Comparing The Padres Current Rebuild With The Cubs, Mets, & Astros
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After embarking on a rebuilding course following a failed playoff bid in 2015, A.J. Preller has made a flurry of recent deals. He has traded almost everyone on the old roster for prospects in order to patch together a farm system he previously gutted.
Craig Kimbrel, Justin Upton, Ian Kennedy, Drew Pomeranz, Melvin Upton Jr., Andrew Cashner, and James Shields have all been traded or let go in exchange for prospects or first round picks. Preller was especially lauded for his returns in the Kimbrel, Pomeranz, and Cashner deals, bringing in speedy center fielder Manuel Margot, versatile infielder Carlos Asuaje, teen phenom starting pitchers Logan Allen and Anderson Espinoza, powerful first baseman Josh Naylor, and flame throwing reliever Carter Capps.
Having brought in so many high ceiling players, Preller has set his team up nicely for a run for the playoffs once all the team’s prospects reach the majors and blossom. They will all join Wil Myers, Yangervis Solarte, Austin Hedges, Hunter Renfroe, Cory Spangenberg, Travis Jankowski, and Luis Perdomo as MLB contributors.
In recent years, there are three teams that stand out as being able to successfully acquire and develop young talent while turning themselves into contending teams. Those teams are the Chicago Cubs, the New York Mets, and the Houston Astros.
Each took varying angles at rebuilding in order to create a sustainable winner. While the Astros had a mediocre 2016, the Mets were able to secure an N.L. Wild Card spot, and the Cubs won their first World Series title in over a 100 years, breaking their famed curse. Each chose different routes, with the Cubs focusing almost exclusively on position players, the Mets building one of the most feared pitching rotations in recent memory, and the Astros striking a balance between the two philosophies. The trio of teams all had one goal in mind though. A Championship.
So far in the Padres rebuild, they have leaned more towards the hitters side in terms of gathering prospects, but they also did draft two starting pitchers in the first round of the 2016 amateur draft in Cal Quantrill and Eric Lauer. They are showing that balance is the key in anything, especially in a rebuild. In this article, we will review how the Padres rebuild compares so far to that of the three aforementioned teams.
We will also explore how the rebuild provides hope for the only remaining professional sports team in San Diego (Dean Spanos can suck a lemon).
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Kent is high school student, and is the youngest writer at East Village Times. He plays baseball, and runs cross country. He is also a Life Scout currently working towards the rank of Eagle. He was born in San Diego, and been a Padres fan ever since.
Let’s relax on Turners prowess at SS until he plays more than 2 games at the ML level and puts in a full season with pitchers adjusting. Trumbo isn’t playing gold glove caliber defense everyday at 1B while stealing you 25+ bags. Plus Wil is 5 years younger under control for the prime 6 yrs of his career. Lets also not forget two pitchers came with Wil and both are young and could still devlope.
Sorry but Sandy Anderson had his crack at the Pads and his record is nothing to model. The Padres right now are more built on the Cubs model but missed opportunities with Ross, Upton and Norris when Dee wouldn’t let them blow it all up at the 15 trade deadline. If they get a top three pick in 17 and 18 you can draw more parallels to the Astros. Both clubs spent heavy on free agents when the time came to compete. It still remains a mystery if the Seidlers will follow suit in 2019.. Neither the Mets, Astros, or Cubs had as poor of a record of drafting and developing talent or an ML roster so void of talent to start their build. The Pads were in much worse shape to start.
With that said, it’s never been more interesting to watch who will step up.
I love the angles that Preller is taking. Ya, outside of Turner he didn’t give up anyone major to take a shot with a “win now” mentality. It would be great to still have Turner and Maybe Joe Ross? But it’s its hard to not be excited that the trade brought us Myers! Once he realized it wasn’t going to work, he quickly shifted gears and went full rebuild. The talent he’s acquiring is solid, high impact type players. Mix those guys in, when MLB ready with a few impact, proven free agents to round out roster. That sounds like a winner on the field with depth on the farm! I’m as excited as ever to be a Friars fan!
Turner, by himself, is twice the player Wil Myers is. The Orioles just signed Mark Trumbo, a better hitter and also a 1B/OF, for middle reliever money. Turner, on the hand, looks like he can play plus defense at shortstop while hitting .300 with power and also stealing 50 bases. As a Mets fan, I couldn’t be angrier at how bad that trade went because the Nats got so much better whereas the Padres got worse. No Padres fan can say with a straight face they’d rather have Wil Myers over Joe Ross and Trea Turner.
Straight face
I rather have Myers over Ross
The question is how dafq did Tampa not get turner and Ross
Great write up! I would argue that the rebuild started with the 2015 craziness. AJ came in assessed the farm system and saw a system that was very deep (if you recall the main reason is was highly regarded) but lacked serious impact talent. It had a lot of good but not great prospects outside of maybe trea turner. He used that depth to reshuffle it into major league “talent”. This not only was a strip down to build the farm system he wanted but also sparked interest and excitement around a team that had been for too long boring. The prospects he replaced the system with have a ceiling that we have not really ever seen in padres history. Not all of them will work out but it is really refreshing to see our team go after prospects that have potential to be all world rather than just big leaguers.
This kid knows his stuff, and can write! Let’s hear more from him.
Great job Kent!
What’s left to be seen is the Padres ability to develop the talent the have. They have a history of trading minor league players away who become successful elsewhere.
Andy Green is still a big question mark for me as well.
Nice piece, I enjoyed it!