ESPN's probing question: Why did the Padres bypass acquiring a true ace, leaving their rotation with injury-prone arms?
The ultra-aggressive San Diego Padres GM A.J. Preller was far from that this offseason.
Despite re-signing Michael King to a three-year, $75 million deal, it was a pretty quiet offseason.
Sure, the Padres made some small moves, but besides the addition of King, nothing really big happened for San Diego.
ESPN gave them a C- grade for the way the offseason went, although it is always hard to tell until the season takes place.
One big area of need was finding a top-tier starter, and that only magnified when Dylan Cease signed a whopping seven-year, $210 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Now, was Cease worth that contract? That's a story for a different day.
ESPN's Bradford Doolittle had one question for each team from the offseason activity, and his question was regarding the lack of the addition of a front-line starter.
Why the heck didn't the Padres get a front-line starter?
Doolittle's answer is basically that maybe the Padres couldn't spend that much money, and with the ownership sale taking place and Preller not being signed to an extension until recently, that seems very likely.
San Diego did add some arms, including Griffin Canning, German Marquez, Walker Buehler and Triston McKenzie, but all of them have their own issues with some of them being labeled as reclamation projects.
In turn, that means the final rotation spot (or two if they go with a six-man rotation), is up for grabs between a lot of dart throws, and JP Sears and Matt Waldron are some returnees in that discussion.
The good news, however, is that Joe Musgrove is returning after having Tommy John surgery, and Nick Pivetta and King give San Diego a talented three-man start if they can all stay healthy.
And, it's worth a reminder here: Preller acquired Cease right before the 2024 season in a trade. He signed Pivetta when spring training had already started, and he even acquired Luis Arraez very early into the season, so the phone is never off for the Padres' rockstar GM.
Maybe, just maybe, Preller has something up his sleeve. Or, maybe he waits around, finds a deal he loves, and strikes gold. We have seen it before, so why could him out this time, especially after he got a new contract extension?
For now, first-time manager Craig Stammen will figure out what to do, and any day, Preler can pull a rabbit out of the hat like he has done time and time again since coming to San Diego.