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Padres GM A.J. Preller suspended for 30 days, gets off easy

By jbox

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Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Earlier this afternoon Buster Olney wrote that the MLB was nearing a decision in its review of the Padres deceiving process of storing and sharing medical data on its players.  There were rumors that both Padres President Mike Dee and GM A.J. Preller could both be fired as a result.  As it turns out the punishment was far lighter than that.  Preller was suspended for 30 days without pay and Mike Dee skated as usual.

Ken Rosenthal had the news.

Here's MLB's release:

MLB.com

Major League Baseball has completed an investigation into the July 14th transaction in which pitcher Drew Pomeranz was traded from the San Diego Padres to the Boston Red Sox. MLB's Department of Investigations conducted the thorough review, which included interviews with relevant individuals from both Clubs. The findings were submitted to Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr.

As a result of this matter, Major League Baseball announced today that A.J. Preller, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Padres, has received a 30-day suspension without pay.

MLB considers the matter closed and will have no further comment.

It's interesting to note that only the Boston trade of Drew Pomeranz, who's pitching well, was mentioned in the announcement and not the other 3 clubs that supposedly complained.

Preller isn't new to being suspended.  He's been through this before.  Now we as fans have to decide if we like having a bad boy GM or if he and his boss are an embarrassment to the organization.  Note: It doesn't matter what we decide.

An anonymous Padres executive, likely his boss Mike Dee, said that A.J. Preller will not be fired for this infraction.

MLB suspends Padres GM A.J. Preller 30 days over Drew Pomeranz trade

Preller will not be fired or receive further discipline from the Padres, a high-ranking club official told USA TODAY Sports. The official spoke to USA TODAY Sports only on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of their internal conversations.

So there is really no punishment here besides a small dip in pay.  That is unless other clubs no longer trust him, which I'm guessing they never really did.

UPDATE:

The thing I don't understand is how making a decision to important medical information in a separate database is unintentional and what other reason would there be than to mislead other teams?

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