Padres manager Andy Green on Friday "came to the defense" of suspended Exec VP & GM A.J. Preller, "delivering the organization's first public attempt at explaining how it has come to draw industry-wide scrutiny," according to Dennis Lin of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Green said, "If the full story is told, we made some mistakes. We've owned those. My hope is to kind of shed some light." MLB on Thursday suspended Preller for 30 days without pay for withholding medical info in trade talks, and sources said that the Padres also "were fined an undisclosed amount." Green said that he was "not privy to the findings of a two-month investigation by MLB." Green: "Through the whole season, there was a never time when [Padres pitching coach] Darren Balsley came to me and said, 'Hey, you need to be worried about [P] Drew Pomeranz.' Never happened one time." He added, "Almost every day I go around the outfield and talk to my pitchers. I want to see how they feel. You're relying on them being honest and truthful with you, but (Pomeranz) took the ball every day and he never told me he had any issues going on." Green "spoke in similar terms about" P Colin Rea, who was originally traded to the Marlins, "exited his Marlins debut due to an injury and was subsequently returned to the Padres." Green said that there "was never a 'malicious intent to deceive anyone in the process,' echoing statements issued by Padres ownership and Preller." Green: "There was never this belief that we're trying to pull one over on the rest of Major League Baseball" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/17).
NOT MAD, JUST DISAPPOINTED: Red Sox Chair Tom Werner on Friday said of MLB suspending Preller, "We were extremely disappointed in the decision. We felt that some wrong was committed and that it's important to have a level playing field. The Padres didn't play on it, and I probably said more than I should be saying, but we were disappointed." In Boston, Jason Mastrodonato noted it is "not known" if Werner "wishes the trade would have been reversed or if he simply wanted the Padres to receive additional punishment" (BOSTON HERALD, 9/17). YAHOO SPORTS' Mark Townsend noted that although Preller's suspension did not start until today, the Red Sox were also reportedly "upset that Preller was spotted in the open addressing Padres instructional league players on Friday" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/17). In San Diego, Jeff Sanders wrote Preller's job "requires him to play nice with other front offices, keep up relations, maintain open lines of communication for the sake of the franchise he's charged with shaping into a contender." Sanders: "How is that possible now?" A former GM in a text message wrote, "I would not be comfortable dealing with him." Even if Preller's job is safe, his "future in this game appears as murky as ever" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/17).
HARDLY HURTS: In N.Y., Tyler Kepner wrote, "To give Preller only 30 days of punishment, and leave it at that, hardly hurts the Padres." The suspension "should have covered the off-season, and the Padres should have been forced to surrender draft picks, should have been restricted in the international market, or both." Consider that a player who tests positive for PEDs "gets an 80-game suspension." Kepner: "With no written guidelines, baseball chose a much weaker penalty for cheating by a top executive, whose actions could have far greater impact than the enhanced performance of one player" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/18). MLB Network's Christopher Russo: "That to me is really shady and that deserves more than 30 games" ("High Heat," MLB Network, 9/16). ESPN's Aaron Boone said of Preller's suspension, "It makes me kind of angry because now you've got to throw in another layer of rules, another layer of regulations. ... Now it makes everyone on their guard instead of being able to trust who you're dealing with" ("Yankees-Red Sox," ESPN, 9/18). San Diego’s XETV-CW’s Lee Hamilton said, “If you violated that relationship with Major League Baseball by what he did ... and he violated relationships with the other 29 general managers, I do not know how he does business going forward.” Hamilton: “I am stunned the Padres were not hit with a massive fine, $250,000 to maybe $1 million because he is a repeat offender dating back to stuff he did in Texas” (“High Heat,” MLB Network, 9/16).
NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY: ESPN’s Bob Ley said of the situation, “It almost sounds like a comedy but it’s deadly serious.” Meanwhile, ESPN’s Pedro Gomez said among MLB front offices, this issue is being viewed as “incredibly negative (and) they cannot believe that a ball club is doing this.” Gomez: “You can't have a rogue organization like this going about it in a completely different way than the other 29 clubs operate and that’s the view that is being viewed very negatively. They don't think this is going to end well for both the Padres and possibly A.J. Preller.” Gomez: “A couple people have told me this is what happens when you get people that, owners specifically, that just want to get the next whiz kid and … a lot of these guys have not had a lot of experience in major league baseball" ("OTL," ESPN, 9/16).
