The Padres have scoured the baseball world, looking for a new general manager to take over for Josh Byrnes, who was fired on June 23rd. On Tuesday night, San Diego has found their guy.
According to Ken Rosenthal via Twitter, the Padres are set to name Rangers executive A.J. Preller as the new general manager. Preller, 36, is expected to take over immediately. The Padres will announce Preller in a press conference tomorrow, per Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Padres were down to four final candidates for the general manager: Yankees assistant general manager Billy Eppler, Red Sox assistant general manager Mike Hazen and MLB executive Kim Ng were the other candidates.
Preller has worked for the Texas Rangers for the last ten seasons, with 2014 being his first as the assistant general manager. Prior to that position, Preller was the Rangers senior director of player personnel. He is often credited with contributing to the Rangers strong influence in Latin America, in addition to overseeing the Rangers often robust farm system.
Preller will have his work cut out for him in San Diego, but many executives around baseball have praised Preller for his abilities in the scouting department and he is described as an "eccentric" personality. He will be the man responsible for getting the Padres to the postseason for the first time since 2006.