Padres News: AJ Preller Calls Out ‘Top Guys’ to Have Better 2024 Seasons

Consistency hurt the Padres all season.

The Padres entered Opening Day with the third-highest payroll in Major League Baseball.

With seven players making eight figures in 2023, the Padres were clearly investing with hopes to win a World Series, or at least make the playoffs.

We all know what happened next. The Padres stars underperformed. Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado had their worst seasons since 2017 and 2019, respectively, and Fernando Tatis Jr. had the worst offensive season of his career — although his year started late.

Padres general manager A.J. Preller addressed the disappointing seasons that some of his highest-paid players had in 2023.

"You look at the playoff teams, you've gotta have your players that you're relying on and counting on to have seasons that area consistent with what they've done in the past, what you think they're capable of doing going forward," Preller said. "And I think one of the things this year, we just didn't quite have that from our top guys. I think that's something that we'll talk about, how do we make sure we're very prepared for the season? How do we make sure we put them in environments where they're going to perform and succeed?"

(Via Kevin Acee,

The San Diego-Union Tribune

)

The Padres must decide what to do with some of their high-paid players — or those who are about to get paid, like 2024 free agent Juan Soto.

However, giving up on Soto would perhaps signify an abandonment of the dream that the Padres chased so heavily before the season. As Preller noted, the 2022 version of this Padres team saw massive postseason success.

"If we think that the mix has to change a little bit, we’ll do that. But we’ve seen it just as recently as (2022), a team that was one step away from the World Series with a pretty similar mix.”

(Via Kevin Acee,

The San Diego-Union Tribune

)

Free agency will begin five days after the conclusion of the World Series.