J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.
AJ Preller has one ace up his sleeve as the Aug. 3 trade deadline approaches — and several other prospects who might be more attractive to the Detroit Tigers in a Tarik Skubal trade.
Could AJ Preller pull off another trade deadline stunner? One Padres analyst thinks a former Cy Young Award winner could be at the top of Preller's wish list.
A veteran right-hander is on the road to recovery for the Padres, who have had trouble filling out the back end of their rotation with quality starters in 2026.
The Padres can't hit opposing starters, an issue that has persisted past the point of "bad luck" to become more plausibly a case of "bad game-planning."