Published by
The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
A.J. Preller is generally not the emotional type. But as the Padres’ president of baseball operations stood in the visitors’ dugout at PNC Park a few days ago discussing the trade that sent a bunch of young players to Cleveland in August 2020, he ran a finger down his cheek. “I don’t want to say I had tears in my eyes,” he said. “But I had tears in my eyes.” That reaction was specifically about the conversation in which he told Gabriel Arias he had been traded as part of the mega-deal that brought pitcher Mike Clevinger to the Padres. “That’s the hardest part of the job,” Preller said. He reca…