Don't let the same uniforms fool you, these are not the San Diego Padres of years past.
Platooned by the talents of two-time Silver Slugger Award recipient Matt Kemp, two-time All-Star Justin Upton, 2013 AL Rookie of the Year Wil Myers, 2014 All-Star Derek Norris, 2013 World Series Champion Will Middlebrooks and 2011 All-Star James Shields, these Padres are poised to make headlines coming into 2015.
Once all the dust had settled after Wednesday's official signing of Shields, Preller and the Padres front office had not just replaced five of the team's eight position players or reinforced the team's already impressive pitching staff—they proved themselves capable of adding a few extra dollars to their 2015 payroll.
According to Sportrac, the Padres are looking to spend a total of $92.9 million in 2015 -- approximately $30 million more than they did in the previous year when Carlos Quentin and his $9.5 million salary made him the team's highest paid player. Between Kemp, Upton, Shields and Ian Kennedy, the Padres will have four players looking to earn more money in 2015.
Things have certainly changed in San Diego. Just take a look at the numbers.
"(Ownership) made it apparent to me that they want to win," Preller said at the team's press conference Wednesday. "They're willing to give the resources and the support to our baseball operations group and the organization to make it happen. Obviously I think we've had an offseason that's made headlines to try to improve our ball club. We had a chance to go get a finishing piece, or a piece that we felt put us in a very good position going forward."
But even after bringing in a flock of new players, some still believe the Padres haven't gotten better enough to contend for a playoff bid this season.
"Everybody's excited about the Padres," ESPN's David Schoenfield wrote as he ranked the Padres the 16th-best team in the Majors. "I'm excited about the Padres. That's good and I hope they're in the playoff race all season. The Shields signing was big, giving them an innings eater and extending the depth of the rotation. But right now the infield looks like a mess, even if Jedd Gyorko bounces back, and you have to worry about the injury histories of Ross and Andrew Cashner. My prediction is certainly on the low end but if the rotation stays healthy or they get surprise contributions from guys such as Morrow or Johnson, 90 wins is certainly possible."
Schoenfield's prediction? The Padres finish the season 80-82—a mere three games better than they did in 2014.
And he's not the only one who thinks this, either.
HardBallTalk's Craig Calcaterra writes:
It certainly won't be easy. There are plenty of questions left to be answered for the 2015 Padres. But as any baseball fan of a consistenly underperforming team will tell you, it's better to have questions that need answering than to not have any questions at all.
