PEORIA, Ariz. — A.J. Preller did not, in fact, sit on his hands all the way until Opening Day. It is not his style. It never has been.
Instead, the San Diego Padres’ president of baseball operations and a sizable contingent from his front office sat inside Goodyear Ballpark on Tuesday night, watching coveted right-hander Dylan Cease rack up eight strikeouts over just 3 1/3 innings of Cactus League play. They came away further convinced they should take dramatic action.
A day later — and only an hour before their scheduled departure for Seoul, South Korea — Preller and the Padres struck, acquiring Cease from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for reliever Steven Wilson and prospects Drew Thorpe, Jairo Iriarte and Samuel Zavala. The trade could put an exclamation point on what had been one of the most tepid offseasons in Preller’s nearly decade-long tenure as general manager.
“If you’re going to be serious about winning, which we are, this was something we targeted all offseason long,” Preller said. “Obviously, getting somebody of the quality of Dylan Cease, I think, speaks to the fact that we think we have a chance to win and compete.”
Cease sliding into San Diego 🔥 pic.twitter.com/FOC6jkClpD
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 14, 2024
Preller has pulled off similarly timed moves before, including in April 2015 (Craig Kimbrel) and April 2022 (Sean Manaea and Taylor Rogers). But for months this winter, the Padres appeared to be closer to retreat than another major addition.
A franchise that mourned the death of owner Peter Seidler in November traded Juan Soto and Trent Grisham weeks later without ever offering Soto an extension. San Diego let Blake Snell, Josh Hader, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and Nick Martinez walk in free agency. The team remains thin in the outfield. And before Wednesday, the club’s projected payroll was almost $100 million lower than it was last summer, partly a byproduct of ownership’s commitment to return to compliance with Major League Baseball’s debt-service rule.
Cease’s arrival — the Padres are planning for the pitcher to rendezvous with them in Seoul — will signal a balance between familiar aggressiveness and less-familiar restraint. The 28-year-old logged a 4.58 ERA last season, but he is less than two years removed from a second-place finish in American League Cy Young Award voting; along with Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Michael King, he could give San Diego one of the best starting quartets in the National League. Meanwhile, Cease is owed an affordable $8 million in his second-to-last season before free agency. FanGraphs now projects the Padres at roughly $13 million below a luxury-tax line they still would prefer to avoid.
And now, perhaps, it is more understandable why the Padres sat by for much of the offseason, even as they told some player agents they were operating with a tight budget.
“Some of the trade conversations we were having, especially involving Dylan Cease … we wanted to make sure we didn’t just settle for players on our roster to maybe just fill a need and maybe get somebody that has a little experience,” said Preller, who described having a “running dialogue” with the White Sox from the start of the offseason. “We wanted to make sure we were targeted with our approach and intentional with our moves to give us a chance to do something like this today.”
The Padres, according to Keith Law’s most recent rankings, did not surrender one of their five best prospects; left-hander Robby Snelling (No. 4) and outfielder Dillon Head (No. 5) were among the other young players the White Sox asked about, league sources said. Preller still paid what rival evaluators and team officials alike deemed a steep price. Iriarte, 22, possesses an electric arm that could be ready for big-league action this summer. Thorpe, a 23-year-old acquired in the Juan Soto trade, appears even closer to the majors. Wilson, meanwhile, seemed likely to open the season as one of the Padres’ primary setup relievers.
But the Padres, after the departures of Snell, Wacha and Lugo, had been staring at the prospect of failing to fill enough innings. Cease has worked more than 165 innings in each of the past three seasons and, despite subpar command, still carries front-of-the-rotation upside. As for the bullpen, the Padres are facing something of a roster crunch, and they believe Jeremiah Estrada and others could combine to replace Wilson.
Preller, too, might not be done adding. League sources say he continues to be active in the trade and free-agent markets for corner-outfield help — a need that might have grown Wednesday after projected Opening Day left fielder Jurickson Profar exited the team’s Cactus League finale with a “mild” ankle sprain. Profar will be re-evaluated after flying with the Padres to Seoul.
The Padres, meanwhile, still have only three outfielders on their 40-man roster, although that number is expected to grow with the likely addition next week of shortstop prospect and budding center fielder Jackson Merrill. All spring, Merrill has impressed people inside and outside the organization. He has surpassed the expectations of some in the Padres front office, likely emboldening team officials to do what they did Wednesday with the White Sox.
“He continues to show that he’s earned opportunity to play, and he continues to earn his opportunity to get more time,” Preller said.
Still, Merrill has not yet turned 21, has not yet logged an official inning in center field and has not played so much as 50 games above A-ball. Wednesday’s blockbuster could end up being in vain if the Padres do not reinforce their outfield. And this entire offseason could be rendered irrelevant for Preller if he does not deliver an immediate winner. Just last month, Padres interim control person Eric Kutsenda raised eyebrows around the game by praising Preller’s eye for talent while also mentioning he would be held to a high standard in 2024.
In the end, the general manager was never going to sit still.
(Top photo of Dylan Cease: Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)
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