Late in the season Padres general manager A.J. Preller was suspended 30 days after it was found that he failed to disclose relevant medical information to the Red Sox in the trade of lefthander Drew Pomeranz to Boston. A trade Preller made with the Marlins involving pitcher Colin Rea was modified after Rea suffered a torn UCL after his first start in Miami.
These events have major league baseball’s executives talking this week in Arizona, where the GM meetings are being held. One thing likely to spin out of these talks, Baseball America reports, is a rule standardizing medical disclosures in trades. Major League Baseball chief legal officer Dan Halem told BA that MLB intends to introduce a formal standard about what must be disclosed in this regard going forward.
The best part of the story is that Preller himself gives a quote about how on-board he is with all of this and how critically important disclosure is. There’s no enthusiasm like the enthusiasm of a new convert, I suppose.
In any event, if this is not called “The Preller Rule” or “The Preller Standard” what are we even doing here?
