PEORIA, Ariz. — The man who has built (and rebuilt) the Padres into a perennial contender will continue to lead that effort.
The Padres announced on Monday that president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has received a multi-year contract extension.
“A.J. has been the architect of the team,” Padres chairman John Seidler said. “And without A.J.’s roster building over the duration, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Preller’s current six-year deal was set to expire after the upcoming season. Now he will get at least three more years to try to help the Padres win their first World Series.
“He has definitely founded this organization, bringing it from one of the worst to one of the top organizations in the game,” right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “If somebody can bring a championship to San Diego, it is definitely A.J. Preller.”
AJ Preller, San Diego Padres president of baseball operations, watches batting practice during spring training workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026 in Peoria, Ariz.(Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
That talks languished for various reasons, and Preller’s long-term status was undetermined as spring training began. It caused some level of fretting throughout the organization and beyond.
“He can’t leave me,” Tatis had said last week after walking up and hugging Preller while the executive talked to a reporter.
Manny Machado politicked on Preller’s behalf Sunday, saying it was “weird” the extension was not already done.
“I should have spoken three months ago,” Machado said with a chuckle on Monday.
The reality was that an agreement was the expected outcome all along.
Numerous people with knowledge of the talks between Preller and Seidler insisted for months that the deal would get done before the season. Three such people indicated last week it would happen by Monday, just as it did.
“A.J. and I have had discussions since February last year about conceptually extending him after the offseason,” Seidler said. “I know there’s been a lot of speculation as to why it has taken so long. … It has taken so long in part because our schedules have been incompatible. I’m an old fashioned guy. I prefer to have discussions like that in person. … We’ve really only been in person four times since the end of the season, and the fourth and final discussion was (Sunday), where we came to an agreement.”
AJ Preller, San Diego Padres president of baseball operations, talks on the phone during spring training workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026 in Peoria, Ariz.(Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Preller, who requested the Padres not disclose the length of the deal, declined through a Padres spokesperson to speak on Monday.
While some 250 days remained until the contract expired, Seidler said he was pleased to get the deal done before the season “because it just allows us to return 100% of our focus to the baseball product and what we’re doing on the field and what we’re doing at Petco Park for the fans.”
Seidler said he did not think it was important to have Preller locked up before the team is sold, which is expected to happen perhaps by opening day. But taking away the uncertainty, Seidler said, “is certainly a positive in my mind.”
Preller took over the Padres’ baseball operations in August 2014 and is the second-longest tenured general manager in the major leagues behind the Yankees’ Brian Cashman.
“I don’t know anyone that loves this organization and cares about this organization, cares about this franchise, cares about these players in this clubhouse, more than (Preller),” Machado said. “I don’t think it’s any of us B.S.-ing around here when we speak about A.J. I think it’s just genuine. He’s truthful to all his players, loyal to the guys. It’s awesome to see that he’s gonna be here. He started this all, and we all believe in him. We know what he’s made of and what he does for this franchise.”
The Padres were mostly woeful for a decade before Preller’s arrival and wholly awful the first five seasons under his direction.
In that time, however, they remade the farm system and aimed for the 2020s as the opening of their window of contention with the idea they would be perennially competitive for a World Series thereafter.
Beginning with the 2020 season, the Padres have made the postseason four times in six years, an unprecedented stretch in the franchise’s 57-year history. In 2022, they made the National League Championship Series for the first time in 24 years. The four playoff appearances in the past six seasons are one fewer than the Padres made from their inception in 1969 through 2019. And they are one of five teams to have won at least 90 games both of the past two years.
The Padres have made more trades involving major leaguers during Preller’s tenure than any other team.
His frenetic pace of dealing has resulted in some regrettable outcomes — such as the 2020 deal that sent Ty France and Andres Muñoz to the Mariners for catcher Austin Nola and relievers Austin Adams and Dan Altavilla. Injuries and ineffectiveness plagued the three players the Padres got, all of whom were gone by 2024 and did not play in MLB in ‘25.
France, who coincidentally signed a minor-league deal and joined the Padres on Monday, was an All-Star for the Mariners in 2022. Muñoz has blossomed into one of baseball’s best closers.
Preller was also a willing facilitator of late chairman Peter Seidler’s exorbitant spending in 2022 and ‘23. That spending frenzy resulted in some bad contracts, repeated purging of the minor-league system and saddled the Padres with high salaries for players that will be well past their prime in the coming years.
More often, however, Preller has been able to transform the Padres with his dealings.
The first of his blockbuster deals to have a massive long-term impact was the acquisition of a 17-year-old shortstop who had yet to play professionally — the June 2016 trade that sent starting pitcher James Shields to the White Sox for Tatis.
Tatis was a superstar practically from the start. Along the way to posting the highest career WAR of any player who debuted in 2019, Tatis signed a 14-year, $340 million contract in 2021 and has been an All-Star three times, though he missed the entire 2022 season due to injury and a PED suspension.
“We have grown up together,” Tatis said. “He almost raised me as a dad. We have been on this journey together. He has (had) my back, and he has held me accountable probably more than anybody. I’m just really happy my journey has been attached to him.”
As the Padres massively trimmed payroll in 2024 and maintained a tighter budget the past two seasons, Preller and assistant general manager Josh Stein have engineered creative contracts to land starting pitcher Nick Pivetta and others.
Preller’s past two trade deadlines have been masterpieces.
He fortified a balky bullpen in 2024 by acquiring Jason Adam and Bryan Hoeing, who collectively spun a 1.25 ERA the rest of that season as the Padres closed with the majors’ best second-half record and advanced to the NLDS.
What he did this past July not only made the Padres better for the final two months of that season but stocked their roster for this season and beyond. Those moves added virtually nothing to the ’25 payroll, secured closer Mason Miller and catcher Freddy Fermin through 2029, left fielder Ramón Laureano through this season and starting pitcher JP Sears through 2028.
At the ‘25 deadline, they traded away No.1 prospect Leo De Vries. He was the fourth player (along with C.J. Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and Robert Hassell III) at one point considered to be the organization’s top minor leaguer to be dealt by Preller in a span of four years.
The Padres have traded away more than 80 players ranked among their top 30 prospects since the 2019-20 offseason, and their minor-league system is currently ranked as the worst in MLB by most publications. Members of the organization’s player development and scouting staffs scoff at such rankings and point to their continually finding ways to flip minor leaguers for major league talent.
There have been 14 players named All-Stars in the past two seasons who were at one time in the Padres organization, not including the seven Padres players who were named to those teams.
“Shoutout to A.J. for drafting half the MLB,” Tatis said at last year’s All-Star Game.
Preller’s willingness to leverage the future because he believes he and his lieutenants can build a new one just as well is unending. The team was involved in advanced talks this offseason to trade their top two prospects, catcher Ethan Salas and left-handed pitcher Kruz Schoolcraft.
“It is definitely fun,” Tatis said Monday of playing on a team run by Preller. “He’s the G.M. (that) has more character out there, (he is the) more spontaneous guy out there. I’m just really happy I’m playing for him.”
