MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 5, 2022

A. J. Preller

San Diego Padres

Press Conference

Q. What have you been doing today?

A. J. PRELLER: Typical day. Winter Meetings. Obviously a lot of conversation. And then coming here with some things we want to get done. Overall productive day, seeing what's out there, lining up on, and go from there.

Q. Is it kind of a slow-moving market right now, in a sense waiting to see what happens, for more dominos to fall. Are you feeling like things are going to start moving here in the next few days?

A. J. PRELLER: I think for us, target-wise, I think we're pretty focused on what we want to do.

So, ultimately, every year is a little different from a market standpoint. Obviously some signings here today, the last few days.

And usually you have that kind of domino effect where one signing may lead to two or three other things. But I think from our standpoint, we've kind of understood this is -- we're looking for a bat, looking to kind of continue to add to the starting pitching rotation depth, and I think we're pretty targeted in what we're trying to do overall.

Q. Got a lot of shortstops on your roster already. Would there be room for another; is that a thing? And how could that potentially work?

A. J. PRELLER: I think, again, I think from our standpoint, like try to look at each situation, each player and kind of see what that fit is.

I think we've talked about getting another position player. I think the natural progression is a corner bat. I don't think anything has changed there, really. And again talked about like our roster gives us some different flexibility and some different possibilities.

But because we have athletic players that can play multiple spots, but I think most of the focus for us has been on probably the corner bat that complements and fits pretty well with our team right now.

Q. What's the fact that you have four or five guys who can play different spots around the field do for you in terms of an offseason, looking for certain positions, or can it be flexible, more flexible?

A. J. PRELLER: We had some creative conversations in the room about where guys are going to play. But I think, again, we've tried to build our roster over the last four or five years. I think guys can do multiple things, guys can play both sides of the ball.

When you have athletes that can play different positions, at least opens you up to different conversations. And I think no different here this offseason, obviously.

Q. The Trea deal, did you have conversations with Trea, how did those go?

A. J. PRELLER: I think we probably hoping he went to the American League. We've had to see him up close the last couple of years. He's obviously a tremendous player and going to the National League going to a team that represented the National League in the World Series, probably hoping that he was heading elsewhere.

But we didn't -- as reported, talking to him, we did have conversation with him. He's a unique player. I think from that standpoint we at least want to entertain that, somebody unique that on the free agent market. That doesn't happen that often. I think ultimately him signing up with another club, we hoped maybe that was in the other league, honestly.

Q. Did you feel you guys were close with a deal with Trea, or not so much?

A. J. PRELLER: I don't know. You never know. We just tried to do our homework. We don't really focus too much on what other teams -- because you don't know what's going on in the market, really, ever. So I think from our standpoint we just try to say, hey, this is the value we try to put on the player. And at some point in time, you look at, hey, this is what we'd be willing to spend on a player. Sometimes offer a contract. Sometimes not. Sometimes it's honestly getting to know, seeing if the fit works. You never really know how close you are to lining up on anything, honestly.

Q. (Off microphone).

A. J. PRELLER: I think we talked about it, our roster, in general, like a lot of different possibilities. I think, at least with Trea, he's a player, too, himself. He obviously plays shortstop, but he's shown the ability to play different spots. I think that was part of the conversation.

Q. How important is starting pitching at this point, adding another one?

A. J. PRELLER: That's always important. I think from our standpoint, it's definitely right up there. We've talked about adding a bat. Starting pitchers right there. Either I, I-A, depending on the hour, the day, which is the priority. But it's always top priority is having depth and having numbers. And we'll keep looking at adding in that area.

Q. Do you think you have five now or --

A. J. PRELLER: I think we have more than five. I do. Again, I think we feel like depth, the depth in the system, guys at the Triple-A level that pitched this year, we anticipate them helping us this year and being ready to come in and compete.

I think obviously the four at the big league level, Martinez being the fourth, any of those guys have spots for us going into spring training. But I think we're going to look to continue to add there and try to have some more possibilities for Ruben and for Bob.

Q. What's your take on the market for starting pitchers? Seems like there's an abundance of some guys. What's your take, generally speaking, the free agent market?

A. J. PRELLER: I think obviously this year, had the top-end starters, deGrom and Verlander have signed. That probably frees up that next tier. I think that's the domino effect, where a couple of these guys go off the board, couple of guys are competing, and waiting for those guys to go or competing for those guys, usually that frees up the next group of pitchers to sign.

But I think, again, you have some top-end starters and you've got a lot of guys that have shown the ability to take the ball, make 25 plus starts, which is a hard skill to have. I think there's some interesting possibilities out there for sure.

Q. You've talked to a number of players that have rejected qualifying offers. Have you embraced with Chris the possibility that you might eat into his budget?

A. J. PRELLER: It's always a conversation with Chris. I think from the amateur scouting side, yeah. I think, again, we weigh everything out from like the ability to sign a player and weighing that out versus draft day compensation, what that means for us. The draft is a huge thing for us. Every single year put a lot of value in it. No different this year, honestly.

But I think we've talked to Chris about, if this is the right situation, right player, I think we'll look to do something there.

It won't stop us from signing a player. But ultimately, yeah, we've had conversations with the amateur department. They understand that. I think they welcome the challenge.

Q. What does he say when you bring that up?

A. J. PRELLER: Chris always says a lot. But no, I don't think -- Chris is -- I think, really, the whole amateur group, they understand there's players throughout a draft. 20-round draft. We've gotten guys in the past. You look up in the teens. Some guys after the draft. I don't think it really changes anything on their front.

I think from their end, it's go find the best players. Go be thorough in your process. And they're excited about the big league success. They understand it's part of it, honestly.

Q. If Adrian were home, would he be stretched out for a starting position next year?

A. J. PRELLER: We'll talk more about it. We've been focused more on the trades and the free agent possibilities. So I think getting with Bob and Ruben a little bit more in the next week, trying to get some clarity to our players and our roster. I think with Adrian, I think he's very talented. We feel, like in '21, before he got hurt, he was on that path to start games for us. Had a good '20 kind of in that hybrid role. And then '21, good start to Spring Training and first couple of starts.

Most likely we'll look to lengthen him out, give him an opportunity to pitch multiple innings, develop as a starter. That will be a conversation for the next couple of weeks.

Q. Maybe Jay Groome?

A. J. PRELLER: I think that whole group. You have Jay Groome. You have Adrian, Ryan Weathers, Pedro Avila, guys that made starts for us at Triple-A. That's going to be part of it for us, getting those guys to be more consistent, getting those guys to a spot where we can count them at the Major League level. Again, you need more than just four starters.

We understand that. And we're looking at some outside possibilities. But it's hard to add. There's a lot of teams that look for pitching as well. From our standpoint, we understand developing some guys within the system to be able to come in, pitch for us, it's going to be a big goal between now and spring training and for next year and honestly probably if we're able to do that, probably help us from a wins and loss standpoint at the big league level.

Q. How nice is it to have meetings back in person, been three years. What's the difference having them virtually and not at all last year?

A. J. PRELLER: I love it. I think it's good for the game. It's exciting. I think it's like a celebration of baseball. In terms of like everybody, I think, enjoys the industry.

Sometimes you hear people complain about like the lobby time or the nature of the meetings. You're talking about baseball. Honestly almost 24 hours a day if you want to. And to have like people that work in the game that love it, coaches, scouts, media. I mean, everybody, I think, coming together and celebrating baseball and talking about it, I think, is a really positive thing for sure.

Q. What's communication been like with Fernando lately? Is he still on the same timeline to be ready by Spring Training?

A. J. PRELLER: He's in communication every day with our training staff. Either in person here in San Diego, or he's gone home for a little bit too in the Dominican, spend time with his family, stay on the program. He's been very responsive to everything.

Again, it's early in the process for him from the recovery from the shoulder, the wrist, so far that's gone well. Talked to him the other day.

And I think he's excited to kind of like get the next checkup from both the wrist and shoulder standpoint and start doing some baseball activity. And so far he's on schedule and things are going well.

Q. So you're still expecting the activity to take place some time in January? Do you have a date in January?

A. J. PRELLER: I think we'll know a little bit more here by the end of the month, but I think early January is what we're hoping if we get some good reports here in the next couple of weeks and he continues on track like he is, we'll start progressing more from a baseball standpoint in January.

Q. Do you approach this offseason coming off the deep playoff run any differently than you have previous years?

A. J. PRELLER: Not really. Honestly, I think every offseason kind of like different pool of players and different needs at the big league level. I think we're definitely, like from a focus standpoint, we feel good about the rotation, the pen and the lineup. I think it's about getting that right fit in each area as opposed to multiple fits in each other. I don't think we've seen as much like that.

But I think it's just about like being thorough in what we're trying to do, making the right evaluations, asking the right questions. I think all those things are still very much in line with what we've done in years past when we haven't played in the postseason and what we've done in the last couple of times we've been in the postseason.

Q. Are you still having mutual interest in Profar, any conversation? Where are you with other internal free agents like (indiscernible)?

A. J. PRELLER: We've had conversation really on all of our guys here in the last few days, getting to the Winter Meetings. Some guys get going, start signing.

And that leads to everybody getting more realistic in kind of understanding what's out there and what's available. We reached out. You mentioned two or three of those names. We've reached out on everybody to get a sense.

We have interest in bringing back a large portion of the group that was with us last year. But I think just trying to get a sense right now exactly where everybody is at. Those players have an opportunity to be on the open market and talk to all 30 teams. We'll see where it goes.

But we've reached out to pretty much all of our free agents. I think everybody. And to different degrees kind of where we're at, where they're at in the process, just trying to go from there.

Q. Have you talked to Jake Cronenworth or (indiscernible) about what signing somebody like (indiscernible) might have meant for them, signing other shortstops? Have you talked to them about their positions?

A. J. PRELLER: We haven't had those conversations because, again, I think the conversations in general with, from a position standpoint, and I think at least the position we're looking at, when you get to a spot where, hey, this is going to happen or this is something that we feel really strong could happen, I think that's when we looked at it, hey, we're going to have that conversation. We never got to that point in the last few days.

Q. How much of your interest in someone like Trea had to do with you were on first base, Houston, how much of an interest had to do with him going there and first base market not being really viable options?

A. J. PRELLER: Not really. I think we started out the offseason. We know you're going to have a few different possibilities. And I think, like I mentioned, I think we talked to Jose Abreu and talking to Trea as well. It wasn't like a reaction to Jose signed here and so we were going down both paths at the same time, both conversations at the same time. One didn't lead to shifting gears and turning more attention to Trea Turner.

Q. You wouldn't have been able to do both, right?

A. J. PRELLER: Again, I think those are -- we've got a sense, start working with Peter and you've got a sense in terms of, like, this is the budget, this is what we're looking to do.

I think, again, the organization, we always kind of talk about, hey, if there's a situation that presents itself, let's talk about it and go down that path.

I think we never got to that point. We were talking about, hey, sign one, sign both, sign the other. But we what we have from a budget standpoint, understand that. There's an exception, always a conversation to be had if it makes sense for us or not.

Q. How much does your staff look into the new rules going into effect and have you figured out where the best competitive advantages might surface?

A. J. PRELLER: We've talked about it. I don't think we've spent a ton of time yet with the coaching staff going through. And I think in general we're probably still more in line with like just put a good team on the field, and I think there's no shift in what that means defensively and then also for some of the left-hand bats, stolen base rules and running game, and obviously the pitch clock is pretty much more of a difference about pitcher habits and that part of it.

But in general, I think we talk about it in terms of like acquiring a player. There's an undervalued player that's out there.

But for the most part, I think it's still more about just bringing in the right player, players with ability and talent, and figuring that's going to play out and players will make adjustments as they get going.

Q. Did you announce any official changes to your coaching staff?

A. J. PRELLER: I think we're still, obviously with Michael leaving, Bedard going to Detroit, we're looking at the hitting coach position or positions, kind of team at this point in time. And I think we're going to use this next week or two to try to lock that up and get and kind of have -- we have some -- I think we've talked about it Ryan Flaherty, Morgan Burkhart, they've been part of the hitting conversation, the hitting responsibilities the last few years in different ways. Have a lot of faith in those guys.

And then we'll also look at what else in our system or some other players, some other coaches in our system, some other coaches out there to kind of line up the staff. But nothing final as yet on that front.

Q. Who took over for Mark Conner?

A. J. PRELLER: I think with Mark, he worked at Riley Westman, overseeing the farm system. So Riley, Mike Daly, they're in the same spots they've been in. It's a big job. There's a lot of responsibility there. So Mike Shelton will end up doing, he'll have some more responsibility on the minor league side.

We have some internal coaches and developers that have taken on the ability to take on more responsibility. And I think we're lining that up over the course of the next few weeks and I think overall still with Riley and Mike leading the department but we'll have a couple more people there to be able to help those guys out.