James Shields Splash Cements San Diego Padres as 2015 NL Threat

In the days of newspapers, the fear would be that by the time the ink was dry on this column, James Shields would be old news and updates would be needed. By the time the newspaper landed in the driveway, the San Diego Padres would have acquired, oh, I don’t know, Clayton Kershaw? Madison Bumgarner? Mike Trout?

Good thing the Internet moves at the speed of San Diego Padres general manager A.J. Preller.

The most challenging task in baseball this winter has been keeping up with a once-slumbering franchise that spent most of the past decade hibernating like a bear, keeping pace with a rocket-fueled rookie GM who moves like Jagger and strikes like lightning.

Now, 10 days before pitchers and catchers report, the Padres are fitting Shields for a jersey for four years and, according to Bleacher Report sources, some $75 million, with a club option for a fifth year.

We saw in October that the “Big Game James” nickname was a little too Hollywood, that Shields wasn’t Worthy.

But what this signing assures is that the “Big Game” part will arrive with Shields, only as a descriptor for what the Padres will play each day in 2015 rather than as an individual moniker.

Shields now in the house. Matt Kemp. Justin Upton. Wil Myers. Derek Norris. Will Middlebrooks.

All this while retaining their front three starters Tyson Ross, Ian Kennedy and Andrew Cashner.

You bet the Padres will contend in the NL West in 2015.

If these were the People magazine rankings, the Padres would be atop the list of Most Intriguing Franchises of the Year. They’ve dominated MLB Network this winter. Can Oprah be far behind?

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

I keep flashing back to a conversation with an American League executive last August shortly after the Padres hired Preller from the Texas Rangers.

“From the outside, I’ve always viewed the Padres as a franchise with low expectations,” the executive, who knows Preller well, told me. “With A.J., that will change. He is not going to accept low expectations.”

Nobody who knows Preller doubted that that was true.

But to change both the roster and the expectations this rapidly is simply remarkable.

Sure, it’s fair to wonder whether the Padres will wind up hamstrung in a couple of years as Shields (now 33) and Kemp (30) age while earning millions (the Padres owe Kemp just $3 million in 2015 thanks to the Dodgers, per Baseball Prospectus, with that total jumping to $18 million annually from 2016 to 2019).

But for a franchise that not only had become irrelevant in the game but, worse, irrelevant in its own city, these absolutely are risks worth taking.

For one thing, the Padres do have several million coming off of the payroll after the ’15 season, including Upton ($14.5 million) and Kennedy ($9.85 million).

For another, given how nimble and creative Preller already has proven to be, who can doubt that he can wheel and deal the club’s way out of any ditch it stumbles into in the future?

This is probably the time we should to roll out the usual February disclaimer and point out that the games are played on the field, not on paper, and yadda, yadda, yadda. Yes, the baseball landscape is littered with the carcasses of clubs that have won the winter but proceeded to lose the summer. The 2012 Miami Marlins with Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell. The 2013 Toronto Blue Jays with Reyes, Buehrle and R.A. Dickey. And that’s just a start.

What’s different here is that this is a franchise that was left neglected, like an abandoned house with boarded-up windows and overgrown weeds, in the waning tenure of the John Moores ownership and then during the robber baron days of Jeff Moorad.

New ownership had the Herculean task of restoring trust with the community, and the hiring of Preller has done more for that than any other 10 moves combined. What he’s done this winter is take a defibrillator to a heart that in 2014 had nearly flatlined.

The Shields dance carried through most of the weekend, with negotiations heating up significantly on Friday night, skidding to a halt on Saturday when the Shields camp looked at what was described as the Padres’ “final offer” and wanted more. But though the Cubs, Marlins and Blue Jays were among those who called, his market never materialized the way he envisioned. Certainly not like those of Jon Lester (Cubs, six years, $155 million) and Max Scherzer (Nationals, seven years, $210 million).

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

But the Padres offered what others could not: A chance for Shields to pitch at home. He lives in San Diego, and certainly the combination of Petco Park and a suddenly dynamic franchise was an intriguing one. Shields, a playoff veteran with the Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Rays, suddenly (and unexpectedly) would have a chance to play in October in his backyard for a franchise that hasn’t participated since 2006.

In the end, according to sources, the Padres closed the deal with a little more guaranteed money and a little less on the incentive side. Now, they hope that Shields’ workhorse track record—eight consecutive seasons of at least 200 innings pitched—plows ahead into 2015 and beyond.

Given that the Dodgers remain loaded and that the Giants have won the World Series in two of the past three seasons, nobody yet is promising an NL West title (this winter’s predictions were reserved for Anthony Rizzo, who called an NL Central title for his Cubs, per Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune). But the Padres are promising to be far more interesting this year, and the worst offensive team in the majors in ’14 has an attractive new look.

Yes, there are questions involving this club defensively (how many runs will the outfield allow, especially if Myers is the center fielder?). Yes, injury-plagued first baseman Yonder Alonso is the only lefty in a right-handed-heavy lineup.

There are even questions surrounding whether the Padres are done wheeling and dealing. With Shields in the fold, could Preller turn around and flip, say, Cashner, catching prospect Austin Hedges and others in a package for the Phillies’ Cole Hamels?

Financially, that would seem prohibitive.

Then again, for a franchise whose world-view now is to look at things and ask “why not?” rather than “why?”, nothing anymore can be a surprise. Especially when the Padres currently employ six outfielders, and Carlos Quentin and Cameron Maybin still don’t fit.