Report: San Diego Padres hire A.J. Preller as general manager

The San Diego Padres have been using a temporary, multi-headed structure in their front office to handle the time between the firing of general manager Josh Byrnes in June and their decision on a new GM. On Tuesday night the Padres ended that temporary arrangement by making a hire.

To hear that Preller got the gig is something of a surprise, as multiple reports indicated that New York Yankees’ assistant general manager Billy Eppler was the man in line to be hired.

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Preller has experience in big league front offices, most recently as the former assistant GM in the Texas Rangers’ organization. As far as surface judgments are concerned, Padres’ fans can at least take comfort in the fact that Preller was involved in the construction of a winning team while he was in Texas.

Rebuilding the Padres will be no small task, but the team has at least managed to build some positive momentum in the past few months. Partially because of improved play and partially because of the good fortune of playing in the same division as the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks, the Padres have climbed up to third place in the National League West.

Additionally, the first few steps of rebuilding have already been carried out. Huston Street was traded to the Los Angeles Angels and Chase Headley was dealt to the New York Yankees. With better results already, a solid manager in Bud Black, and some promising starting pitching to work with, this might not be a bad deal at all for Preller…even if he is headed to the same division as the Los Angeles Dodgers.