Most front offices, when things get shaky, they pull back. That’s just what happens. Worst farm system in baseball, ownership situation still not even fully settled, team sitting five and a half games back not that long ago…that is exactly the spot where the smart, safe, cautious move is to sit on your hands. Protect what you’ve got. Wait for a cleaner year. Most GMs do exactly that. Most.

Preller doesn’t work that way. And I still, still don’t fully get how he gets away with it.

Going into this deadline there was real chatter, not just noise, about the Padres being sellers. I mean legitimate chatter. Then the team wins eight of nine games and instead of easing off, instead of playing it safe now that they’ve got a little momentum, Preller does the opposite of what a nervous front office does. He goes bigger. He goes bigger every single time.

So here’s what happened. Padres get Robbie Ray from the Giants. Then right as the deadline is basically closing, and I mean right at the buzzer, they turn around and land Casey Mize, former number one overall pick, along with Gage Workman from Detroit. Add in Hunter Stratton for the bullpen and that’s three trades, three arms, all in the middle of a situation where plenty, plenty of front offices would’ve told themselves this wasn’t the year to push.

Here’s the part that gets me every single time. Both Ray and Mize are pure rentals. Gone after this season. There’s no long term plan built into these deals, no safety net if it doesn’t work. That’s the kind of move that requires you to actually believe in what you’re doing, because if it flops there’s nowhere to hide, nowhere to point and say well at least we’re set up for the future. Most people avoid that kind of exposure. Preller runs right at it.

And yeah, giving up a real pitching prospect like Kash Mayfield for a guy who’s only here a few months, that’s the kind of trade that can blow up later. It really can. I think that’s exactly why most front offices don’t make it. Not because they don’t see the opportunity, they see it, but because they’re too afraid of how it looks if it goes sideways. Preller has never seemed to care about that. Never. He’d rather take the swing and deal with whatever comes than sit there safe and watch the window close.

Same thing with Mason Miller. There was real talk about him getting moved, and I think a lot of executives, if they’re being honest with themselves, would’ve at least explored it just to cover their own backs. Preller held the price so high on his own closer that the conversation basically died before it started. Wasn’t scared into a move he didn’t believe in. Wasn’t going to be.

I don’t know what it is exactly. Maybe he just trusts his own read on things more than he trusts what everyone else thinks he should do. I don’t know. But whatever it is, I’m glad, I’m genuinely glad, he’s the one making these calls and not somebody more cautious. This team walking into August feels like a completely different team than the one that walked in a week ago, and that only happens because somebody was willing to do the thing everybody else was too scared to do.