox prior to a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants Friday, July 15, 2016, in San Diego. (Lenny Ignelzi, Associated Press)
\nThe process<\/p>\n
The success the Padres have built in Preller\u2019s 11 seasons in charge of baseball operations can sometimes be obscured within the minutiae of the on-field shortcomings and manager turnover.<\/p>\n
Preller was hired in August 2014 as the Padres\u2019 third general manager in six years.<\/p>\n
With the Cardinals\u2019 John Mozeliak retiring and the Nationals firing Mike Rizzo in 2025, Preller is now the longest-tenured GM in the major leagues behind the Yankees\u2019 Brian Cashman, who was hired in 1998.<\/p>\n
When Preller arrived in San Diego, the Padres were on their way to their sixth losing campaign in seven seasons and had not made the playoffs since 2006.<\/p>\n
They would continue to be mostly horrible in Preller\u2019s first five seasons, as the organization was upfront about revamping the way it operated while aiming to open its championship window going into the 2020s.<\/p>\n
The 2020 season brought the Padres\u2019 first postseason appearance since \u201806 and their first postseason series win since 1998.<\/p>\n
They have made the playoffs in three of the five seasons since. Their 183 victories over the past two seasons were the most in franchise history in successive seasons, and their playoff appearances at the end of those seasons were their first in back-to-back years since 2005-06.<\/p>\n
With one more playoff appearance, the Padres will have played in the postseason as many times in the Preller era as they did under any of the nine general managers who oversaw the franchise\u2019s first 45 years of existence.<\/p>\n
Preller and the circle of advisers to which he often assigns credit have gone about making the Padres contenders and maintaining the quest for the organization\u2019s first championship in various ways. But at the core of their mission is a commitment to amassing amateur talent and an unwavering belief they can do so again and again.<\/p>\n
Usually, that young talent has been used to acquire veteran talent.<\/p>\n
The Padres have made more trades involving major league players since the 2014-15 offseason than every team but the Seattle Mariners. No team has traded away more of its top 10 prospects than Preller\u2019s Padres.<\/p>\n
Center fielder Jackson Merrill and reliever Adrian Morej\u00f3n are the only players originally drafted or signed by the Padres to have contributed significantly to the team\u2019s run of success, though right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. was acquired as a 17-year-old who had never played professionally.<\/p>\n
Certainly, it is valid to wonder how long the Padres can continue to mortgage the future.\u00a0But it is also defensible to say that after riding the wave of Peter Seidler\u2019s freewheeling spending to build teams in 2022 and \u201823, Preller has done his best work the past two seasons. He has worked within budget constraints due largely to the team having handed out multiple big contracts.<\/p>\n
The Padres likely would not have made the playoffs in 2024 had Preller not revamped the bullpen at the trade deadline. And it is also conceivable that the 2025 season might have ended before October if not for the players he added in July.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the players acquired at this year\u2019s deadline should play a vital role as Preller builds a contending team within budget.<\/p>\n
The Padres got their everyday catcher (Freddy Fermin) and left fielder (Ram\u00f3n Laureano), closer (Mason Miller) and a back-end starter (JP Sears) for 2026 in deals made at the deadline. All but Laureano are under team control beyond \u201826.<\/p>\n
The cost \u2014 as it was to get, among others, Mike Clevinger in 2020, Juan Soto in 2022 and a retooled bullpen in \u201824 \u2014 was a bevy of minor leaguers that included Leo De Vries, one of the top prospects in the game.<\/p>\n
Preller hasn\u2019t shied away from spending that human capital since he moved Max Fried and Trea Turner months after taking over.<\/p>\n
Those two players are among the nearly two dozen who were in the Padres\u2019 organization at some point during Preller\u2019s tenure and have gone on to become All-Stars for other teams. The majority of those were traded, though some left via free agency.<\/p>\n
Preller and his lieutenants love the fact that, in addition to the Padres having five players in each of the past two All-Star games, no other MLB team has had more former players on All-Star rosters in those two games.<\/p>\n
They view it as an illustration of their ability to acquire talent.<\/p>\n
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SUT-L-padres-1116-03.jpg\")
San Diego Padres general manager A. J. Preller looks on during a spring training workout. (KC Alfred, The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nThe lineup card<\/p>\n
It is tradition in baseball to present players, managers or executives with a framed lineup card from games representing milestones.<\/p>\n
Hanging in Preller\u2019s office is a lineup card from Aug. 9, 2014.<\/p>\n
That game in Pittsburgh was from the Padres\u2019 first victory with him as GM.<\/p>\n
The names on that card reflect a club that went 77-85.<\/p>\n
Eric Stults was the starting pitcher. Everth Cabrera led off. Jedd Gyorko hit cleanup. Three of the 13 position players listed on the card manager Bud Black used that day finished the season with a WAR of 1.8 or higher. (A WAR of 2.0 is considered average.)<\/p>\n
There is undoubtedly a relationship between spending and winning.<\/p>\n
Ownership\u2019s willingness to spend money and incur debt from 2021 to \u201823 certainly helped Preller construct a winner.<\/p>\n
The ongoing commitment by ownership to invest back into the club what it says is every dollar it brings in from those sizable crowds and other income streams has helped finance payrolls that have ranked in the top 10 among MLB\u2019s 30 teams in five of the past six years.<\/p>\n
The Padres play in a ballpark that is almost universally considered one of the finest in the major leagues for aesthetics, food offerings and layout. The gameday production is likewise among the best in MLB, and well-timed promotions and giveaways help boost attendance.<\/p>\n
But three consecutive seasons of record-breaking attendance are largely a result of winning teams that have marketable players.<\/p>\n
![\"Craig](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SUT-L-padres-1111-004.jpg\")
Craig Stammen was introduced as the San Diego Padres manager by President of baseball operations and General Manager A.J. Preller at Petco Park on Nov. 10, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Photo by K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nThe group<\/p>\n
The Padres brought home a trophy from Las Vegas after this week\u2019s General Managers Meetings.<\/p>\n
On Monday, assistant general manager Josh Stein and vice president of pro scouting Pete DeYoung beat a duo from the Dodgers in the championship match of what was dubbed the first-ever front office pickleball tournament.<\/p>\n
Stein and DeYoung were not ringers. They are the two longest-tenured members of the baseball operations department. Both joined the team full-time in 2005. Stein was an intern for two years before that.<\/p>\n
Nick Ennis, the VP of player operations, also predates Preller.<\/p>\n
Chris Kemp, the Padres\u2019 scouting director, essentially came along with Preller from Texas. Farm director Ryley Westman arrived a year later.<\/p>\n
Dave Post and Logan White, two of the organization\u2019s top scouts and members of Preller\u2019s inner circle, were hired in 2014. A bevy of amateur scouts has been around for most of the past decade, as the Padres have been able to build and rebuild their minor league system well enough to use many of the better prospects as currency to acquire major league talent.<\/p>\n
The longevity of his closest advisers is a point of pride for Preller, who is often knocked for the turnover in the manager\u2019s chair and the team\u2019s coaching staff.<\/p>\n
Craig Stammen, a former Padres reliever who has spent the past two seasons working in the Padres\u2019 player development department, was hired to take over as manager<\/a> after Mike Shildt retired. Before that, Bob Melvin left for the Giants in 2023 and Jayce Tingler was let go following the \u201821 season.<\/p>\nWhile the Padres have made the postseason at least once under each of their previous three managers, Preller acknowledged the turnover as something he would like to stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s definitely the goal, is having somebody in place that\u2019s doing it year after year,\u201d Preller said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve seen there\u2019s a lot of benefit, throughout the organization, when you look up and \u2026 (a lot of people) have been here now for seven, eight, nine, 10, 15, 20 years. And year after year, you\u2019re able to grow with that group and guys that know our players, know our system and just are looking to add to it every year. There\u2019s a lot of value to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo having the manager that\u2019s also in that situation, I think there would be real value to that as well. I think Craig is going to be someone that\u2019s going to fit in very well with the group and our players and expect him to do it for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there is one thing the hire of Stammen conveyed, it is that Preller is still driving the Padres\u2019 baseball bus.<\/p>\n
This was a hire he felt in his gut based on the familiarity he has with Stammen and the belief he has in his character and ability to motivate players and work cohesively with the rest of the baseball operations department.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 100% an A.J. decision,\u201d Greupner said. \u201cJohn and I rode along and helped advise A.J. and gave him our opinions on it. But ultimately, I believe your president of baseball operations, it should be their decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, there is another decision to be made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been a lot going on with the Padres. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller was consumed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":381676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[69200,5229,1582,276,182740,182739,182741,3549,1306,7264,182742,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-381675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-a-j-preller","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-erik-greupner","13":"tag-john-seidler","14":"tag-peter-seidler","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-padres","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-sheel-seidler","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115556101638114226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381675","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=381675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}