Padres acquire Shawn Kelley from the Yankees for Johnny Barbato

No one else wanted to blog about this, so I guess I will.  Padres GM A.J. Preller came out of his long winter's hibernation to turn up the hot stove again.  This time he acquired Shawn Kelley from the Yankees as a set up man for Joaquin Benoit.  The Padres only had to give up AA pitcher Johnny Barbato, who among other things has a really cool name. In a corresponding move the Pads designated Keyvius Sampson for assignment to make room on the 40 man roster.

This is a pretty good quote from Corey Brock's article on the whole situation from Kelley:

Padres add reliever Kelley in trade with Yanks | padres.com

"I just made the comment to a friend the other day, 'Wow, the Padres are picking up everybody," said Kelley, who up until Monday was a member of the Yankees. "They're going to be really good this year.'

A few days later, here I am ... one of them."

It doesn't sound like Preller will be flipping Kelley either, he's been making eyes at him for the last two weeks.

"[Preller] was just saying that he'd had his eye on me for the last two weeks and was trying to talk to [Yankees general manager Brian] Cashman, looking for right-handed guy with fastball-slider velocity guy to pitch in that park," Kelley said. "He said that he was excited to get the deal done and get me out there."

I was thinking about the team last night and I have a gut feeling that we're looking at an 80 win team as it stands now.  I couldn't decide if I was being optimistic or pessimistic before I fell asleep.

Quick take on Kelley addition for #Padres: Big NL West ballparks won't hurt him + love that 3.02 FIP in '14 and big arm for back end.

— Corey Brock (@FollowThePadres) December 29, 2014