Padres News: AJ Preller Reflects on 2023 Season, ‘Feels Like a Lost and Missed Opportunity’

2024 should be much better for the Friars.

The 2023 season for the San Diego Padres was one of frustration and disappointment. The team entered the season with high expectations for themselves after a strong offseason, but they failed to live up to the pressure that was put on them.

It was one of the weirder parts of the baseball season because the roster was loaded with talent. They had superstars all across the board, but they never could find any consistency until it was too late.

San Diego finally put together a few good weeks in the last month of the year, but the hole that they dug for themselves was too large to overcome. So, now they head into the offseason feeling like they wasted a great opportunity. President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller spoke on the season as a whole.

“We started this year with World Series expectations, and I think rightfully so, coming off the [NLCS] berth and having a very talented Major League roster,” Preller said. “Obviously, it was a frustrating and disappointing season. We never really fired on all cylinders. We didn’t play the baseball we thought we were capable of.”

Per MLB.com

The Padres announced that they would be retaining manager Bob Melvin, despite all of the talk that he would be let go. Melvin was hardly at fault for the Padres struggles, so the Friars are giving him another chance to right the wrongs next season.

Now they have the task of figuring out what went wrong this season. The goal is to get back to the playoffs next season and return to competing for the World Series.

“Both he and I are very excited about the challenge of getting this group back to the postseason next year,” Preller said.

Per MLB.com

The entire league will be watching what the Padres do this offseason, and rightfully so. They should have been better this year, and the hope is that they can learn from their mistakes to not allow something like this to happen again.