San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller’s reputation took a sizable hit after receiving a 30-day suspension by MLB after the Padres failed to properly disclose key medical information during trades. Padres president Mike Dee was fired, but somewhat surprisingly, Preller managed to retain his job.
Now he’s back, Preller spoke to media saying the suspension hasn’t affected his dealings with other clubs and he’s already received a handful of trade offers.
“In the five days since I’ve come off the suspension, we’ve had 10 clubs check in with us, had a team that’s made trade offers to us,” Preller said. “In general, I would expect it to be fairly active. The free-agent market probably isn’t quite as strong as it has been in the past. So on the trade front, I think there’s going to be a lot of discussions.”
Publicly acknowledging the discussion of potential deals is the smart PR move for Preller and the Padres organization, even if it’s not true. Reports came out following his suspension suggesting teams were apprehensive to deal with the organization after the medical info mess. Preller’s getting ahead of the issue and trying to move on. Saying other teams are inquiring may encourage apprehensive teams to do the same.
Preller admitted the Padres are now taking the necessary steps to ensure medical info presented to other clubs is accurate. He better, because he would not survive another mishap on the scale of what unfolded in 2016.
[MLB.com]
