Padres News: AJ Preller is Playing it Close to the Vest Come The Trade Deadline

The Padres' GM said he believes in this group.

Friday morning, following a gut-wrenching fifth-loss in a row, Padres general manager AJ Preller spoke to radio program "Ben and Woods", saying he expected better days ahead for an ailing San Diego team.

AJ Preller tells @BenAndWoods that the next month will tell the front office a lot about how to approach the trade deadline but they're still focused on how to improve the roster and make a playoff push, but if things change, they will pivot from that.

— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) June 30, 2023

"I believe in this group, I believe in this team ... We have the ability to play good baseball, I think we're all frustrated when we don't do that ... Expect things to change going forward, expect us to get in a position here where we get into the race and eventually play in October, that's the goal here," Preller said.

(Via "Ben and Woods")

Currently sitting seven games below .500 and eight games out of the NL Wild Card, a team featuring one of the most expensive rosters in baseball has been nothing but a massive disappointment in the first half of the 2023 season.

"I'm responsible for the product, the team and what we see. And I think we all feel it," Preller said. "We're frustrated because we think we have a team that was one step away from the World Series last year and, from our standpoint, we expected to build on that this year and it hasn't happened for us so far in the first half."

(Via "Ben and Woods")

As the Aug. 1 trade deadline approaches, Preller said that the team's performance over the next few weeks will be indicative of how the front office handles trade decisions. A team that certainly qualified as a "buyer" before the season has a chance of trading away some superstars. however, Preller and the front office currently view the team as a championship contender.

"Obviously the next month will tell us a lot," Preller said. "From our standpoint the attention right now is to continue to look at this team playing in October, continue looking at ways to improve the roster."

(Via "Ben and Woods")

The Padres' next chance to prove themselves as a potential "buyer" comes Friday afternoon when San Diego travels to Cincinnati to face the Reds at 2:10 p.m. PDT.