Major League Baseball announced Thursday that San Diego Padres General Manager A.J. Preller has been suspended as a result of the League’s investigation into the Drew Pomeranz trade with the Boston Red Sox. Preller will serve a 30-day suspension, and will receive no pay during that period.
MLB just suspended Padres GM A.J. Preller 30 days for his actions in the Pomeranz trade. He reportedly hid medical information.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 15, 2016
A.J. Preller Suspended by MLB
The League began investigating the Padres medical record keeping practices not long after the trade was completed. Soon after Pomeranz joined the Red Sox, reports surfaced that he had some medical issues and was receiving some treatments that Boston had not been made aware of. Around the same time, the Padres completed a trade with the Miami Marlins, in which the Fish eventually received pitcher Andrew Cashner. However, the trade had to be partially reversed after it was discovered that pitcher Colin Rea had a preexisting elbow condition that San Diego had not revealed.
In the course of its investigation, the League discovered that San Diego had not logged all medical treatment its players were undergoing with the League’s central medical information bank. This had the effect of hiding that information from other teams. In a statement released Thursday afternoon, MLB stated that its Department of Investigations had completed a thorough investigation into the Padres record keeping practices, and had talked to representatives from both the Padres and the Red Sox. After submitting the findings to Commissioner Rob Manfred, MLB handed down Preller’s suspension.
San Diego will now be without its GM for the remainder of the season and for the period of time in which they will begin preparing for the off-season.
The Padres received top prospect Anderson Espinoza in exchange for Pomeranz, who made his first All-Star team this season. Prior to the trade, Pomeranz had established himself as San Deigo’s ace, putting up a sparkling 2.47 ERA over the first half of the year. While he struggled initially after joining the Red Sox, he eventually settled in with his new team. He has allowed more than three earned runs just once in his last eight starts. Assuming he remains healthy, he will be an important part of Boston’s playoff push.
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