Back in winter 2014, Padres AJ Preller made a flurry of trades that won him the “Rock Star GM” accolade.
In one of them, he acquired Matt Kemp from the Los Angeles Dodgers, in exchange for Yasmani Grandal and others.
Clearly, the centerpiece of the trade was Kemp.
Then, when the 2015 season started, the “plan” did not work and the ball club lost 88 games.
Last year, when the season was half way through and the team was not performing, the Padres decided to trade their veteran players to open spaces for their youth.