No team made a bigger splash last offseason than the San Diego Padres.
First-year general manager A.J. Preller, hired in August 2014, launched a restructuring of the club's big league roster in December, with trades for Matt Kemp, Wil Myers, Derek Norris and Justin Upton. To the surprise of the industry, Preller managed to hold on to many of the team's top prospects, as he instead used the Padres' then-deep farm system to complete those trades.
• Padres' 2016 Top 30 Prospects list
By the time MLBPipeline.com released its Padres Top 30 prospects list for 2015, over half of the players on the previous year's list were no longer with the organization. That number grew even larger in the hours before the start of the 2015 season, when Preller sent two more Top 30 prospects to the Braves in exchange for Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton Jr.
Team Top 30 Prospects lists
But Preller's new-and-improved big league roster didn't live up to the high expectations, and the Padres crawled to a fourth-place finish in the National League West with a 74-88 record. There were some positives, though, as catcher Austin Hedges logged 58 games in the big leagues and eventually was joined by Travis Jankowski and Colin Rea, who are back on this year's Top 30 list after retaining their rookie eligibility.
But as a result of the club's disappointing 2015 season, Preller and Co. took a different approach to the offseason this year and restocked the farm system with impact talent. Notably, the Padres acquired outfielder Manuel Margot and shortstop Javier Guerra, its new Nos. 1 and 2 prospects for 2016, as well as left-hander Logan Allen (No. 9) and infielder Carlos Asuaje (No. 17) from the Red Sox in the Kimbrel trade in November. San Diego also bolstered its farm system with a strong 2015 Draft that saw it add hard-throwing right-handers Austin Smith (No. 8) and Jacob Nix (No. 10) in the second and third rounds, respectively.
Biggest jump/fall
Here are the players whose ranks changed the most from the 2015 preseason list to the 2016 preseason list.
Jump: Dinelson Lamet (2015: Unranked | 2016: 13)
Fall: Franchy Cordero (2015: 9 | 2016: Unranked)
Best tools
Top 10 Farm SystemsPlayers are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale for future tools -- 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average and 70-80 is well above average.
Hit: Manuel Margot (60)
Power: Hunter Renfroe (60)
Run: Travis Jankowski (70)
Arm: Michael Gettys (70)
Defense: Javier Guerra (60)
Fastball: Tayron Guerrero (75)
Curveball: Austin Smith (55)
Slider: Jimmy Brasoban (60)
Changeup: Enyel De Los Santos (55)
Control: Colin Rea (55)
How they were built
Draft: 10
International: 8
Trade: 11
Rule 5: 1
Breakdown by ETA
2016: 8
2017: 7
2018: 10
2019: 5
Breakdown by position
C: 1
1B: 0
2B: 1
3B: 1
SS: 4
OF: 8
RHP: 12
LHP: 3