“PADRES TRADE DEADLINE DAY”

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t was typical AJ Preller and his mode of operation day.

Trading young prospects, taking on money, filling holes, that he himself helped create on the roster.

It’s like a revolving door at a shopping mall.  Players come, players go, and the Padres world spins every time their unpredictable GM picks up his cellphone.

But for the first time, Preller did not overpay to make the deals with the Royals-Pirates-Marlins.

Yes they moved young players, but aside from Ryan Weathers, they did not trade the blue chips at Class A-AA.

They went out and rented setup reliever Scott Barlow of the Royals..1st baseman Garrett Cooper of Miami…and veterans Rich Hill of the Pirates and DH-Ji Man-Choi plus a minor league pitcher Sean Reynolds..

They filled needs on an underachieving team.  Hill can give them innings in the rotation.  Barlow joins the setup group of relievers.  Choi helps in the barren DH slot..and Cooper can play DH and 1st base.

Preller had lots to say on Tuesday night:
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GM-AJ Preller:

We looked at alot of different scenarios
Bullpen-lefthanded bat..a prefessional hitter were priorities
I checked alot of boxes in last few days

Rich Hill-we have a need in the rotation on the short term
Waiting for Michael Wacha to come back
Hill gives us chance to let other pitchers get proper rest
Hill has pitched in alot of pennant races

We tried to sign Scott Barlow a couple of years ago
Competes-takes ball-wants the ball
He adds alot to our setup guys

We had attractive players  people wanted..not compelled to move them
We liked this roster-wanted to add for next two months
We have given this team a chance by solidifying spots on roster

Rental players-people are conservative
We were not making moves to make moves
We need to be more consistent-we can with roster now built

Sweeping Rangers-was a message-factored in a little bit
We know our team our group-this was doing homework-getting into market
We could tell teams liked our farm system players-we kept alot of them

We understand free agency is coming-never got offers for Hader-Snell
Peter Seidler was updated all the time-he has faith in our front office team
We have very good defensive team

We needed DH-production-think we got a few bats to deliver for us
The cool part is players in our room believe in each other
They feel like we are very capable of doing what we did last year

We are always open to talk to Snell-Hader in the off season
Let’s get to the post season right now-won’t talk for 8-weeks
The loss of TV money–ownership updates us-will talk end of year talk budget

I always talk about fit-makeup-chemistry..winning does that
Rich Hill-ton of starts..Barlow-key setup guy..we got bats-skill set
We have alot of young pitchers ready to make the next step
Guys in system showing us alot of ability to move up
Ethan Salas has sent quite a message in recent weeks

Tough decision to give up Weathers-Jackson-Williams
Not easy call to trade them but we have quality pitching in system

Next step is decided who stays or goes with the 26-man roster
Not ready to decide on roster construction yet
Matt Carpenter has player option next year-not had conversation yet

Every year at deadline we find out about our players and how teams view them

So the roster is set, the money spent, and Preller has made his moves to reacquire his reputation as a Rock Star GM.  His team, his contracts, his trades.  Now we find out if they can make this come togehter.

All that depends on what his underachieving players can do heading into the weekend series with the Dodgers, that may well decide their fate.

Here comes the new look Padres roster.  Can they get there?  We find out over the next 60-days.

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