Interview: 2017 World Champion Padres GM

1. How big of an imapct do you think your trade deadline deals made on your World Series win?
"Huge. Way more than I expected they would. Villalona was terrible, but Wainwright got the win in games 6 and 7 of the World Series, beating the player I traded for him (Chris Young) in game 7 in one of the most clutch relief appearances of all time. 5.1 shutout innings against maybe the consensus best team in baseball.
And Yoenis Cespedes was even more dramatic. He won the MVP for all three playoff series! NLDS, NLCS, and WS MVP. That's unheard of. He OPSed something like 1.080 for the entire playoffs.
I'm losing both Wainwright and Cespedes to free agency for nothing more than a pair of Type B compensation picks, but the future value lost is dwarfed by the epic performances those guys gave me. Without them, I'm a loser. With them, I'm world champion.
Flags fly forever."

2. Do you think your New Stadium had any impact on your 2017 performance?

"Absolutely. I'd say the payroll aspect was pretty neutral. My budget went up, but I'm on the hook for loan payments, so I didn't have a ton more money to spend. But neutralizing the park factors was huge. People don't realize what a disadvantage it can be to have an extreme park. Take PETCO. If you have a terrible park for hitting home runs, it means you basically can't target players who derive a lot of their value from hitting for power. That cuts off a giant segment of the market from you, and you find yourself begging for non-power hitters who can still provide offensive value, which is rare, and which is what I did all my first season. I was faced with the choice of overpaying to acquire the few players who could actually thrive in my stadium, or building a new one. I chose the latter, and it paid off in spades."

3. Is your wallet gonna be opened or closed in the off-season?
''My wallet is always open, with money and assets flowing freely in both directions. I don't see us giving out the standard seven year, 200 million dollar contract to aging stars that you see around here, but we'll be on the lookout for savvy pickups. I started the season with an entire bullpen built from free agent castoffs I identified with some advanced methods and signed for a million bucks apiece tops, usually league minimum. None of these guys had an overall above 79. And I had a better bullpen ERA than average, even factoring out the contributions of midseason pickups like Axford, Bradley, and Motte.
But free agency seems like a sucker's game at this point. I'd rather watch the big market teams blunt the biggest advantage any team can have by signing mediocre players with impressive overalls to awful deals, and float around the edges. You'll probably see more trades than multi-year signings from the Padres, but anything could happen. If an opportunity falls into my lap, I'll take it."

4. Do you think we will see the Padres winning back-to-back World Series?
"If I had to bet, I'd bet that no, we won't repeat. I think we were one of the best teams in baseball last year despite our record, as our Pythagorean record bears out. We had elite run prevention and enough offense to make it work, and most players will be returning or recycled into other MLB assets. That said, it's very hard to repeat. Even the best team in baseball is an underdog against the field.
On second thought, I think I've changed my mind. I've decided to win it all again. Suck it, haters."