The Padres are about to be in big trouble
It’s concealing medical information about your players makes them look more appealing on the trade market. At least that’s how the thinking goes in the San Diego Padres’ front office.
The San Diego Padres are about to be in a big heap of trouble. Major League Baseball’s training rooms operate under an honor system. Each team is supposed to enter its players medical information into a league-wide database every time a player receives any form of preventative treatment — hot tub sessions, ice baths, even aspirin usage are supposed to be recorded.
It’s a system that is designed to keep players’ records private, but also make sure that useful information regarding things like sore hamstrings or shoulders — even if the player in question did not actually hit the disabled list — can be exchanged when trade talks begin.
The San Diego Padres apparently were not big fans of that system, and their front office instructed the training staff to keep two sets of records. Major injuries and disabled list trips would go on the league’s system, but preventative measures or nagging soreness would not be available for the rest of the league. The aim of this system was to give the Padres an advantage in any trade discussion.
That’s kind of a no-no in professional sports, and now the league is wrapping up its investigation into the team’s medial reports.
Several teams have already taken issue with the Padres after making deals. The Red Sox dealt one of their top prospects, Anderson Espinoza, for Drew Pomeranz. It was only after they unwrapped their shiny new left-hander that they discovered he had been undergoing preventative treatment for arm soreness. That would have been nice to know, considering that Pomeranz is in his first full season as a big league starter. The Chicago White Sox traded for James Shields, and he has pitched to a 3-10 record and a 7.30 ERA since leaving San Diego.
The most egregious trade by the Padres came when they shipped Colin Rea to the Miami Marlins along with Andrew Cashner. In his first start with his new team, Rea felt elbow discomfort. That prompted the almost unheard of “tradeback,” where the Marlins got their prospect, Luis Castillo back.
“The whole system has to be built on trust, to some degree,” one official familiar with the situation said. “You can’t have teams withholding medical information in a baseball trade any more than you have a car salesman not disclosing vehicle history. It can’t work. It’s about the integrity of the system.”
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At the All-Star Break this year, the Padres had only 10 players in their system. Most other teams around the league had over 60. Obviously, there was some funny business going on. Boy-wonder GM A.J. Preller drew a ton of praise for his ability to rebuild the Padres’ farm system over the winter and at the trade deadline this year, but as the saying goes…if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Preller has already been reprimanded by the league on two other occasions for violations of MLB rules regarding prospect signings and workouts, and it appears his willingness to skirt the rules continues. This latest shenanigan, however, is by far his worst act, and should result in hefty fines and severe punishment for the Padres franchise.