Tradin’ A.J. Preller and the Padres are looking for a shortstop

By Craig CalcaterraApr 7, 2015, 2:30 PM EDT
51 Comments

It’s been nearly 48 hours since the last Padres trade, so you have to assume Padres’ GM A.J. Preller is getting a bit antsy to make a deal. And he may make one soon:

At present Alexi Amarista and Clint Barmes are manning shortstop for the Friars (Barmes got the Opening Day start) but neither of those guys seem poised to give San Diego any kind of decent production.

Given that we’re on Day 2 of the season and given that shortstop is perhaps the thinnest position in all of baseball at the moment, there aren’t a lot of obvious candidates for a deal. Still, there are some often-discussed salary dump guys like Elvis Andrus out there, and the Cubs have Addison Russell waiting in the wings behind Starlin Castro, so it’s possible a deal could be made.

Freddie Freeman has elbow surgery

Getty Images
By Craig CalcaterraOct 18, 2019, 11:10 AM EDT
1 Comment

Freddie Freeman‘s elbow began barking in the second half of the season and he was a shadow of himself in the month of September. The Braves rested him for half a minute in the season’s final week but he still played 158 games in 2019. They said he was good to go for the NLDS but he was clearly limited, going 4-for-22 in the Braves’ series loss to the Cardinals.

Today the Braves announced that Freeman underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow on Wednesday. The team said today that the procedure involved the removal of three fragmented loose bodies and the cleaning up of multiple bone spur formations.

It’s not clear if more rest down the stretch would’ve made a difference for him — and it’s not clear that the Braves had options at first base for the postseason that were substantially better than even a limited Freeman — but it’s clear that not having Freeman feeling like himself in the heart of the order was a problem.

Freeman is expected to be good-to-go for spring training.