Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

AJ Preller Recaps Tuesday's Trade Deadline

Padres President of Baseball Operations and General Manager AJ Preller joined Ben & Woods on Wednesday morning! Listen here as AJ recaps yesterday's busy trade deadline, why it was so important to him to bolster the Padres bullpen, why he's not afraid to "sell the farm system", and MUCH more!

Duration:: 18m
Broadcast on:: 31 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast ad. - It's the most anticipated WNBA season in history. - And you know what that means. - Court is back in session. - Welcome to Queens of the Court and Odyssey Original Podcast. - I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoop. - And I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long will be bringing you interviews with star athletes, analysis on your favorite teams. - And lots of hot tape. - Order, order in the court. Follow and listen to Queens of the Court on the Free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. - Speaking of the trade deadline, we've got on the line. Our next guest is someone who, earlier in the morning, you heard a former MLB executive Jim Bowdoin say, if he's not the executive of the year, then the system is broken right in Major League Baseball. I know he doesn't care about that sort of thing, but we've got AJ Preller, Padres General Manager and President of Baseball Operations with us post trade deadline. AJ, good morning. Congratulations on that win last night. How you feeling? - Oh, good, good morning guys. Thanks for having me. - Did you get any sleep now? I don't know if you saw, but the camera's caught you last night in your box. Big yawn, which I can't, I mean, how much sleep do you get like on the night before the trade deadline when you got GMs on the East Coast and the West Coast and, you know, they may be calling. What is that night like for you? - You know, obviously it's really like a, it's a few weeks now, you know, 'cause you have the draft. So which is, you know, like the draft, right next up to the trade deadline. So the last, you know, really month almost, it's a ton of fun and it's baseball. We're just talking about baseball day long every day, and, you know, but the last week, obviously, it intensifies and we took our baseball app staff. They went on the road. So we were there in DC and Baltimore and then came back home and then obviously, you know, last 48 hours, there's, especially this year, every deadline's a little bit different in terms of the information back and forth. There were a ton of calls back and forth and, you know, a lot of things flying, but it was a lot of, honestly, the last couple of weeks. - So, like, how did the trade with the Marlins? You have Peter Bendix, how, what does that work? Like, how long were you talking about that? How quickly did it come together? 'Cause you've got to, obviously, a deadline, you know, three o'clock yesterday, you got to get it all submitted to Major League Baseball and finalized. So, tell me a little just about how that process works. - Yeah, I mean, I think specifically the tennis guy deal, you know, obviously you've got, you know, we're canvassing kind of getting a good sense of what's out there and, you know, different possibilities. And, you know, each day you get a little bit more information. Some teams play it pretty close to the vest. Some teams are pretty open, you know, in terms of what they may be willing to give up or what they're looking to do. So as you keep getting more and more into what the, you know, what the realistic things are, you know, and then in our room, it's just constantly ranking and re-ranking and talking about different possibilities. In terms of a Peter in the Marlins, like, he's, you know, again, like, I think they were clear. They're looking to build their program and add a lot of players to their system. You know, I think they were aggressive, obviously, you know, earlier in the season and then, you know, here at the deadline and they're willing to make trades and they're a very straightforward group that tells you here are guys we like, here's kind of like the parameters of different deals and that makes it easy to work with in terms of like, whether you just make decisions, whether you want to do something or not or fits. And, you know, we kind of got to send three or four days ago that we were going to be one of the teams on that short list for, you know, for Tanner Scott and some of their other players they were moving on and then, you know, yesterday it just kept progressing a little bit more and more. And ultimately, honestly, probably about 30 seconds, we made the deal and then I think one of the media president, Jeff Patrick, somebody broke it. But it was pretty clean process. It took a few, you know, it took a few weeks, but, you know, in the last few days, we started lining up more and more on the players. - AJ, I heard what you said yesterday before the game about, you know, how the playoffs work and with the days off and how important it is to have a lockdown bullpen. I think of kind of what the Phillies kind of had going the last couple of years in the playoffs with all the guys they can throw at you. Tell us kind of about the thinking behind how the playoffs now works with so many rounds, but not, you know, seven games in seven days why the bullpen is so critical. - Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, any championship team, you got to have a lockdown bullpen. So, I mean, I think that's, you know, that's always the case with, you know, with most teams that go into October, these are going to be close games. You saw it last night, you know, teams that can, that can kind of, you know, hold other teams down. It gave us a chance to get back into that game and then late in the game, you know, if you can shut down other teams, best players. I mean, it's a huge part of it. And then, you know, with the current playoff system, you know, you're seeing, it's just, you know, you get the extra round of playoffs, less off days. You've got to go to an extra starter. We saw that in the playoffs, you know, a few years ago, where you've got to go to your fourth and fifth guys more than, more than in the past. And, you know, a lot of times with that extra round and just the, you know, the amount of games, you know, and a lot of teams are choosing to kind of go to their pens earlier and more often. So, just having that depth, I think, you know, you look a few years ago, you know, a lot of different ways to win. But it was kind of like, if you could get three starters and, you know, probably about three pen guys that you could ride throughout the playoffs, you know, teams had some success doing that now, you know, you've got to have a lot more depth. And, you know, we just wanted to have as many weapons as possible and guys that could, you know, that could impact us against really good lineups. We saw that in 22 when we beat the Mets and the Dodgers. Suarez, Hader, Garcia, Martinez, that whole crew was a really huge part of it. And hopefully we have another group that Mike and Ruben can use. And those guys can get some huge outs for us. And, you know, the next couple of months and what's going to be a heck of a panel race. - Yeah. Of course, yeah. You got to get there first, you know, to be well set up for the postseason. And I know a lot of people just asking about, you know, what's going to happen now at the back end of the rotation? Obviously, you're hoping to get some guys back and healthy, but hope's not necessarily a plan. You did pick up Martin Perez. Tell me a little bit about Perez. Why him? And not maybe some of the other options as there's something you saw there that you think that he can be a useful piece for you the rest of the season. - Yeah, I think, you know, as we looked at in different comics, we checked in on all the starters that were out there and had interest to different degrees and a lot of the starting options that were there. You know, and ultimately, you know, we felt like the ability to go get Tanner Scott, Jason Adams, but then add, honestly, like a piece of that Marlin deal in terms of giving up the players we gave up was getting Brian Owen back, who, you know, we think has the ability to feel different roles in our pen and then Martin, you know? I think, you know, he's left-handed. He's been an all-star pitcher, you know, in his career, got experience. He's kind of been through this, been on a world championship team. You know, he still has four pitches and we feel like he's a guy that Ruben and the pitching group can help out with some different things that we're gonna talk to him as well about, but, you know, he's kind of been through it before and he's got real stuff. And again, I think for us, you know, as we looked at it, you know, with a deep pen, you know, starters that have some experience, a moxie left-handed, which is a nice compliment to our right-handed group and, you know, can give us some innings. And then we know that, you know, whether it's a Joe Musgrove or, you know, looking at looking at guys in AAA, John Ebrido, Randy Vasquez is a development. We've got some depth there in that area and we're gonna obviously need it here in the next couple months. You don't just live in your home. You live in your neighborhood as well. 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Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast on your favorite podcast app. - This season, the W is going to new heights, and that means the queens are ready to take it to court and the court. Welcome to Queens of the Court and Odyssey Original Podcast. I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoops, and I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long. You can count on us to bring you interviews with some of your favorite WNBA stars, analysis of all teams, and hot takes you can only find in this courtroom. - Listen to Queens of the Court, a WNBA podcast presented by AT&T on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. - Talking to pot-based general manager, AJ Preller, and AJ talked to you enough to know you're about as open-minded as it comes in ways to improve your roster. So, did you go into this deadline with the idea that we weren't going to trade Ethan Salas or Leah Dallas DeVries? Or were you even open-minded about that? I know you listened. You said you always want to see what other teams are saying and asking, who they're asking about, but was that like the plan? Like, you know, unless something shocking happens, we want to keep those two guys. - Yeah, they're two super exciting young players. So, it's, you know, you've got, you know, you've got to, again, a two-premium position, you know, catcher and short stop, left-handed bat, and a switch hit bat. So, again, like, we think highly of a lot of guys in our system, and I think I said this again yesterday. You know, we kind of look at it, you're going to make trades, and you're going to trade players if you know what you're doing from an evaluation standpoint or scout, do a great job. You're going to trade guys that are going to, you know, get to the big leagues and potentially impact, and then hopefully you're making deals that help your current team and your future teams, and you're getting talent back as well. With those two players, obviously you've got to make evaluations of where they stack up, you know, we'll listen on anybody. I think you owe it to the team, the organization's just a listen, but we think as highly as of Leo and Ethan as any guys we've had in the system here, we've had some great ones in the last 10 years. You know, and it's cool, too, you get into the process, and internally you have your own, you know, opinions of those players. But when you kind of get into the trade deadline, you get a sense of what the industry thinks, and I think they kind of share that opinion. So for us, we think they're huge parts of our future, and, you know, obviously really happy to see what their development is going to look like here in the next few years, and come up to Becco and be in part of our core. - You know, Ajay, we were talking earlier about your ability to restock the farm system seemingly year after year, especially when you have big trades like you had in '22, and trades like you had this trade deadline. There's a portion of the fan base, though, that looks at those trades yesterday, and they go, Ajay sold the farm. He sold the farm for some bullpen pieces. I was just curious, how do you respond to that? The idea of, quote unquote, selling the farm, because you forgot that ability of restocking the farm every year, is that just a total confidence in yourself? - No, I mean, I think the depth of the system at least gives us option. You know, there's been years where we've made trades, there's been times where we haven't made deals at the deadline. So, I think we have, you know, I think we have a great scouting group, you know, Chris Kemp on the amateur side, Pete DeYoung on the pro side, you know, and on the international side, our group does a great job. So that gives us the ability to at least have these conversations. You know, it's not, we definitely aren't flipping, like we understand, like, if it's really hard to get, you know, really good young players, and you can't just like flip, you know, snap your fingers and go get two or three more. That's a huge process, it takes a lot of time, but we've got a group that's, you know, they work really hard and they're good at it. So that at least enables us to have these conversations. We've kind of been through this the last few years where I think after some of the moves in 20 or 22, it was kind of like, all right, well, you know, now they've sold the farm, quote unquote, and then a few years, you know, a few years a year, two months later, there were some other guys. And I think this year, you know, the same thing, we felt like internally, we have a lot of pitching depth, and some of which has been identified by the industry, some of which internal, you know, I think for us, like, you know, we feel like that was an area of strength and that was an area we could at least listen to in these deals and you've got to be willing to give something to get something. You know, no teams call up and, you know, we'll take your, you know, your 70th ranked player for some sort of real value, you know? So I think our scouts do a great job, our development depth does a good job. And, you know, that gives us those options to make some decisions. And, you know, I think this case this year with the deadline, we felt like we traded some really good, especially the pitching prospects that you mentioned. But we've got some guys that we feel like internally in the system that we've identified that we think are going to be really good for us as well. - I heard you say that yesterday, and I know you don't ever want to tip your hand or play favorites, but I'm curious about a couple of those guys who may not have hit the rankings yet or having good seasons that you've got your eye on. Can you share anything about, you know, some of the guys that you're excited about with the arms in your system? - Yeah, I mean, it was that we had, you know, so many calls from other teams as well about guys like, you know, Francis Peña, Henry Baez, and Isaiah Lo. I think if, you know, you go on Giannis on Twitter, he identifies him every night, I feel like. And then, you know, we feel like we got guys that, you know, that internally we feel really good about. And that's just a few, that's just to name a few. And, you know, I think from our standpoint again, like we've, it's fun to watch the development of a lot of these guys, you know, in our system, you know, and ultimately when we sat there and talked, it wasn't like we were looking at the step, like, hey, we only have these two prospects to deal from, or, you know, and the end of the, you know, the other teams have to like your players. And I think for us, you know, again, like that was a huge part of our calculation internally was, you know, having those conversations, talking about, hey, if we move so and so, you know, how do we rank or evaluate, you know, this player versus that player, knowing that the next, you know, you always need to add to your current, to your current group and your current team with guys coming up from the system. We've had some of, some guys come up this year and make real contribution. And, you know, I feel really confident about what we have in the system right now that we're gonna have some guys show up here, you know, maybe in the next few months, but definitely in the next few years, that they're gonna really contribute from the pitching side especially. - Well, AJ, I really appreciate it. I hope you got some rest last night. And good luck to the team. Great way to start post all-star break with last night's win. That was a, a hack of a lot of fun. And it's good to talk to you again this morning. - I appreciate it. Thank you guys. - There he is, AJ Preller, president of baseball operations, general manager for the San Diego Padres. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also, you can make the right decision for your family, homes.com. We've done your homework. - Nice. - Today's episode is sponsored by Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. Nerd wallets experts will set future you up for success. With dependable, fact-based insights, no financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation. Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. - Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again? 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Welcome to Queens of the Court and Odyssey Original Podcast. I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoops, and I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long. You can count on us to bring you interviews with some of your favorite WNBA stars, analysis of all teams and hot takes you can only find in this courtroom. - Listen to Queens of the Court, a WNBA podcast presented by AT&T on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.