A.J. Preller, San Diego Padres go all-in at MLB trade deadline

When the work was finished and five professions involving 22 players had been executed in six hours, the peers of AJ Preller called it, from a “crazy” to a “genius”, a divergence adapting to the most polarizing executive in the major baseball league.

In time between breakfast and lunch on the west coast, Preller, the frantic director general of the Padres de San Diego, acquired eight players and separated from 14 others. He won another impact talent (Star Mason Miller) and connected all the hole imaginable on his list, but he also dealt with 11 prospects for a sagged agricultural system, including his best (Terrarain Leo de Vries). He presented the Padres 2025 on a par with the best sports teams, including the rival dodgers of Los Angeles, but he could also have compromised the years to come.

Preller later recalled a line relayed by Billy Beane, a long -standing management of athletics which has become an icon in his profession.

“I exchanged MVP caliber players, Cy Young-Calibre players, from All-Stars,” recited Preller, “and more than 25 years later, I am on this chair and I won a lot of games.”

It is a mantra preller came to live. His old perspectives are sprinkled throughout sport, flowering elsewhere, a list that includes Max Fried, Luis Castillo, Emmanuel Clase, Andres Munoz, David Bednar, CJ Abrams, Mackenzie Gore and James Wood. One day, from Vries, the 18 -year -old, used to picking Miller last week, could also be a star.

But preller, Like Beane Before Him, Prefers to Focus on What He Gets Rather Than What he gives, and How This Year’s Prize, Miller, Joins Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrel, Blake Snell, Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Josh Hader, Juan Soto, Dylan Cease, Luis Aráez and Tanner Scott – Players who Came Back in Deals and, in Varying Ways, Made The Padres Matter.

“You are obviously still trying to make good businesses,” said Praler. “But I think we understand that you have to abandon the right players to get good players. And ultimately, if that puts your team in good position for the moment and for the future, it is a positive result.”

Four and a half years ago, Preler A landing Darvish, Snell and Musgrove in three weeks. Three years ago, he obtained Hader and Soto within two days. Last year, he acquired, Armaez and Scott in four months. This year, he installed a new bar, using the few resources he had to transform a high -level list into one of the deepest in the National League

Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano, two former Baltimore Orioles in the middle of the seasons in small groups, added a length to a programming that had received a first ops from the major league of its 7, 8 and 9 strikers. Freddy Fermín, an underestimated recipient that served as a safeguard of Salvador Perez with the Royals of Kansas City, improves the weakest position Padres. JP Sears, also acquired from A, and Nestor Cortes, picked up by Milwaukee brewers, provide a cushion to a rotation that can now count on a Yu Darvish Sain and a Michael King who returns in the section. Miller joins Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada and the closest in office Robert Suárez to form a two -men’s devasting successor body that can essentially reduce games in half.

Preller complicated all hole and even strengthened resistance, while keeping Suárez and the first line starter Dylan stop, two free -waiting agents who were largely guaranteed. He did everything while barely increasing the payroll, if necessary, a much more important factor following the death of the late owner Peter Seidler in November 2023.

A person close to Preller called it “a masterful performance”, noting that seven of the eight players he has acquired – all except O’Hearn – are controllable beyond this season. Sears, Fermín and, in particular, Miller, who will not be eligible for the Free Agency after the 2029 season, are all in the pre-arbitration stages of their career. Another rival member of the front-office, however, described the trading of De Vries as “a massive bet” with long-term consequences “potentially devastating”, in particular with the story of Miller arms problems.

The desire to preller to move it testifies to its innate audacity, but also a conviction that the padres can continue to write and develop impact talents.

It also talks about the urgency.

Some of the most prominent players of the Padres – Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Darvish in particular – are in their thirties. A World Series championship continues to escape the 56 -year -old franchise. And the dodgers, the team they continue perpetually, are again at hand, with six other games against them later this month.

The Padres reached the start of 14-3 this season, posted a loser record in May and June, then straightened in July. When the trade deadline arrived, they attended 3 ½ games at the end of the Joker and three of the Dodgers for first place in the division.

At that time, an NL West which seemed legitimately four depth teams a short time ago had been reduced to two legitimate contenders. The Arizona Diamondbacks were unable to overcome their pitch injuries and exchanged a handful of notable -waiting free agents before the deadline. The Giants of San Francisco were quickly blurred after acquiring Rafael Devers in a rare June blockbuster and also poured expired contracts. The Dodgers, on the other hand, approached the deadline in the middle of one of their worst stretching for years, traveling 14 defeats in their first matches of the first 24 July – and responded with movements on the margins.

Brock Stewart, a high -level lift that needs that has dominated against opposing right -handed strikers, and Alex Call, a voltiseur rented for his plate discipline, was two useful additional pieces. But the dodgers failed on greater talents – in particular the voltijouriser of the Cleveland Guardians Steven Kwan, who did not move, and the establishment of the man of the twins of Minnesota, Griffin Jax, who went to the Rays of Tampa Bay – because they did not want to separate from their best prospects, according to the leaders. Their reluctance came despite the possession of one of the strongest agricultural systems in industry.

The paadres have done the opposite, losing the best prospect of a system that is part of the thinnest in sport. Given the way in which scouts apparently embittered on the 19 -year -old receiver Ethan Salas, of Vries, said several assessors, were then that the remaining ceiling prospects.

“He questioned in each agreement,” said Praler. “He’s a very good player; it’s a great perspective. We were not going to do it unless we have the right choice.”

The paadres found that it corresponded to Miller, that they spotted as an amateur leading to the 2021 draft – and Preller always deplores the way he fled. He remembered having welcomed him during a predraft training at Petco Park and asking him if he would be willing to make a reduction in his planned draft niche. Instead, Miller went to A in the third round, crossed their system, suffered a sprain in his ulnar collateral ligament, going from the starter to a lifter and has become one of the most electric closers in the game, not to mention his hardest launcher. The Miller’s era increased from 2.49 in 2024 to 3.66 in 2025, but some of the underlying measures suggest that it was just as dominant.

Preller said: “He should probably have been a paddle a few years ago.”

It is a paddle now, an acquisition which sparked various degrees of shock, dismay and wonder of members of 29 other teams. But for the Padres, Preller said: “feeling is excitement.” At that time last year, Preller strengthened an enclosure of lifts which was already a force, then looked at a group of mainly mediocre paddes to rise to another level below, going 34-18 in August and September and resembling one of the best the deepest teams of the majors in October. The Dodgers rallied to beat them in five games in the NL division series, then openly praised the paddes as the best team they faced during their path to a title.

A apathetic offseason, in which flagrant holes were filled at cheap, was followed by a first and descending the first four months which highlighted obvious vulnerabilities.

Now the paadres are life again.

“I have the impression that we have improved our club,” said Praler. “We can’t wait to see how we are doing here in recent months.”