The San Diego Padres have hired an experienced front office man in the form of A.J. Preller to be their new general manager. What is seemingly a good move on the surface, seems to dig deeper into the Padres’ problems when you look at other options that were out there and potential franchise-changing individuals that San Diego passed up on.
Sources: #Padres hire A.J. Preller as GM.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 6, 2014
First, let’s look at Preller’s prior experience, which can be seen as impressive.
The Cornell University graduate has overseen international scouting with the Rangers and was the head of player development/scouting in Texas prior to San Diego hiring him on as general manager. He has 10 years of top-notch experience with the Rangers. However, Jon Daniels has really been the man in charge for the Rangers for years now, so Preller doesn’t necessarily bring decision-making experience to San Diego.
And that’s where the Padres may very well have dropped the ball.
Courtesy of UT San Diego: Hinch is seen as a bright baseball mind.
Former Padres assistant manager A.J. Hinch, who was one of the acting general managers since Josh Byrnes was fired in June, resigned from the organization immediately prior to reports that Preller was hired Tuesday evening.
Hinch, a former third-round pick of the Oakland Athletics back in 1996, has MLB experience as a player. Despite not being a good Major League player, he spent parts of seven seasons with the Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies and Athletics. Known for his baseball mind, Hinch was hired by the Arizona Diamondbacks as their manager of minor league operations just a year after retiring as a player. One year later, Hinch was promoted to the Diamondbacks director of player development position.
At this time, the former MLB player was considered one of the brightest young baseball minds in the game. And at just 34 years old, Arizona named Hinch their manager after Bob Melvin was fired early in the 2009 season. Despite a lack of success on the bench, Hinch’s baseball knowledge caught on. After he was fired by Arizona in 2010, he was hired on as the Padres’ vice president of scouting.
One of the deals Hinch made as acting GM brought the Padres top Angels prospects Taylor Lindsey.
Once Byrnes was fired from his GM post in San Diego, Hinch took control of the decision-making process. In the month or so that he was one of the Padres acting general managers, he pulled the trigger on multiple trades, sending the likes of Huston Street and Chase Headley packing. In the process, San Diego was able to bring in some top-tier young talent from both the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels. It’s that type of franchise-building philosophy that the Padres have been missing out on for some time now.
It might not be fair to Preller to indicate that Hinch was more qualified for the general manager position, but it does appear that the latter fit what the Padres must do from a front office perspective moving forward. There is also something to be said about continuity in the front office. No one can say that Hinch and his colleagues didn’t seem to have a good idea about what they were doing.
Outside of Hinch, there was an even more qualified option for the general manager position.
Kim Ng is currently the Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations for MLB and has an extensive history of being both interviewed and turned down for general manager positions in the past.
Courtesy of ESPN: Kim Ng is among the best all-around baseball minds.
Immediately after graduating from the University of Chicago in 1994, Ng took a job with the Chicago White Sox as a special projects analyst. Two years later, the New York Yankees hired her as assistant general manager. And in 2001, Ng became the Los Angeles Dodgers assistant general manager. In the meantime, Ng interviewed for vacant general manager positions with both the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres.
After striking out in these attempts to become a general manager, Ng took her current position with MLB. She was alson considered one of the finalists for the Padres general maanger position prior to Preller hiring.
Needless to say, the experience is there as it relates to what Ng brings to the table. This isn’t an argument based on Ng potentially becoming the first female general manager in the four major sports. Rather, it’s an indication that she’s more qualified for the position than Preller. Her experience within different aspects of MLB’s operating system made her an intriguing candidate. But San Diego, seemingly looking to “promote” less qualified candidates, even from the outside, decided to pass up on this talented executive.
Listen, the Preller hiring is likely going to end up being a good move for San Diego. But in no way was it a franchise-changing hiring. And that’s what bringing Hinch or Ng into that role would have been.