Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Padres fans and fans across the country.
The San Diego Padres fanbase has been through a lot this season. It started with early season reports that San Diego had the worst farm system in the MLB. That transitioned to an MLB offense that was ranked near the bottom of the league in every statistical category, a pitching rotation decimated by injury and a patchwork of arms that was unwatchable at times. Despite all of that, rookie manager Craig Stammen had his team playing well and at one point 11 games over .500. Talk at the time was that how the Padres were winning games was unsustainable. Then the crashed happened. San Diego hit the skids and had a losing streak that saw them fall below .500 as the team headed into the All-Star break.
Coming out of the break, the conversation among fans, Padres front office personnel and the baseball world turned toward what the team should do at the MLB Trade Deadline. The Padres had hoped to come out of the All-Star break and jump right into a winning streak that would compel San Diego president of baseball operations and general manager to buy at the deadline, or at the very least keep what was in place. Instead, the Padres dropped two games to the Kansas City Royals and three games to the Atlanta Braves and started their post-All-Star road trip 2-5 heading into a three-game series at Miami.
The Padres went on to sweep the Marlins and finished their road trip 5-5 and headed back to San Diego for a homestand against the Colorado Rockies and the San Francisco Giants. There was still no indication what the Padres would do at the deadline and with a two-game sweep of the Rockies and taking three out of four games against the Giants, Preller and his team became buyers. However, there was still talk San Diego could try to be a buyer and possibly sell some pieces to improve the poorly ranked farm system. By the time the deadline had come and passed, the Padres had acquired two of the top starters available and a utility player and kept the roster intact.
San Diego added starters Robbie Ray, who had just got the win for San Francisco when the two teams met, and Casey Mize and Gage Workman from the Detroit Tigers. It was good to see Preller address the rotation, which proved to be the most glaring need at the deadline, but he paid the price for adding two rental arms, further depleting his farm system. Some people were unhappy with the decision not to trade players in the final years of their contracts like Adrian Morejon or Ty France. Some were unhappy that players with options at the end of the year like Michael King were not traded. But throughout baseball Preller and the Padres were lauded for the work they did at the Trade Deadline.
The Padres Reacts Survey question from this week asked respondents to give their take on the deadline moves. There were multiple options to choose from, including “Great,” “Good,” “Fair,” “Poor,” and “Terrible.” The majority were right in the middle with no one getting too high and no one getting too low. After seeing the first two starts from Ray and Mize the responses might look different, but both players were out of routine and are expected to bounce back in their next outings. The Padres, Preller and the Friar Faithful all hope so or this could turn into one of the worst deadlines of Preller’s tenure.
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