Padres Press Clips Wednesday, December 6, 2017

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Contract extension is commitment to Preller's Padres SD Union Tribune Acee 2

Japanese star Shohei Ohtani would be big in San Diego SD Union Tribune Lin 5 (or anywhere else)

Padres will be last team to make their pitch to Shohei SD Union Tribune Lin 9 Ohtani

Padres roster review: Jabari Blash SD Union Tribune Sanders 10

Padres roster review: Buddy Baumann SD Union Tribune Sanders 12

4 reasons Ohtani could choose the Padres MLB.com Cassavell 14

Padres, Jays made splashy deal 27 years ago MLB.com Merns 17

Preller preaches stability following extension MLB.com Cassavell 19

Padres announce 2018 Major League Coaching Staff Fox Sports SD Staff 21

Blash Joins Quintet of Padres Playing in Mexico FriarWire Center 24

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San Diego Union Tribune

Contract extension is commitment to Preller's Padres

Kevin Acee

A.J. Preller will be around to finish what he started.

The Padres might not be in the by 2022, when his contract is scheduled to come to an end.

But they will be on their way. Or they won’t be.

Point is, he’ll be given the chance to make this franchise something this city has never had.

That was the purpose of the three-year contract extension the Padres announced Sunday for their enigmatic general .

This wasn’t a reward for losing. This is an award of time to stop the losing.

This is a commitment.

The man who is in charge of stocking the system with the kind of talent that will win and win and win and maybe even stick around to win some more is being given a long runway, because the owners of the Padres like the look and feel of the road he has paved so far.

This is the guy who tried to win quick with the trades that titillated us all before the 2015 season. It didn’t work. From the start, no one was more realistic about that possibility than Preller. He tried. Nothing wrong with trying.

He learned from it, too. That’s most important.

If anything, the Matt Kemp trade taught Preller to push harder for prospects. The Dodgers had more to give. He should have demanded it. Later, when it came time to unload , Preller made his bosses sweat, not making a deal until he got four top minor leaguers from the

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Red Sox. Not three. Not three and a scarecrow. Four players who instantly became top-20 prospects for the Padres.

Fact is, Preller had a backup plan before instituting the first plan. It’s a credit to him he initially went with shock and awe. It was against his constitution.

His way is to build from the ground up and never stop building. That’s what he sold to Ron Fowler and Peter Seidler back in 2014.

To say Preller has improved the minor-league system is like saying Julia Roberts has teeth or Whitney Houston could sing. Ranked somewhere in the 20s two years ago, the Padres’ farm system today is roundly considered one of the best three or four in .

Dealing in currency more volatile than oil, Preller has gone the route of surplus.

Baseball is a business where if four of a team’s 10 best prospects end up a “plus” major leaguer it is considered success. So Preller’s philosophy is to shove 20 prospects into the bag while shooting to better the industry standard.

He masterminded an overhaul of the system in both personnel and the personnel teaching the personnel. The facilities are better. There are more facilities and more instructors at those facilities, all espousing the same philosophy about plate discipline and attacking the strike zone and all sorts of other proprietary baseball stuff.

He did it by asking the bosses for more money to invest in more things. To the things they didn’t immediately agree, he found a new way to ask. Relentless directness is how you succeed working for a man like Fowler, who made his team-buying money the old-fashioned way — through hustle, guile and creativity — and who still gets his jollies helping people with initiative.

In 2015, the Padres had two of the top 100 prospects in baseball according to MLBpipeline.com. Now, they have seven. A 250 percent increase when there are 30 teams and 100 spots. That’s unreal. That’s exciting.

Of the Padres’ top 11 prospects, nine were acquired in the past 18 months.

They became Padres via trade, the draft and international signings orchestrated by Preller. 3

He does it with work days that make the rest of our species look lazy. He does it by sleeping in a Marriott bed more than his own. He does it by barely sleeping.

The Padres weren’t a worldwide player pre-Preller. That’s not entirely on the men who preceded him. Establishing such a reach takes a commitment by ownership, to be certain. But Preller was the man to give the franchise not just a presence in Latin America and Asia but a familiar face that wouldn’t go away.

If the Padres land Shohei Ohtani, it is in large part due to Preller spending so much time in and empowering his lieutenants to do so as well. Just the fact the Padres are being mentioned was unfathomable in the past.

Now, this Preller path might not work. That’s something we all know, including Preller. And Fowler and Seidler.

But they believe in this direction.

Fowler and Seidler rightly love this curious, focused, hyper-competitive, forthright guy. They sit in on Preller’s staff meetings and marvel at his inclusion of staff, retention of detail and ability to fit together all the calculus of the variances of possible moves. The only thing they worry about is whether he does enough away from baseball. Like, truly, they have attempted to force him to get a life.

(I don't know if they love Preller as much as they love Andy Green. But everyone should try to find someone to love them the way these guys love Andy Green and hold onto that person.)

The point is, the Padres are committed to this process. And a decided lack of being decided has plagued this club over all the championship-less years.

We can live with the decade-plus of no playoffs and the five postseason berths in 49 seasons. We have to.

But it’s the best we can hope for that the man with the plan is empowered to see change through.

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Japanese star Shohei Ohtani would be big in San Diego (or anywhere else)

The Padres are the only team among seven finalists that has yet to make a pitch to Ohtani in Los Angeles. That meeting presumably will take place Wednesday.

Dennis Lin

Shohei Ohtani may be the world’s most famous baseball player despite never having logged an inning in the United States, where he has long desired to test himself and where his dream, and the dream of countless fans, should soon come true.

The two-way star, having been made available by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, faces a Dec. 22 deadline to finalize a contract with a major league franchise. Most agree that Ohtani, already a legendary figure in Japan, will make a decision well before then; it is not in his nature to inconvenience others.

Many other things about Ohtani — 23, soft-spoken, unfailingly polite, frighteningly gifted — are nebulous, atypical or secrets. The offseason’s most interesting man has reduced his choices to seven teams, including the smallish-market and historically downtrodden Padres. If Ohtani picks San Diego, more fans will descend upon Petco Park and long-suffering loyalists will receive a serious injection of hope. If he shuns a half-dozen organizations that have been more successful, it will remind locals of when Tony Gwynn chose to stay.

If. ...

“He’s very difficult to get an answer from in terms of baseball,” said former Padres Anthony Bass, who played for the Fighters in 2016. “He’d be a very good poker player because he doesn’t reveal his hand very easy.”

Sometimes billed as a modern-day twist on , Ohtani could become the first big- leaguer to capture sustained success as both a pitcher and a hitter. At 6-foot-4, he has thrown a 102.5 mph , a Nippon record, and smashed a drive through the roof of the Tokyo Dome. He has to first base in 3.8 seconds, on par with the top speedsters in the majors. His athletic ability, in Bass’ estimation, is comparable to ’s or Bryce Harper’s — only it extends beyond offense.

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“There’s never been anybody like him,” said Jim Allen, a Kyodo News reporter who has covered Japanese baseball since 1993.

Ohtani, who throws right-handed and bats lefty, could have landed a $200 million contract by staying in Japan for two more years, after which he would no longer be subject to international signing guidelines. Instead, he left last week, apparently content to receive a signing bonus ranging from $3.5 million to a mere $300,000. The , who offered an unrivaled level of fame and lucrative endorsement opportunities, failed to survive a sweeping round of cuts. Ohtani’s private life has supplied minimal clues, and executives have grappled with the same question for months: If not money, what exactly does he want?

Significant hints surfaced over the weekend, as Ohtani’s representatives informed more than two dozen teams whether they would remain in the running. General Manager Brian Cashman, after sharing news of the Yankees’ elimination, lamented that his team was not located on the West Coast or in a smaller market. Indeed, the contenders — San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, both Los Angeles teams, Texas and the — are mostly near the Pacific Ocean. All of them have facilities in Arizona, where the Padres hosted a portion of the Fighters’ preseason each of the last two years.

Geography and relative familiarity — aside from Arizona and California, Hawaii is the lone state Ohtani is known to have visited — can only go so far. Face-to-face presentations to Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, began Monday in Los Angeles. As of Tuesday night, the Padres were the lone club awaiting its turn.

“I think for a team to say, ‘We want you to be comfortable, we want to handle this the right way’ — that’s the most important thing for him,” Allen said. “So a team that understands him is going to have an advantage.”

A half-decade ago, the Fighters proved to have the best understanding of Japan’s premier high school talent. Ohtani, intending to move stateside, had asked NPB teams to refrain from drafting him. The Fighters disregarded his request.

What could have been an awkward pairing instead turned into an ideal platform. The Fighters are one of Japan’s less prominent teams but also among its most advanced. In high school,

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Ohtani had dominated hitters and alike. The Fighters sold him on playing both ways. He did not have to choose.

Superstardom arrived in time. Ohtani learned how to properly work out and became an enthusiast, receiving guidance from a trainer named Seiichiro Nakagaki. The Fighters tinkered with how best to deploy him, gradually developing a working formula. Though they did not hide him from daily cameos, they were careful to regulate his media duties.

In his second professional season, Ohtani emerged as a , recording a 2.61 ERA. That figure dropped to 2.24 the next season. Ohtani was not nearly as productive on offense, but he showed promise.

In 2016, the Fighters held a portion of their spring training in Peoria, Ariz. The Padres, who had been their working partner since an agreement was established in 2008, served as hosts. Representatives from all major league teams flocked to watch a singular player. One high- ranking scout, recalling a pitching appearance, mentioned Ohtani’s idol, four-time All-Star .

“I can’t imagine Darvish (at the same age) was better than what I saw,” the evaluator said.

Ohtani more than justified the attention that year. He led the Fighters to a title, and not just from the mound. In addition to posting a 1.86 ERA, he broke out at the plate, batting .322 with 22 home runs over 104 games as a . An injury-wracked 2017 followed — Ohtani recently underwent ankle surgery — but the hype has not diminished.

“All of his pitches are plus — his , his , his split(-finger) and his fastball,” said Bass, who played six seasons with the Padres, Astros and Rangers. “His power reminds me a lot of (former American League MVP) Josh Hamilton in his prime, the way the ball jumps off his bat.

“I joke and call him the 10-tool player. He can do it all.”

Despite what Ohtani already has accomplished, an adjustment period is expected. Offering regular two-way opportunities, a prerequisite for interested teams, is an unprecedented venture, perhaps easier for a rebuilding club like the Padres. For a National League team,

7 repetitions in the outfield, where Ohtani has not played since 2014, should be critical. Major league competition will be stiffer, and Allen said he would not be surprised if Ohtani is amenable to spending some early time in Triple-A.

Bass said “winning is important to Ohtani,” something the Padres have struggled to do. He added: “I think he wants to go somewhere where he can create his own legacy and not necessarily follow in the shoes of someone else who has come through.” To date, only two Japanese-born players — Akinori Otsuka and Tadahito Iguchi — have worn a San Diego uniform.

The Padres’ chances could be boosted by several employees who can relate to Ohtani. Nakagaki, the former Fighters trainer; ex-pitchers and Takashi Saito; and Otsuka are among this contingent. Some of them may have told Ohtani about San Diego’s deep farm system and Petco Park’s friendliness to pitchers. Then there is the enviable weather and laid- back environment that attracted , Japan’s most iconic athlete, before he signed with the in 2015. According to the 2010 Census, there were more than 18,000 Japanese-born residents in San Diego County.

“My wife loves it here,” said Japan Society of San Diego and Tijuana president Dave Tuites, whose children were born in Japan. “And that’s without anything like Japantown or Little Tokyo.”

The other finalists, of course, have been busy espousing their own advantages. With a little over two weeks until his deadline, Ohtani does not have much time to deliberate, and some believe he already knows where he wants to play. Soon enough, the selling will turn to pitching and hitting against big-leaguers, a balancing act no one this side of the Pacific has navigated for long.

Japan’s latest export could reshape the landscape of what is possible. Even if Ohtani doesn’t land in San Diego, his debut will fill screens stretching from Tokyo to New York.

“I think the country is really going to be in awe of his talent,” Bass said. “I know everyone talks about it, but when you see it, it’s like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of a player.”

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Padres will be last team to make their pitch to Shohei Ohtani

Dennis Lin

So much about the frenzied courtship of Shohei Ohtani has been unclear. Another question arose Tuesday: Is the Japanese free agent saving the best for last?

The Padres are the only team among seven finalists that has yet to make a pitch to Ohtani in Los Angeles. That meeting presumably will take place Wednesday.

Ohtani, who faces a Dec. 22 deadline to finalize a stateside contract, heard from multiple clubs Monday and Tuesday. According to reports, the , and met with him Monday, and the Chicago Cubs, and cycled through Tuesday.

The exact composition of the Padres’ traveling party is not known, but in addition to General Manager A.J. Preller, the organization can send several officials who have extensively scouted Ohtani or have history with the 23-year-old. A potential contingent could include front-office employees Hideo Nomo, Takashi Saito, , Logan White and Acey Kohrogi; sports science director Seiichiro Nakagaki; and manager Andy Green.

Ohtani has valued confidentiality throughout his recruitment. On Tuesday, officials on both sides declined to reveal the specific time of their upcoming sit-down. Most, if not all, of Ohtani’s meetings with the other finalists were confirmed after they occurred.

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Padres roster review: Jabari Blash

Jeff Sanders

Sizing up the Padres’ 40-man roster, from A to Z, heading into the 2017 season.

JABARI BLASH

• Position: Outfielder • 2018 age: 28 • Bats/throws: R/R • Height/weight: 6-foot-5 / 235 pounds • Acquired: in December 2015 • Contract status: Exceeded rookie limits in 2017; won’t be arbitration-eligible until 2020 at the earliest; earned at a rate of $535,000 per season while in the majors • Key stats: .213 avg., .333 OBP, .341 SLG, 5 HRs, 16 RBIs, 24 runs, 1 steal, 28 BBs, 66 Ks (61 games, 195 plate appearances)

STAT TO NOTE

• 35.8 – The percent of Blash’s plate appearances that have resulted in a in parts of two seasons with the Padres. Last year’s 33.8 percent rate was down from 40.5 in 2016.

TRENDING

• Idle – Blash entered the organization before the 2016 season as a Rule 5 pick, acquired from Oakland as a player to be named later in the - trade. He’d mashed 32 homers in 116 minor league games in his last year in the Mariners system (before Oakland selected him for San Diego in the Rule 5 draft), but managing just 84 plate appearances did little to help him find a rhythm his first year in the majors. As such, Blash was DFA’d by the Padres for a second time inside a year last January only to have a .617 at Triple-A El Paso – the second-

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highest mark for any level in his minor league career – buy more big league opportunities in 2017. His offensive numbers were largely better across the board in Year 2, but the 6-foot-5 slugger’s power numbers weren’t nearly enough to make up for the all the swing-and-miss in his game.

2018 OUTLOOK

• Blash’s power potential remains intriguing but the fact remains that he’s a .200/.323/336 hitter through his first 279 plate appearances in the majors. The Padres have more invested in rounding out RF Hunter Renfroe’s warts and the opportunity to stand out in crowded corner outfield picture could run dry soon. Jose Pirela is the front runner for at-bats in left field, Travis Jankowski’s speed figures to factor in the equation somewhere, a healthy Alex Dickerson is expected to return to the competition this spring and Franchy Cordero will be knocking on the door this camp. Where does that leave Blash, the oldest of the bunch? Likely with his back against the wall this spring.

PADRES POWER RANKINGS

(Currently 40 players on 40-man roster)

1. Carlos Asuaje 2. Buddy Baumann 3. Jabari Blash

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Padres roster review: Buddy Baumann

Jeff Sanders

Sizing up the Padres’ 40-man roster, from A to Z, heading into the 2017 season.

BUDDY BAUMANN

• Position: Left-handed reliever • 2018 Opening Day age: 30 • Bats/throws: L/L • Height/weight: 5-foot-11 / 198 pounds • Acquired: Signed as a free agent in December 2015 • Contract status: Won’t be arbitration-eligible until 2021 at the earliest; earned at a rate of $535,700 per season while in the majors in 2017 • Key stats: 2-1, 2.55 ERA, 21 Ks, 7 BBs, 1.02 WHIP, .177 avg. against, 17 2/3 IP (23 games)

STAT TO NOTE

• 55 – The percent of hits that Baumann allowed that went for extra bases in 2017, 19 points above the major league average, according to baseball-reference.com. Among qualifiers,Jeremy Hellickson (49 percent) was last in the majors in this category.

TRENDING

• Down – In his second year in the majors, Baumann wasn’t often but he was hit hard at times. More than half of his 11 hits allowed went for extra bases, including four balls that went for homers. For a pitcher who faced only 72 batters in in a small sample in 2017, that’s as telling as a .177/.292/.403 opponent batting line. Of course, Baumann’s year got off to a rough start when a spring training biking incident left him with a shoulder injury that sidelined him until July. His previous campaign also stalled out of spring training due to a back ailment. Primarily a fastball-slider pitcher, Baumann

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pitched the first 9 2/3 innings of his major league career that season and lowered his ERA from 3.72 in 2016 to 2.55 in 2017. However, he has of yet to fully stretch his legs to see if impressive minor league numbers (9.4 K/9 over 502 IP) translate to the majors.

2018 OUTLOOK

• One of nine left-handed relief candidates on the 40-man roster, Baumann pitched predominantly in the seventh inning – and in low-leverage situations – in 2017. While a Brad Hand trade could change the makeup of the considerably, Baumann is entrenched in a battle for middle relief innings alongside the likes of left-handers Jose Torres and Kyle McGrath. Left-handers Brad Wieck and Jose Castillo – both added to the 40-man last month – will be newcomers to that position battle this spring.

PADRES POWER RANKINGS

(Currently 40 players on 40-man roster)

1. Carlos Asuaje 2. Buddy Baumann

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MLB.com 4 reasons Ohtani could choose the Padres Japanese sensation included Friars on short list of clubs to meet

AJ Cassavell

SAN DIEGO -- Shohei Ohtani, the two-way free-agent sensation from Japan, has reportedly narrowed his list of potential suitors to seven teams. The Padres are one of them.

Not only is San Diego set to meet with Ohtani's camp, but the Friars appear to have a serious chance to land the 23-year-old, who doubles as a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher and a slugging left-handed hitter. Nationally, it qualifies as a bit of a surprise that the Padres find themselves at the forefront of the Ohtani discussion. Leading up to free agency, big-market clubs like the Yankees dominated the discussion.

Still, there were always a number of reasons Ohtani and the Padres had potential to be a match. Here are four factors that could sway Ohtani toward San Diego ahead of his Dec. 22 deadline to make a decision.

1. Two-way opportunity In March, the Padres converted Christian Bethancourt, a life-long catcher, into a reliever/catcher/pinch-hitter hybrid. Bethancourt made the Opening Day roster in that capacity, though he was quickly sent to the Minors to work on his pitching mechanics.

Nonetheless, the Padres, as an organization, have clearly proven themselves open-minded enough to embrace the challenges of harboring a two-way player. And while that might seem easy with a talent like Ohtani, San Diego is one of the few clubs that has already waded through the logistical challenges -- even something as small as balancing batting practice and bullpen sessions.

"It really comes down to the individual, and it takes a special individual," Padres general manager A.J. Preller said last month. "But again, in our organization, you never want to say that something's not possible."

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In short, San Diego was open to the concept well before Ohtani became available. Other clubs will talk the talk, regarding their plans for Ohtani. In one sense, the Padres have already walked the walk.

2. Padres connections In the past 48 hours, San Diego's connections to Ohtani have been rehashed ad nauseum. Speaking on MLB Network on Monday night, Preller was quick to note he felt some of that chatter might be a bit "overblown."

Still, the Ohtani recruitment is unlike any free-agent saga in recent memory. Nobody seems to know which factors could prove decisive in his decision-making process.

So it certainly doesn't hurt the Padres' chances that they employ Japanese baseball icons Hideo Nomo and Takashi Saito in their front office. Or that Seiichiro Nakagaki, Ohtani's trainer with the Nippon-Ham Fighters, currently serves as San Diego's director of sports science. Or that until last season the Padres had a deal in place that allowed the Fighters to train at their Spring Training complex in Peoria, Ariz. And did we mention that San Diego skipper Andy Green played for the Fighters in 2007?

3. State of the organization When Ohtani enters the Major Leagues next season, he'll do so on a rookie-level contract, meaning San Diego will have six years of team control. In the short-term, the Padres -- coming off 94- and 91-loss seasons -- aren't title contenders.

In a strange way, that could prove beneficial. Other clubs might not be willing to take a hit to their playoff chances if Ohtani struggles at the plate. San Diego, meanwhile, can afford to let Ohtani slump on offense -- and then grow from those struggles.

The Padres must then convince Ohtani they'll be competitive in the five seasons following 2018. In that regard, Preller will tout one of the Majors' best farm systems. Plus, there's a measure of stability in San Diego. Preller and Green recently received three-year extensions, and only three players on the 40-man roster are eligible for free agency before 2020.

The pieces are in place for a bright future in San Diego, Preller will surely point out. Then, he'll be certain to add that a player of Ohtani's caliber could nudge the Padres over the top.

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4. Geography Yankees GM Brian Cashman, speaking Sunday after news broke that Ohtani had declined New York's offer, said: "I can't change that we're a big market, and I can't change that we're in the east."

The Padres, of course, are not in the east, nor do they play in a big market. And while Cashman's words aren't gospel, Ohtani does appear to have a clear preference for the West Coast. Among his seven reported suitors, only the Rangers and Cubs are located outside the Pacific time zone.

Ohtani's camp has been tight-lipped throughout about the process. It's unclear which -- if any - - of these factors could play a role. But, for now, San Diego is very much alive in its pursuit of Ohtani. That's more than 23 other teams can say.

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The Blue Jays and Padres pulled off an All-Star-laden trade 27 years ago today

Andrew Mearns It's a challenge to construct a championship roster, but it sure helps when you pull off a trade as impactful as the one the Blue Jays made with Padres on this day in 1990. The players involved led to not one, but two World Series titles, and it's not like the Padres acquired any slouches in return.

Behind future Hall of Fame GM Pat Gillick, the Blue Jays had put together several good teams between 1983 and 1989, twice winning the AL East and coming within striking distance of the World Series before faltering. Two of their most talented players included first baseman Fred McGriff, who led the AL with 36 homers in 1989, and pesky Tony Fernandez, who once made three All-Star teams in four years.

After falling two games short of the playoffs in 1990, however, Gillick decided that he had to give up some serious talent in exchange for the right pieces for his up-and-coming team. The GM had his eyes on two terrific Padres -- young Roberto Alomar, who made his first All-Star team in 1990, and the powerful Joe Carter, who had averaged 29 homers per year since 1986.

The Padres had recently hired a new GM, Joe McIlvaine, and the two sides decided to make a deal in the offseason. So, on Dec. 5, 1990, Alomar and Carter went to the Blue Jays in exchange for McGriff and Fernandez. This was no run-of-the-mill trade -- those four players would combine for 9,186 Major League games, 9,674 hits and 26 All-Star seasons.

At first, the deal wasn't too bad for the Padres. With McGriff and Fernandez in tow, they finished nine games better in 1991 than the year before. They were over .500 again in 1992, with both players making the All-Star team and McGriff leading the NL with 35 homers.

Fernandez was traded to the Mets in October 1992, though, and after the Padres got off to a poor start, they dealt McGriff to the Braves in July 1993.

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Meanwhile, in Toronto, everything had come together as Gillick had hoped. They returned to the top of the AL East in 1991, then finally broke through and won their first World Series title in 1992. Alomar played an enormous role in the success, as he became one of baseball's most elite second basemen. The future Hall of Famer never failed to make an All-Star team or win a Gold Glove during his five years in Toronto, and he eventually became the first Blue Jays player to have his number retired.

Carter continued his slugging ways with 203 homers over his seven seasons with the Blue Jays, none bigger than when he won the 1993 World Series with this three-run walk-off blast…

As a fun postscript, Fernandez was also celebrating with Alomar and Carter. The Mets had sent him back to the Blue Jays in June 1993, and he got to contribute to that World Series triumph, too.

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Preller preaches stability following extension Padres round out 2018 coaching staff with appointment of Johnson

AJ Cassavell

SAN DIEGO -- For better or worse, the backbone of the Padres as an organization is firmly in place for the better part of the next half decade.

The Padres' brass made that much clear earlier this year by extending first baseman and manager Andy Green, and they reinforced that notion on Sunday with the announcement of a three-year contract extension for general manager A.J. Preller. Preller spoke with the media on Monday regarding his extension, which runs through the 2022 season. "Stability" was a constant refrain.

Indeed, the Padres -- as currently constructed -- are here to stay. Preller and Green were each given three additional seasons to see their vision through, and nearly every on-field piece involved in that vision is under team control during that span.

"There's stability," Preller said. "We have a group where there's some talent on the field and in the system. This gives us opportunity in the next few years to see through the plan and bring winning baseball back to San Diego."

As it stands, the Padres (and their full 40-man roster) do not have a single player bound for free agency after the 2018 season. Only three -- Brad Hand, Clayton Richard and Carter Capps -- are poised to hit the open market after '19.

Meanwhile, most of the key foundational pieces are locked up through at least 2022. First baseman Myers, center fielder Manuel Margot and catcher Austin Hedges each have five years of team control remaining.

Of course there's the not-so-small matter of the Padres' recent on-field results. Sure, there's going to be continuity in San Diego, but how much is that worth for a team coming off 91- and 94-loss seasons under Preller and Green?

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That's a concern that the Padres hope is mitigated by their revamped farm system. With prospects like Fernando Tatis Jr., Cal Quantrill and Luis Urias nearing the Majors, Preller and the Padres believe their long-term plan is nearing fruition.

"All it means is that we've got a foundation, and we've got some young players that we're excited about," Preller said. "But we've got a lot of work left to do in the future."

The building blocks are in place, Preller said, and he's hopeful the club is in regular contention soon. First, the Padres must develop their young talent and make the right acquisitions via trades and free agency. Until then, they've assured themselves of a roster with very little turnover.

"When you find people that have ability, then create stability and people that work well together, it gives you some measure of consistency that leads to a lot of success," Preller said.

Johnson to serve as infield

The Padres rounded out their 2018 coaching staff on Monday, by announcing that Josh Johnson will serve as infielders coach next season. Not to be confused with the former big league right-hander, the 31-year-old Johnson spent the last two seasons coaching in the Minors with the Nationals organization.

Johnson takes over his role from Jonathan Mathews, who will be re-assigned within the organization. Mathews spent one season as the Padres' infield coach.

In addition to Johnson, the Padres have already added Matt Stairs (hitting coach) and Skip Schumaker (first-base coach) to their staff this winter.

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Fox Sports

Padres announce 2018 Major League Coaching Staff PADRES ANNOUNCE 2018 MAJOR LEAGUE COACHING STAFF

SAN DIEGO – The today announced the members of Manager Andy Green’s coaching staff for the 2018 season. Joining the staff in 2018 will be Matt Stairs as hitting coach, Skip Schumaker as first base coach, and Josh Johnson, who will work primarily with infielders. Returning to the staff will be bench coach Mark McGwire, pitching coach Darren Balsley, third base coach Glenn Hoffman, bullpen coach Doug Bochtler, and Johnny Washington, who will move from first base coach to assistant hitting coach. Executive Vice President/General Manager A.J. Preller made the announcements.

McGwire, 54, returns for his third season as bench coach after spending the previous three seasons (2013-15) as hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Prior to his tenure in Los Angeles, he served in the same capacity for the St. Louis Cardinals for three seasons (2010- 12). Originally selected by the in the first round (10th overall) of the 1984 MLB Draft, the 12-time All-Star hit .263 (1626-6187) with 252 doubles, six triples, 583 home runs, 1414 RBI and 1167 runs scored over 16 Major League seasons with the Athletics (1986- 97) and Cardinals (1997-2001). His 583 career home runs currently rank 11th all-time in Major League history.

Stairs, 49, spent the 2017 season as the hitting coach for the , which was his first professional coaching position. Under Stairs’ guidance, the Phillies saw upticks in several offensive measures in 2017, including a 25-point jump in slugging percentage from 2016, a 14-point jump in on-base percentage and a 10-point jump in average. He played parts of 19 seasons in the major leagues with 12 different franchises, including the Padres in 2010. Widely known for his game-winning, pinch-hit two-run homer off in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS at Dodger Stadium, Stairs is MLB’s all-time leader in pinch home runs (23) and ranks second in MLB history in home runs by a Canadian-born player (265), trailing only Larry Walker (383). He was originally signed by the as an amateur free agent in 1989 and batted .262 with 294 doubles, 13 triples, 265 home runs, 899 RBI, 717 walks and 770 runs in 1,895 career Major League games between the Expos (1992- 93), (1995), Oakland Athletics (1996-2000), Chicago Cubs (2001), (2002), (2003), (2004-2006), Texas Rangers (2006), (2006), (2007-08), Phillies (2008- 09), Padres (2010) and (2011). Following his playing career, Stairs was an in-studio analyst for the New England Sports Network (NESN) and co-hosted programming on MLB Network Radio on Sirius/XM. He also spent three seasons (2014-16) with CSN Philly as a color analyst for Phillies TV broadcasts. He and his wife, Lisa, have three daughters: Chandler, Nicole and Alicia.

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Balsley, 53, returns for his 16th season as the Padres pitching coach in 2018. Since the beginning of his first full season in 2004, the Padres pitching staff has posted a 3.98 ERA, the seventh-best mark in baseball in that span and fifth-best among National League teams. Balsley is the longest tenured pitching coach in the National League and is tied with ’ Don Cooper among all MLB pitching coaches. A native of Newport Beach, Calif., Balsley graduated from Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego and attended Palomar College.

Hoffman, 59, returns for his 13th season as the Padres third base coach, his 20th as a coach at the Major League level. The 2017 season will be his 43rd year overall in professional baseball.

Schumaker, 37, enters his third year with the Padres organization. 2018 marks his first season on the Major League coaching staff as first base coach after serving as an assistant to baseball operations and player development since he announced his retirement and joined San Diego’s front office in 2016. The former outfielder and second baseman played 11 Major League seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (2005-12), Los Angeles Dodgers (2013) and (2014-15). A two-time World Series Champion in 2006 and 2011 with the Cardinals, Schumaker hit a combined .278 (905-for-3252) with 169 doubles, 13 triples, 28 home runs, 284 RBI and 416 runs scored in 1,149 games. He and his wife, Lindsey, reside in Ladera Ranch, Calif., with their son, Brody and daughter, Presley.

Bochtler, 47, returns for his third season as bullpen coach after rejoining the Padres organization in 2016. He spent the previous five seasons coaching in the organization, serving as the pitching coach for the Single-A in 2015 after serving in the same capacity for South Bend (2014), Missoula (2013) and Yakima (2011-12). Originally signed by the Montreal Expos as a ninth-round selection in the 1989 MLB Draft, Bochtler made his Major League debut for the Padres in 1995, pitching parts of his first three Major League seasons (1995-97) for San Diego.

Washington, 33, enters his third season with the Padres organization, his second on the Major League coaching staff and first as assistant hitting coach after serving as first base coach in 2017. He originally joined the organization in 2016 and served as hitting coach for Double-A San Antonio. Prior to joining San Diego, he spent the previous eight seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, the last seven in a coaching capacity. Originally signed by the Texas Rangers as a 27th-round selection in the 2003 MLB Draft out of Mount San Jacinto (CA) Junior College, Washington enjoyed a seven-year professional career as an infielder in the Texas Rangers (2003-06) and Dodgers (2008-09) organizations, in addition to three seasons of independent league baseball. He retired as a player during the 2009 season and immediately joined the coaching ranks as hitting coach for Rookie-Level Ogden. After serving three seasons (2009-11) as hitting coach with Ogden, Washington went on to coach at Camelback Ranch in 2012 and was hitting coach for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2013. In 2014 he served as hitting coach for Single-A Great Lakes and held the same position in 2015 for Triple-A Oklahoma City.

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Johnson, 31, enters his first season with the Padres organization on the Major League coaching staff after spending the previous two seasons coaching in the Washington Nationals organization. He spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons as manager for the Rookie-Level Gulf Coast League Nationals, guiding the GCL Nationals to the East Division title in 2017 and their best record (34-22, .607) since 2013. Originally selected by the Kansas City Royals in the third round of the 2004 MLB Draft out of Middleton (FL) High School, the switch-hitting infielder spent six seasons (2004-09) in the Royals’ system before joining the Nationals organization (2010-15). Johnson played in 1,069 minor league games over his 12-year career, hitting .252 with 144 doubles, 35 triples, 35 home runs, 384 RBI, 131 stolen bases and 528 runs scored.

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Friar Wire

Padres On Deck: Blash Joins Quintet of Padres Playing in Mexico Franchy Cordero ranks among league leaders in Dominican Republic

By Bill Center

Outfielder Jabari Blash joined Jalisco of the Mexican last Friday night and homered in his second game.

Blash, 28, is 2-for-10 with his homer and two RBIs after three games.

He is one of five Padres prospects currently spending the winter in the Mexican Pacific League.

Allen Córdoba and Fernando Perez are playing with Hermosillo. Starting pitcher Kyle Lloyd is Blash’s teammate at Jalisco. And right-handed reliever Gerardo Reyes has already appeared in 17 games for Obregon.

Perez, who divided last season between Advanced Single-A Lake Elsinore and Double-A San Antonio, is hitting .333 in the MPL with eight home runs and 30 RBIs in 42 games. The 24- year-old second baseman, who is a product of Otay Ranch High, has a .376 on-base percentage and a .586 slugging percentage for a .962 OPS.

Perez, who played in the Mexican Pacific League All-Star Game, ranks second in the MPL in home runs, fourth in OPS and slugging percentage, fourth in batting average, sixth in runs scored and 10th in doubles.

Córdoba, who turns 22 on Dec. 6, is hitting .282 after 12 games with a homer and three RBIs. He spent the 2017 season with the Padres as a Rule 5 free agent.

The 6-foot-4, 221-pound Lloyd, 27, has made five starts with Jalisco and has a 1.96 over 23 innings. Reyes, 24, has a 2.25 ERA in 16 innings pitched.

Meantime, center fielder Franchy Cordero and catcher Luis Torrenscontinue to have strong winters.

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Cordero, 23, has hit safely in 13 of the last 15 games for the Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Republic winter League to raise his batting average to .308 after 39 games and 165 plate appearances. He has five doubles, three triples, three home runs and 16 RBIs. The left- handed-hitting Cordero ranks second in the Dominican Republic in triples; tied for second in walks (17) and runs scored (20); sixth in both on-base percentage (.382) and OPS (.827); tied for sixth in RBIs; tied for fifth in stolen bases (six), and seventh in batting average.

Torrens, 21, is one of three Padres’ 2016 Rule 5 draft picks playing winter ball. The catcher is hitting .281 in Venezuela with eight doubles, a triple, a and 18 RBIs.

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