PEORIA, Ariz. —
A.J. Preller thinks in the abstract pretty much on the daily. Such pondering serves as a launching pad as he attempts to turn fantasy into reality and mold a perennially horrible team into a champion.
But the Padres general manager cannot afford to count on the abstract, which is why he doesn’t give in to the temptation to daydream about what could be with Franchy Cordero.
Even though two of his best players kept reminding him just how good Cordero is.
“He’s the X-factor, man,” Tommy Pham told Preller this winter.
And then there was this from a young shortstop many consider on the verge of being (or maybe already being) the game’s most exciting player:
“Franchy is me,” Fernando Tatis Jr.