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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