BOSTON — Major League Baseball suspended San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller for 30 days after an investigation concluded the club gave incomplete medical records to the Red Sox in the Drew Pomeranz trade.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred revealed Sunday that the league offered Boston the chance to rescind the July 14 trade, but the Red Sox declined to take top pitching prospect Anderson Espinoza back in return.
“We asked the Red Sox whether they were interested in rescinding the trade,” Manfred said Sunday prior to the Red Sox’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park. “That’s the first thing that — because that is the normal remedy, that is what we always do. As I said, their response to that was they were not interested. And I understand why. The trading deadline had passed and options had been foreclosed, and I also understand that the rescission rule, in that particular context, is a little difficult to manage. The alternative was equally bad in my opinion.”
The Miami Marlins ran into the same problem with the Padres’ medical records as the Red Sox did, and they actually elected to send relief pitcher Colin Rea back to San Diego. Manfred said the league discovered the Padres’ wrongdoing earlier in August.
“We would’ve completed the investigation and rescinded the trade,” Manfred said, explaining what would have happened if the Red Sox wanted compensation. “At the point in time that we offered the rescission, we were not done with the investigation, but we knew enough that just as in the Marlins’ situation, we thought that we could get the rescission done.”
The Red Sox needed a starter before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, so it’s not surprising they chose not to send back Pomeranz, who went 3-5 with a 4.68 ERA in 13 starts for them. Either way, the sanctions were a lose-lose situation for Boston.
Thumbnail photo via Jim Brown/USA TODAY Sports Images
