Is there room on this roster for him? Where would he fit in?

Yeah, definitely in September.

I think there's definitely room.

Um, before then would be interesting because Luis Campasano is hitting, uh, like the Padres always hoped he would.

Freddie Fermin has been better, and he's their best defensive catcher.

So throw in a guy who's 20 years old who was, uh, you know, basically missed all of last season with a back injury would be a big risk in a, in a playoff race.

But at the same time, Ethan Salas, if he, uh, wants to be on a, you know, po-playoff roster, the Padres have to add him by August, uh, or I'm sorry, uh, September first to the forty-man roster.

Like, who do you think some of the, the glue guys are on this team that are gonna prove to be like more important than people realize just based on how this team is put together?

What, what can you tell us about the level of communication from this baseball operations department, AJ Preller specifically, to the incoming owners, Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones?

My understanding is it's not been so much, um, from, from Kwanza and Jose to baseball ops directly.

I, I think there, there has been definitely communication with John Seidler, uh, probably communication with Eric Gruber, who is, uh, in a lot of ways kind of the face of the sale process when they were going through bidders and everything.

So there's definitely been communication there.

As far as, you know, directly with baseball ops, I, I think maybe, you know, John and Eric are probably more serving as middlemen there.

Um, so th- that's another complicating layer, right? Because if, if you're the GM and you're not communicating directly all that much with the incoming owners or the people you expect to be incoming owners, then that probably maybe makes it a little opaque what you can spend.

But I think there, there are obviously communication from, from John and Eric to, to, to AJ, who I think, you know, has had some contact this year with the incoming owners, but not just, maybe not so much recently.

I mean, is he untouchable at this point as the Padres head into the deadline, or is he someone they will, they really will consider moving for the right pitcher?

But Dennis, before we get into any of those specifics, I, I do think that there is one bigger overarching question, which is about ownership, and what is the very latest about ownership and when the new owners might be officially approved? And in the meanwhile, if they're not approved before the deadline, who is running things for the Padres right now? Is John Moedler still the point person? Is he still, uh, involved and operational? Is it Erik Rubner? Like, what, what's the latest on that front? 'Cause that feels like that's, that's pretty big, and we're patiently waiting for some news on that, and there just hasn't seemed to been much.

Yeah, the Padres will tell you that John Moedler is still running things.

He is still the chairman.

Uh, he has not handed things off yet because, number one, they have not voted on Jose Feliciano and Kwanza Jones.

I would expect there's a good chance there will be a vote before the end of July.

Um, I know, I know people were thinking early June, those owners meetings in New York, that was gonna be the natural time to vote on them.

But yeah, they just didn't have all their ducks in a row, which I guess is not super abnormal for a large sale this price, this magnitude.

I just, your thoughts overall on how the coaching staff has performed.

Um, well, that's all sounds like it's good news, and would you expect, Dennis, when there is an introduction, do you expect there to be a press conference? Do you expect there to be an opportunity for people like yourself, journalists, to get a chance to talk to Jose Feliciano and Quanzo Jones?

You know, I don't know.

They're, they're...

I guess they're fairly, uh, public figures.

They, um, Jose Feliciano is the, uh, managing partner and co-founder of, like, a really big private equity firm up in LA that, you know, is in all sorts of industries and businesses.

But, um, I think, you know, as far as public appearances he's done, they've m- they've mostly been limited to, like, business conferences, SVJ, that kind of thing.

Um, but I, I guess if they, if they wanna...

But, uh, what is your sense of the starting pitching right now?

[laughing]

... yeah, oh, for, like, 30 at the plate in his very limited playing time as a DH.

Uh, but yeah, the guy tore up Triple A again.

I don't know what else he can do in the Pacific Coast League.

He's out of options.

Um, again, Stammen seems like maybe the first Padres manager to really give him a really strong public vote of confidence, so I think they're finally gonna see what they have here, and if it doesn't work out, maybe even the first half, then maybe they, they just finally move on from this very long time experiment that's, you know, been frustrating for both sides, not only the Padres, but Campusano.

Because, you know, maybe if he were in another organization, maybe he would've gotten this chance earlier, and then we could all see whether he can really catch at the Major League level or not.

To me, it's kind of like, a B minus, C plus, but I don't know if anybody was gonna do a lot better than that, given the circumstances.

Yeah.

So, but I think, I think the Potters are in this interesting spot right now, uh, that they have to move money to fill their needs.

They need multiple starting pitchers, preferably controllable ones, unlike, uh, Nick Pavetta, who's probably gonna opt out if they keep him, and he stays healthy and has a decent season.

So, um, the question is, for me at least, if not Nick Pavetta,...

if you're gonna subtract from your really good... or really thin rotation, excuse me, uh, then who? So I think there's a lot of possibilities out there.

I, I think Ramón Laureano, who's on, you know, gonna be a pending free agent too, as well, uh, his name's out there a little bit, and, um, you know, J- Fernando Tatis, e- everyone talks about him, but I think that's probably beyond the pale as well.

Mm-hmm.

Um, yeah, they've had, they've had internal raises that raised the payroll quite a bit this past year from, uh, the, the lows of 2020, um, forward so to speak, but I think, um, it's just gonna be more of the same of that.

It's been, I think, an up and down roller coaster season, so maybe there was just really legitimately letting loose and, and having fun for a night.

Yeah.

On one hand, I guess, you know, I- I've only covered one team on a dedicated basis ever, so it's like they're going really all out it seems like for a wild card berth most likely that they clinched.

I mean, the division is still technically within reach.

Uh, number three seed in the...

Or number four seed in the NL is also within reach.

But, I mean, most likely they're gonna go to the wildcard round.

Like, if you're handing out game one, two and three starter roles right now, who are you getting the ball to?

How do they handle this? Do they give up future value in, in exchange for a team eating salary on players they acquire? Like, how much does that narrow the types of players they can actually add to fill these voids?

Yeah, that's a, that's a great question.

I think, um, they're over the second luxury tax threshold right now, so it's not like this team...

You know, despite all the narratives in the off-season, th- they are spending money, and they, they do, I think, have some dry powder at the deadline, which partially explains why they, they really didn't spend much money outside of, you know, Nick Bavetta, and even, you know, in the off-season.

And even he's only making, what, like, $4 million this year, so it's a really back-loaded deal.

It's gonna be a little limited in that aspect too because they're already being over the second threshold.

I don't, I don't know if I see them going over the third threshold.

They do well in depth in international free agency, and they end up finding guys all the time.