There were already groans about the Los Angeles Dodgers’ sustained greatness and penchant for picking up available star players, both in free agency and via trade.
Then the Dodgers traded for two-time reigning AL Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, before this season’s trade deadline. As a result, groans have turned to full-blown gripes about the Dodgers’ legendary roster (and means of acquiring this roster) ruining baseball.
Few have to try and combat the Dodgers’ roster more directly than San Diego Padres President of Baseball Operations and General Manager, AJ Preller. Therefore, he has a right to be more frustrated about this than anyone else.
But Preller doesn’t see it that way, which he conveyed when speaking with the media on Tuesday.
When Preller was asked about whether the Dodgers are ruining baseball, he said, “When you have great teams and you have great players, it just raises the bar of other people and other players and other teams. Our focus is on what we needed to do to get better, and our group and our team,” according to an X post from ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.
Perhaps it would’ve been more surprising to hear Preller complain publicly about what the Dodgers are doing. Then again, he’s right in saying that the bottom line is that every other team must do what they can to keep up, or else they’ll get left in the dust time and time again.
Preller’s Padres did what they could to keep up at this year’s trade deadline by adding Robbie Ray and Casey Mize to their rotation.
But these two additions still don’t compare to the Dodgers securing Skubal.
