The Padres have ample reason to regret trading for Juan Soto. A.J. Preller insists he doesn't

New York Times

5 hours ago

SAN DIEGO — As the Padres hosted the Washington Nationals over the past few days, with James Wood flaunting his power in his Petco Park debut and MacKenzie Gore firing six strong innings and CJ Abrams flying around the bases, A.J. Preller watched the proceedings with what he later described as something resembling satisfaction.
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Almost three years ago, San Diego's president of baseball operations agreed to a historic blockbuster, surrendering coveted young players Wood, Gore, Abrams, Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana in order to acquire superstar outfielder Juan Soto. This week, two curtailed postseason trips later, the Padres find themselves on the crowded fringes of the National League playoff picture, fielding multiple roster holes and likely faced with limited flexibility ahead of the July 31 trade deadline.
Yet, speaking after the Padres eked out a second consecutive one-run victory, Preller was reflective, if not defiant. He praised his scouts for identifying the five prospects who eventually comprised an unprecedented trade-deadline package. He pointed to Soto's role in helping the Padres to the 2022 National League Championship Series, as well as the return San Diego secured for sending him to the New York Yankees before last year's run to the NL Division Series. And he said he felt happiness for Wood, Gore and Abrams, a trio with the potential to outnumber or at least match the tally of Padres representatives in next month's All-Star Game.
FLEECE EM pic.twitter.com/sGXazZcSrp
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 24, 2025
'Honestly,' Preller said Wednesday, 'I think in the baseball ops group we look back with a lot of pride and not regret.'
The coming weeks and months could either reinforce or alter those feelings. The Padres, at 44-36, are in a tie for the NL's final wild-card spot. Their offense continues to disappoint. Their shorthanded pitching staff continues to demonstrate resilience, even as Dylan Cease and Michael King move closer to free agency.
Team officials maintain that their farm system, depleted by years of win-now moves, has become significantly underrated, but the Padres also must contend with certain financial realities. For one, no team has a larger gap between its payroll ($211 million, as estimated by FanGraphs) and its luxury-tax figure ($263 million, slightly above the second tax threshold).
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Perhaps the Padres can take solace in the fact that the Nationals have failed to optimize their own position. The Nationals entered Wednesday having received at least 2.5 wins above replacement this season from each of Wood, Gore and Abrams. They were one of only three teams with three such players. The other two clubs, the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros, occupy familiar perches atop their respective divisions. Despite the performance and low salaries of their standout trio, the Nationals are on pace for a fifth consecutive 90-loss season. An end to their lengthy rebuild does not appear imminent.
In July 2022, an end to an even longer wait was on Preller's mind. The executive had overseen club-record spending and frequent aggressive trading. Yet, more than two years after the conclusion of their rebuild, the Padres were still seeking both the first full winning season and the first full-season playoff berth of Preller's tenure.
They also harbored ambitions of immediately capturing the franchise's first title.
Late owner Peter Seidler gave his general manager the latitude to pursue the loftiest targets. ('Peter was not a guy that was, like, pressuring you to do anything,' Preller said. 'What he was was really open to the possibility of all different ideas.') Preller took advantage of such freedom, knowing that his quest could require giving up the likes of Wood and Gore, two players the Padres had previously deemed untouchable.
'You're hoping that we could trade for Juan Soto with none of those guys in there, but we know that's not realistic,' Preller said. 'We had a team that ended up getting to the NLCS for the third time in franchise history and was three games away from a World Series. And from day one, I've talked about playing on the big stage. That's what it's about for our franchise, is getting to a World Series and winning a World Series for San Diego.
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'And with Peter, having an ability from a payroll standpoint and a prospect standpoint to be in that conversation, I think ultimately it set us up for the last few years of playoff runs,' Preller continued. 'Juan, last year, ends up doing what he did with the Yankees but also (giving the Padres) the ability to make the trade we made to set us to up to be in the position last year to be back in the playoffs and have a team that was one of the better teams in the league and had a chance to win a World Series. That's the goal every year. I think that move directly, indirectly ends up helping us get there over the last few years.'
The what-ifs of the past few years go beyond Soto's underwhelming performance in San Diego, the Padres' pitching outage in October 2022, Seidler's death in November 2023 or the 24-inning scoreless streak that ended the 2024 NLDS. In the weeks leading up to Preller's acquisition of Soto, the Padres were among the teams that had substantial discussions with the Los Angeles Angels about Shohei Ohtani.
Angels owner Arte Moreno eventually pulled Ohtani off the trade market, but the Padres came away from those sweepstakes feeling they would have had a legitimate chance of landing a two-way unicorn. According to league sources, Wood, Gore, Abrams, Hassell and current Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill were among the names that came up in the conversations with the Angels.
'It was a super unique time,' Preller said. 'I think, again, it's a testament to our organization that we at least had the ability to have those conversations. There was some talk about how we had traded some prospects the (previous) two years, and we knew our system was super strong. … It was a lot of fun to be able to have those conversations about which player you would rather have — you know, three years of Soto, two years of Ohtani, and then also the guys in our system that we knew were going to go on to be great players.'
At the time, Padres employees were especially high on Merrill and Wood, viewing both prospects as future stars. When both of them were sidelined with wrist injuries in May 2022, the organization brought the then-teenagers to watch a series at Petco Park and asked a top player-development official to sit with them.
Now, Merrill is one of the best young center fielders in baseball. Wood, in his brief time in the majors, has resembled a left-handed, 22-year-old version of Aaron Judge. The Nationals left fielder, playing the position that represents San Diego's greatest need, is sixth in the majors with 22 home runs. He is 10th in fWAR (3.3), just one spot behind Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr.
'The good news about both Soto trades is they were good for both parties, right? It allowed this club to go and do some good things in '22 and parlay into the trade we got after that,' said Padres manager Mike Shildt, who sat with Merrill and Wood during that series early in the 2022 season.
'For me, it was like, 'Man, that's so great we're getting Juan Soto. (But) ooh. James Wood.' But I don't think that was a surprise to A.J. That's the cost of doing business. What (Wood is) doing is not a surprise. He's a very gifted player, but he's also wired right with his head. He sees the game well, and he's a really mature guy.'
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Said Preller: 'There was a lot of love for James. His family, mom and dad are great people. You always want really good things to happen to good people. I think that's been clear from the time we took him, and then obviously into the minor leagues, we knew he was going to be a pretty special player and a pretty unique one.'
As the Padres approach another trade deadline, they must again balance their desire to chase a championship and the risk of mortgaging their future.
Wood is not the only player who could have solved San Diego's current needs. Gore is the current NL strikeouts leader. Abrams, while a shaky defender, is a club-controlled shortstop with rare offensive talent. His Padres counterpart, Xander Bogaerts, was scratched from Wednesday's lineup with shoulder soreness, one of multiple injuries that have contributed to making his $280 million contract one of the more burdensome deals in the sport.
'Last year with (then-Padres chairman) Eric Kutsenda and (Padres CEO) Erik Greupner and myself, we obviously went out and made moves … that really shored up our club and put us in a spot to make the playoffs and have a chance to win a World Series,' Preller said. 'And this year, with John Seidler (as Padres chairman), I think it's been very similar conversations … open to going any direction but understanding that if we have a chance to win, we're going to do everything we can to win a championship here in San Diego.'
The Padres still have two premium prospects in shortstop Leo De Vries and catcher Ethan Salas, who is expected to return next month from a stress reaction in his lower. At the moment, De Vries appears to be the lone relatively untouchable minor leaguer in a farm system that was thinned out amid last year's series of aggressive trades. This spring, The Athletic's Keith Law was one of multiple prospect writers who ranked that system near the bottom of the majors.
The Padres do not necessarily agree with such evaluations.
'I can tell already in some of the initial early conversations with clubs, we have a lot of guys that have stepped forward in the system,' Preller said. 'On the pitching side, there's been a number of guys that are going out and pitching well — some of whom have been highlighted as top names in our system, top draft picks, but there's been a group of guys that have continued to get better. … Whether that plays into the trade deadline or more so that plays into the next few years, I think that's been a real good development for us.'
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Would the Padres consider selling if they fall out of the wild-card race next month?
'We've had years where we've been aggressive. We've had years where we stood pat. We've had years where we've pivoted and dealt for prospects and minor-league players. I think your team kind of tells you where we're at. I think we're always open-minded,' Preller said. 'And I think for right now, it's looking like we're hoping to add to the club we have, but we're always going to be open to what direction we need to go and that makes the most sense for the team for now and the future.'
This week, the past resurfaced as a popular topic. Wood starred in his first official game at Petco Park, driving in four runs, while Abrams also supplied three hits. Gore pitched well enough Wednesday to win a series against his former team. He didn't win it, in part because Wood and Abrams combined to go 0-for-8 with six strikeouts in the finale.
The next several weeks will help shape the Padres' course, but for right now, Preller appears ready to keep swinging.