“For want of a nail, the shoe is lost. For want of a shoe, the horse is lost. For want of a horse, the rider is lost.”
– George Herbert

The San Diego Padres had a few good general managers in the past.

The two most famous were “Trader” Jack McKeon and Kevin Towers; both were well-loved and respected by baseball and the fans, and both were responsible for building the only two Padres World Series teams in history. McKeon and Towers were good men who worked within the confines of the team’s limited financial resources, sometimes to the detriment of the franchise, but were able to put competitive teams and farm systems together.

However, comparing either man to A.J. Preller is like comparing a reasonable Toyota Camry to Elon Musk’s Starship.

Preller is responsible for at least half of the biggest and most consequential deals in the franchise’s entire history. He also built the best farm system in the game on two separate occasions, as well as facilitating the highest payroll in team history (alongside Peter Seidler). Few men, let alone few general managers, have turned a team’s identity and fortunes on their head as A.J. Preller did for the Padres.

The names of the people he’s acquired, alongside the people he’s traded away, are legendary. And since the turn of the decade, the Padres have had the longest continual record of success in team history.

At the same time, few men have been responsible for as much chaos leading the team as A.J. Preller.

It is incredibly rare for general managers to hire two managers under their tenure, barring a long history of success. Including two interim managers (Rod Barajas in 2019 & Pat Murphy in 2015), A.J. Preller has utilized eight different managers in 12 years of running the Padres.

While granted that every manager hired since 2020 had a winning record (previously), the instability of leadership for a winning franchise has been without precedent.

In nearly every case, the leader on the field ends up running afoul of leadership in the front office, regardless of what flowery words are said. Mike Shildt left because of ‘burnout’. Bob Melvin and A.J. Preller couldn’t be in the same room together. Jayce Tingler showed poor leadership, and Andy Green was forced out after a long time without sufficient resources.

It doesn’t seem to matter if the manager is one of “A.J.’s boys” or if the manager is chosen by ownership; they all run afoul of the general manager to the point that even consistent winning and copious amounts of talent won’t keep them at the helm.

The hiring of Craig Stammen might be the penultimate example of Preller’s poor decision-making.

With a team full of veterans and a window of opportunity closing more than it was opening (especially after two straight years of going ‘all-in’), A.J. Preller decided not to go with another veteran manager to replace the steady Mike Shildt.

Instead, he brought into the process a man with team history but no managerial experience at all, in Craig Stammen, and made him the leader.

Why he thought this would work after a similar experience with Tingler can only be explained by him. But the results, unfortunately, speak for themselves. Managers with no experience can be successful, but the history of such moves shows it’s very rare.

Managers who’ve played with the players they are hired to lead have shown no such history of success.

Stammen and his staff have proven completely incapable of forcing the team to play to its potential or even getting his team to play fundamentally clean ball, something both Melvin and Shildt were effective at. Stammen has shown he can be creative and flexible, both of which are positive qualities compared to the previous two, but nothing he has done or said has produced meaningful changes.

The management of his pitching staff has led to an exhausted bullpen at the halfway point in the season, and he has shown an inability to hold players accountable or push his team to get better results. Worst of all his staff have lead to horrible team results with the primary examples being the complete collapse of the team’s offense (from an already poor starting point) under hitting couch Steven Souza Jr. While it’s passe to blame offense solely on a hitting coach, as the players are ultimately responsible, the results have been so poor that both Stammen and Souza bear the blame by default. And the blame for their hiring has to fall, as did the ones before them, on general manager A.J. Preller.

Preller should be celebrated for his boldness, his brashness, and his willingness to make impressive moves.

But his poor history of picking and maintaining managers should be the final nail in his employment as general manager. Ideally, you could move Preller into a lower role as head of the farm system and scouting, a position and role he was and would be exceptional in, while bringing in a more level-headed general manager to helm the team under new ownership.

However, if that’s not an option, then it’s the opinion of this writer that it’s time to move on from A.J. Preller as general manager.

For the raising and training of the horse, he should be celebrated in the history of the San Diego Padres. For his failure to keep the rider on, he should be fired.

Loren Casuto

A Native San Diegan, Loren has spent his entire life not only as a fan but an active participant in San Diego’s sports world. In 2006 Loren joined two other die hard Charger fans to create Bolttalk, where Loren was a co-host and regular columnist from 2006 until the Chargers left in 2017. After that he started another podcast, The Grid Podshow, from 2020-2021 with his former co-host and colleague, speaking about the local sports community and popular culture.

When he’s not giving his opinion about San Diego sports, Loren is an adjunct professor at San Diego State and an attorney.