It’s OFFICIAL…

It’s OFFICIAL…

It’s official as this report reveals huge details about Padres’s and key members of the organization. What does this mean for the future? Major implications? Let’s find out. Welcome to another episode of Padres’s Digest with your host Andrew. Today we’re talking about a report from Kevin AC and the San Diego Union Tribune which reveals big things. You could probably guess what it is by now, but let’s talk about it. Before anything though, of course, I’ll bring this up as I always do. Please subscribe. We’re super close to 2750. Uh hopefully we can get to 3K by the end of October, but I think we’re making a good pace to be honest. But let’s start with the news. So, you’re you’re probably seeing two major fig well I guess three major figures, but the two ones you can actually see uh this is from the article Padres’s expected to retain Mike Schill and AJ Prowler. So, I know this is an MLB trade rumors article and I was going to use it, but to be honest, it doesn’t really add anything new. It just says what the article already says and then adds in a bunch of like this is what AJ Per did since he’s been here. Like we’re Padre fans. We know what AJ Pller has done since he came to the organization in 2014. But I have a lot of articles and stuff. So I think let’s just start reading some article or some transcripts, whatever the thing says, right? This I didn’t chat GBT it. I just pulled it straight from the article. So let’s start. John Sidler’s first effort at communicating to Padres’s fans following a season was somewhat different than the standard public relations crafted missive. That’s a new word. In an email sent to every account in the team’s database, there were the usual platitudes of gratitude for fans support. But the Padres’s chairman four paragraph letter went further as he went on to assist assert the team’s weaknesses had been exposed in their wildcard series loss and to acknowledge the need to get better. It was a public pronouncement that a franchise with a history of sub mediocrity has entered a new era where expectations have leveled up greatly. And to be honest, I love that. Like obviously we all miss Peter. Peter Sidler made Padres’s baseball just a billion times better. But if our new owner has that mindset and is not afraid to be like, “Hey, we suck, but we’re going to get better for you.” I actually love that. I want that attitude on this team. Does that mean he’s going to open up the checkbook and start signing Pete Alonzo to a major lucrative deal and Kyle Schwarber to a major lucrative deal? I don’t know to be honest. Probably not. But I still want an owner who is willing to put the team out on like call the team out and I think he’ll have I I don’t know. I think he’ll have a good impact on this team. I don’t know what it is yet. I don’t know what he’s going to do. I just have to hope and believe that someone who pays this much for a team is gonna is going to be willing to make things happen. Also, please apply. But I don’t know. You guys can let me know what you think about that. But let’s move on to the next one. By all accounts, the intention is that the president of baseball operations, AJ Prowler, and Schult will remain. Prell has one year remaining on his contract, and Schult has two. Multiple sources have said Schilt spot is virtually guaranteed and that Pller’s long-term employment with the Padres’s is practically assured, aka Prell is going to be here longer than one year. Some of those same sources have said they expect an extension for Pller to be announced this month. However, those people have cautioned that the parties still have to discuss the terms and parameters of an extension and importantly what is expected in terms of day-to-day operations going forward. So, yes, sorry to the AJ Prowler haters and the Mike Schult haters, but I’ll be honest, I think this is a good thing. I think genuinely this is a good thing. And I have some images that uh might change your mind or back up your points. I don’t know. But let’s go through them real quick. The single most important thing we can do is bring back AJ Prowler on an extension and allow him to continue to be aggressive. The second he goes is the second we revert back to the blue Padres’s and this all goes to crap. And honestly, I’m I guess it depends on So, I’m not an old head, right? Like, I know a lot of you guys have been watching baseball for a long time, so I obviously don’t have the same perspective as all of you guys have, but I think AJ Prowler has been the best GM for us, maybe ever. I know there was uh u I know like in the 80s there was stuff like that. Like, what was his name? Was it Trader? Jack. Jack. Oh god. I want to be I’m going to be a casual. Oh god, don’t make fun of me. Old heads, please spare me. But I know we’ve had GMs that have traded people. I mean, we’ve had crazy GMs. Like, we traded Aussie Smith to the Cardinals and then he became a Hall of Famer. Uh, so like it’s definitely not like AJ Per is the first GM to ever make bad decisions for this franchise. Uh, but I think I think he’s done more positive for us overall than hurt us. And that’s a matter of perspective. I know a lot of you guys are super angry right now. Uh, but I think overall AJ Peller has done more for us than hurt us. And I mean 2014 we basically sold everything to try to make a run and then we all saw what happened, right? And then even I guess I can show you this. Well, I I’ll come up in a sec. But uh people Well, yeah, I’ll get I’ll do it right now. Whatever. Uh AJ Per and the Padres’s destroyed their farm to create the best bullpen in baseball and try to compete and they still lost in the wildard round. LMFO. I don’t know if that’s Padre fans or a Dodger fan. It doesn’t matter because technically he’s not wrong because he’s not right. But like I guess the question I want to ask is would you rather he not try? You know what I mean? Like yes, we love prospects. Yes, we want to see our future. But like I also want to see someone who tries to improve this team and tries to make it better cuz clearly at the trade deadline we were not a good team. Like before Ramon Lauraniano and before Ryan O’Harn, before them, we were a horrible offense. We were, right? And our bullpen was good. Don’t get me wrong. I I agree that Mason Miller might have been overkill. It might have been overkill, but now that Suarez is probably gone and we saw what Miller can do in the playoffs, he’s probably going to be our closer. And I know Christian just made a video that he might be our starter. I don’t hate it still. I mean, we kind of got a second Leo the rise with Jorge Kintana, who could also be really good. So, while you might hate that he sold the farm, we’re still slowly rebuilding the farm, and we always do that. We never don’t do that. And like, I just made a video about Tucker Musgrove. We just signed a pitcher from uh Taiwan. Like, it it’s a hard process to be an AJ Prowler fan because what he does hurts us, but I think the overall ending of it is the fact that we do get better. Now, what happened this year, we’ll talk we’ll we’ll talk about it. I’m not saying that’s entirely AJ Peller’s fault. I’m not going to say it’s entirely not his fault. We’ll talk about it. But let me start by going back to this. People make fun of AJ Peller, but he is one of the hardest working general managers in baseball. The season just ended and he’s already making move for the Padres’s. Have to respect him for that. And then Mike Shield has done two things no manager in Padres’s history has done. Back-to-back seasons making the playoffs. back-to-back seasons with 90 or more wins. Put respect on his name. Not to mention AJ Peller for four postseason appearances in six seasons. I feel like it’s more than six seasons. 2014, that’s like 10 years. I don’t know. Whatever. But but like here’s the thing about this year, right? And we’ll get into it in a sec, but like this year I felt like was not just an AJ Per problem, was not just a Mike Schill problem, was not just a Machado Tatis problem. I think it was an overall organizational problem. And I thought I had a picture for this, maybe I didn’t, but I think one of the biggest issues with this team, and we’ll talk about it, like I said, in a sec, uh, is not them like AJ Peller and Mike Schill. I think it was him. And I know it’s really small, but I’ll read it to you, but I’ll read the picture first. I can’t just I can’t justify firing a manager that wins 90 games a season. I can justify firing a hitting coach who zaps teams of their power and then they regain it afterwards. 2023 Guardians with Rodriguez, 124 home runs. Dead last in the MLB. 2024, without him, 185 home runs, 12th in the MLB. 2017 Red Sox with Rodriguez, 168 home runs, 27th in the MLB. 2018, without him, 208 home runs, ninth in the MLB. The Padres’s were also awful situationally this year, 23rd in MLB with runners and scoring position average. Uh, and then the top part says, “Victor Rodriguez doesn’t prioritize power. That 2018 Red Sox team is one of the best teams ever and they fired V-Rod the previous season. The core was relatively the same hitting wise the previous season. We hired the worst hitting coach in baseball, lol. So I think overall it was more of what we tried didn’t work. Whose fault is that? You could say it’s everyone’s fault. You could say it’s no one’s fault. You could say it’s V-Rod’s fault. But I think overall what we’ve learned is that while we’re still a good team, like the talent is obviously there, right? We all know the talent is obviously there. And you want to argue with that, that’s fine. I don’t care. But the talent is there. So to be honest, I just I don’t want to play the blame game. I just I I do think Victor Rodriguez needs to go. I do think that. I will agree. I will agree with that. I think his philosophy didn’t work and we need to go back to what works for us. We tried it. Cool. didn’t work, right? And I do have some articles about that or some quotes about that. Uh, several in the organization believe it’s imperative that the Padres’s examine their hitting philosophy. The gap to gap line drive emphasis of the past two years under hitting coach Victor Rodriguez was highly effective in 2024, but there is a belief by some that it was an albatross in 2025. The Padres sank from 10th to 28th in home runs, from eighth to 18th in runs scored, from 6th to 16th in OBS. They were ops, sorry. They were better than middling based on their execution of small ball, how Schult managed in order to maximize margins, and how the pitching staff performed. But multiple people in the organization predicted going into the postseason that if the team’s run ended early, its demise would be the offense. Particularly, the lack of slug was concerning. There is an understanding that for as much as pitching, defense, and base running can be separators. in the playoffs, team that hit home runs generally generally stick around longer. And I mean, that’s not something I can disagree with. Like I like I said, it we tried it, it didn’t work. 2024 could have been like an outlier. I don’t know. But I think what we realize now is that this team isn’t built to play the kind of baseball that we that they hoped would happen. You get what I’m saying? Uh, and I just have I think one more. Let me see. Uh, yeah. So, a team seeking a manager could ask permission to interview pitching coach Ruben Yea, which would suck. It is known whether It is not known whether that will happen. The Imperial Valley native is under contract for two more years, but Neba has expressed an interest in managing in the past. Also, one of one or more of the teams that hire a new manager could want to talk to bullpen coach Ben Fritz about becoming their pitching coach. Fritz, who has risen through the Padres’s system and been on the big league staff since 2020, is intimately involved in the running of the Padres’s pitching staff and is considered by many to be ready to be a lead pitching coach. If we lose NB, that would honestly be hugely bad. Is that a word? Hugely a phrase hugely bad. Apply. Uh but I mean that’s baseball, right? I mean, Ruben Nebla is a key asset to our bullpen and he’ll be a huge asset to a team that needs better pitching and better managing. And to think about it this way, if we do lose Nebula, we can hire Ben Fritz, who has basically been huge for our bullpen as well. Like both of them in tandem have been huge. So, I wouldn’t hate having Ben Fritz as a uh pitching coach, but I would hate if both of them left. You know what I mean? Cuz like you we went from Darren Boss Bossley Bosley, god damn, please don’t yell at me. who was like one of the best pitching coachs in the league. And then we got Larry Rothschild who sucked. And then we got Ruben Yea. So, I don’t know what it’s like to have a bad pitching coach besides Larry Rothschild. So, like I feel like the identity of the Padres’s has always been we can turn crap into gold when it comes to pitching. Uh like Brad Hand, Kirby Yates, people like them, right? Sorry, I had to sneeze. I looked weird for a second. Uh but yeah, I I I I don’t like I don’t How do I explain it? It’s like I’d be sad if they left. Let’s put it that way. I’d be sad if they left, but I’d understand why cuz it’s baseball. It’s a business. You get paid more to be a manager, and if he wants to be a manager, who are we to stop him? But yeah, he’s under contract though, so I feel like we’re okay for right now. I feel like people are looking in other directions than what we have right now. But, you know, things happen. But yeah, this last thing I wanted to show you, just like our record since we had AJ Peller. Uh but yeah, I mean we had some good years, we’ve had a lot of bad years and no result that ends with World Series championships. Uh but I mean we’re going somewhere, right? I mean I mean for an example like the Nationals when they won in 2019 when they had like Bryce Hyper Bryce Harper and like Strawber and uh Sherzer, all them, right? I remember for like the first five years they kept losing all the time in the playoffs, but they always made the playoffs, but they kept losing and losing and losing. And even the Yankees right now who are like supposed to or they are the best team of all time and are supposed to be a force every single year, they haven’t won in a long time. So what is So I know while the result doesn’t look great for us, I think we just got to stick with the process. We got to stick with the fate. We got to stick with the team. Uh I know it sucks right now, but you just got to have faith. You got to keep the faith, right? I think step one is finding new hitting philosophy. I think that’s the biggest issue. Yes, we can get Kyle Schwarber. Yes, we can get Pete Alonzo with people with slug. But overall, I think the philosophy of the team has to change from what we tried doing offensively. That’s step number one. And then we can get players who fit our new philosophy. But yeah, that’s my two cents. Let me know how you guys feel. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you think Mike Schultz should stay or do you think he should be gone? Same thing with AJ Peller. How do you feel right now, y’all? Let me know. But thank you guys so much for watching. Please subscribe as always and have a fantastic rest of your day. Goodbye.

Today, Andrew McFarland talks about an article saying that it is all but confirmed the return of our GM and Manager for the next year and maybe even beyond that…

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Padres Digest is a YouTube channel dedicated to covering all the latest news, trades, reports, and rumors about the San Diego Padres. We provide in-depth coverage of game highlights, player performances, and analysis of team strategies. Our channel features discussions on key players like Fernando Tatis Jr. Luis Arraez, Manny Machado, and Xander Bogaerts, along with insights from Manager Mike Shildt and General Manager A.J. Preller. Stay connected for exciting updates and engaging content on everything Padres!

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