Padres’ general manager A.J. Preller suspended by MLB

The San Diego Padres will have to play out the remainder of their season without their general manager around as A.J. Preller has been suspended 30 days without pay. MLB released a statement confirming that the investigation and punishment is related to the July 14th trade that sent Drew Pomeranz to the Boston Red Sox.

Aside from the Red Sox, the Marlins and White Sox have also expressed their displeasure in dealing with the Padres and Preller this past trade deadline. The Marlins and Padres even undid half of a trade after Colin Rea required Tommy John surgery after just 3.1 innings with his new team.

According to Buster Olney, Preller was instructing the “organization‘s athletic trainers to maintain two distinct files of medical information on their players – one for industry consumption and the other for the team’s internal use.”

This isn’t Preller’s first run in with disciplinary action either, as the Padres’ GM faced an undisclosed fine for holding an illegal workout with international free agents. The Padres held a workout in Aruba and flew Venezuelan prospects—along with some family members, and their room and board—to participate. It is expressly forbidden to hold a tryout for players that are under draft age in a country that is not the prospects’ country of origin.

Per the statement from the league office, Commissioner Rob Manfred “considers the matter closed and will have no further comment.”

Preller has been with the Padres for just over two years at this point and was leading the team through an admirable rebuild so far. The team has turned over a large amount of assets in exchange for substantial prospect depth. However, this could be the end of Preller’s tenure with the Padres.