Padres owner says GM A.J. Preller, manager Bob Melvin have ‘full support,’ but leaves door open for changes

With their win within the regular-season finale, the San Diego Padres have been ready to eke out a profitable marketing campaign for 2023 at 82-80. Still, the crew’s paintings this season stands as possibly essentially the most disappointing of any MLB membership in 2023. That’s since the Padres got here into this season with the easiest payroll of any crew no longer primarily based in New York and with a roster filled with stars like Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Xander Bogaerts. 

That the Padres neglected the playoffs and completed 18 video games again of the division-winning Dodgers ended in assumptions that sweeping changes could be made. However, owner Peter Seidler on Monday released a statement that implies common manager A.J. Preller and manager Bob Melvin are secure, no less than for now. Seidler’s observation reads: 

“We entered 2023 with expectations that we would build on last year’s NLCS appearance and contend for a World Series Championship. We fell short of that goal. The Padres organization will learn from this season and emerge in 2024 with the pieces in place to compete for San Diego’s first World Series title. Our current leadership team continues to have my full support, and I have asked them to perform a thorough assessment of our organization, beginning today. We will make the changes necessary to play championship-caliber baseball for our extraordinary fans in 2024.”

There are alternative ways to parse any such observation gentle on specifics, but the “current leadership team” possibly refers to Preller and Melvin. Changes underneath the, whether or not or not it’s coaches or front-office make stronger group of workers, will not be so secure relying on what comes out of the interior overview that may happen. 

It’s in no way a collection of reactionary phrases from Seidler, which will have to have been tempting given the dimensions of the crew’s screw ups. As we detailed no longer way back, alternatively, a lot of the crew’s struggles can also be attributed to dangerous success and randomness, which in flip makes protecting the ones aforementioned famous person gamers in position for 2024 a wholly defensible way and one that is prone to yield higher effects.

The wintry weather to come back might but entail some roster upheaval for San Diego — payroll might decline up to 20% — but it does not sound like sweeping changes to the crew’s lead decision-makers, whether or not within the dugout or the luxurious field, will probably be approaching.