Padres seem intent on getting better at start without giving away ending

ORLANDO, Fla. — As the Dodgers made a move to shore up their weak bullpen, the Padres seem to be trying to keep their strong bullpen intact.

And so the National League West goes on as it has.

“Obviously, they’ve invested a lot in their bullpen and their team every year, it feels like,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said Tuesday. “I think we go into it knowing the NL West is gonna be really strong. We go into it knowing that obviously the Dodgers are gonna gonna spend a lot of money and they’re gonna go get top players every year and top performers. So I think those are givens.”

Preller was responding to a question about one of the big moves on the second day of the winter meetings.

Shortly after news broke that the Phillies had agreed to pay $150 million over five years to retain slugger Kyle Schwarber, it was reported the Dodgers had signed free-agent closer Edwin Diaz to a three-year, $69 million contract to anchor their bullpen.

Schwarber remaining with the Phillies — and at that price — was not a shock at all. Diaz joining the two-time defending World Series champions caught many by surprise because the Dodgers had not been widely seen as one of his chief suitors and for the enormity of the contract.

But, really, it was merely another deal made by arguably the only team that could swing such a thing.

It was just last offseason that the Dodgers gave Tanner Scott $72 million over four years to be their closer. Injury and inadequacy plagued Scott, who is now presumably the Dodgers’ set-up man.

The Dodgers last year also paid Kirby Yates $13 million for one season. So, in all, they have committed $154 million to three closers with six All-Star appearances between them. That is, according to FanGraphs, more than the Marlins, Pirates or White Sox and as much as the Athletics spent on their entire roster over the past two seasons.

It certainly rankles the Padres and others that the Dodgers’ ability to spend so much given their unparalleled revenue streams and the financial backing of their ownership group. But there isn’t much they can do about it for now.

Preller pointed to the fact the Padres pushed the Dodgers to the brink in the NL Division Series in 2024 and last season finished three games behind them as a reason to believe what the Padres are doing is the correct route.

“Bottom line for us is our focus is ourselves and how do we go get better and how do we get to a spot where we’re playing in a World Series-type situation,” he said. “We can’t get too concerned about what somebody else is doing. I think we understand that teams are going to try to get better. It sets a high bar. But for us, the focus is on us and how do we get better as a group.”

A part of that this offseason is doing what they can to not get worse.

The Padres are fielding calls on virtually every one of their healthy back-end relievers — Mason Miller, Adrian Morejón, Jeremiah Estrada and David Morgan. Those four — plus Jason Adam, who is expected to be able to pitch off a mound again sometime during spring training after his September surgery to repair a quad tendon tear — comprised the core of what was MLB’s top bullpen for most of 2025.

But while the Padres are considered by many around the league to be virtually certain to make at least one significant trade this offseason, they do not seem inclined to deal from their strength.

“There’s a lot of teams (from which) we have taken incoming calls,” Preller said. “Anybody that’s a plus performer, especially this time of year, somebody’s gonna call and say, ‘Hey, would you consider? What do you think? Is there a deal there involving this person or that person?’ It’s nice when people are calling you, and they have interest in your players. At least then, you have some options. But I think the focus has been on the starting pitching and how do we fill that without taking away from the bullpen or from the lineup.

“Anytime you have multiple people in one spot, you at least can listen to those types of conversations. But it’s not easy to find impact players, so you don’t take that for granted. And we have a lot of performers in our pen that have been impactful here the last couple years. It’s probably been why we’ve been in the playoffs the last few years. There’s a lot of reasons, but that’s been a big one. … So we don’t take that lightly. It’s not like, ‘Hey, we have a lot of really good pitchers, so we can afford to kind of take our level down in the bullpen.’”

Preller’s comments are consistent with what numerous people in the organization have said about the Padres being reluctant to potentially lessen the excellence of their bullpen. It is always possible he is trying to manipulate the market with his public statements. But other general managers have said his style of dealing is relatively straightforward.

Additionally, none of those relievers makes a lot of money. So it would not accomplish the goal of clearing payroll space to accommodate the additional starting pitching they need. The Padres need at least two starting pitchers and don’t presently have the expendable $20 million or more it would take to land even a couple pitchers for the back end of the rotation.

Two sources continued to insist on Tuesday that Preller is working on a series of deals that would qualify as blockbusters.

Those sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss team business, were among three people who reiterated the Padres will not trade Fernando Tatis Jr. this offseason. And any trade of starting pitcher Nick Pivetta, who is due $20.5 million in ‘26, would have to bring back a return that could lead to the acquisition of more starting pitching.

Preller, who characterized his talks so far this week as mostly getting to understand some parameters of potential deals, is known to cast a wide net. He is creative. He tends to think big.

But as he told MLB Network on Tuesday, “You have all these thoughts and ideas flying, and 99% of them don’t come to fruition.”