“BIG STORIES–BIG OPINIONS”

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PADRES POW-WOW….The falling out between AJ Preller and Bob Melvin seems a really deep chasm…I don’t know how you feel the same about the guy you work for after what we saw and heard this year.  If I am king, Peter Seidler is, I re-define Preller’s role and restructure Melvin’s responsibility.

Preller gets the players and works the contract.  Melvin runs the clubhouse and the  dugout and the games.  Given them the 2024-season to rally this team.

The Padres finished (82-80)-but so what.  They won 13-of-15-but so what.  They won 11-of those games against the worst in baseball.  So they underachieved.

Here’s my game plan for the Friars:

..Bump up Blake Snell from 16M to 20M-with incentives that could get him to 25M and club options for 2025-26.  They rallied his career.  Out of loyalty-he should stay
..Juan Soto should get 30M in arbitration and the challenge to repeat what he did this year,next year.  You can always offer him a mega extension or trade hin in 2024 if need be.
..Josh Hader should go to 20M-state of the art relievers get that..no more-no less
..Michael Wacha is worth 10M a year, no more than that because of injury history.
..Seth Lugo deserves a minor bump to 10M-no more than that
..Gary Sanchez should earn 5M on a 1-year extension but Luis Campusano is the future.
..Nick Martinez is worth a pay bump from 5M-to-8M for his diverse rolls.

Those pay bumps will cost this team 46M-additional money next year.

You clear money away by letting go of Drew Pomeranz 10M deal; you do not offer Trent Grisham 9M; you do not bring back Ji Man Choi-Rich Hill-Luis Garcia-Tim Hill-Austin Nola.  You re-do the Matt Carpenter deal so it frees up some of the 8M-he is owed that final year.  That gets you to about 25M in cuts.

You have Wil Myers-Eric Hosmer’s dollar figures now off the books for 2024 and that should push you to nearly 45M there.

The calculus is complex.  I bring the group back with a new set of rules and regulations for the GM-Manager, and reintroduce the words ‘Accountability-Leadership’ at 1-Tony Gwynn Way.

The bottom of the roster must be retrofitted for better contributions, more chemistry additions than raw talent.

It all starts today at Petco Park.  They need to fix it because this was a wasted season, a ripoff of the fans, and a year’s erosion for an older baseball team that has the clock working against them.

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