Major League Baseball has suspended Padres general manager A.J. Preller for 30 days without pay after a thorough review of the July trade of All-Star left-hander Drew Pomeranz to the Red Sox, completing MLB's investigation. The matter is now considered closed.

 

After the deal, which sent top pitching prospect Anderson Espinoza to San Diego, the Red Sox had concerns about whether they had received all the relevant medical information on Pomeranz.

 

MLB issued a statement Thursday which read in part:

 

"MLB's Department of Investigations conducted the thorough review (of the transaction), which included interviews with relevant individuals from both Clubs. The findings were submitted to Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr.

 

"As a result of this matter, Major League Baseball announced today that A.J. Preller, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Padres, has received a 30-day suspension without pay. MLB considers the matter closed and will have no further comment."

 

The Padres released the following statement from Executive Chairman Ron Fowler, Managing Partner Peter Seidler and President and CEO Mike Dee:

"We accept the discipline handed down from Major League Baseball earlier today and will fully comply with Commissioner Manfred's recommendations pertaining to changes with our medical administration and record keeping. Rest assured, we will leave no stone unturned in developing comprehensive processes to remediate this unintentional, but inexcusable, occurrence. To be clear, we believe that there was no intent on the part of A.J. Preller or other members of our baseball operations staff to mislead other clubs. We are obviously disappointed that we will lose A.J.'s services for 30 days, but will work closely with him upon his reinstatement to ensure that this unfortunate set of circumstances does not happen again."

The club also released a statement from Preller:

"I accept full responsibility for issues related to the oversight of our medical administration and record keeping. I want to emphasize that there was no malicious intent on the part of me, or anyone on my staff, to conceal information or disregard MLB's recommended guidelines. This has been a learning process for me. I will serve my punishment and look forward to being back on the job in 30 days."

Pomeranz is 2-5 with a 4.60 ERA in 11 starts since the July 14 trade to the Red Sox for Espinoza. He went 13 days between his final start with the Padres and his first start with Boston but kept his regular turn in the Red Sox rotation until getting a week of rest between his two most recent starts.

At the time of the trade for Pomeranz, the Red Sox were 49-38 and trailing in the AL East by two games. Since the deal, Boston is 32-26 and now leads the division by one game entering Thursday's action. The Padres, who were 38-51 when they dealt Pomeranz, and in fourth place in the NL West, are 24-33 since the trade and still in fourth.