As the clock hit 11 p.m. on Monday, just 16 hours before the MLB trade deadline, Padres VP of Pro Scouting Pete DeYoung reached for something celebratory to cap perhaps the biggest trade in the history of baseball.
The ink was all but dried on a deal that would deliver 23-year-old sensation Juan Soto of the Nationals, pending some medical tire-kicking and peeks under the health hood.
DeYoung pulled out a bottle of sake, known for its "finely polished specialty rice and pristine mountain water from the Niigata Prefecture" of Japan. Drinkability street cred was not what brought a smile to the face of sleep-deprived President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller.
"The brand was Soto sake," Preller said Wednesday, after sitting through a press conference to introduce Soto and Nationals teammate Josh Bell as the newest members of the Padres. "Pete grabbed glasses and poured us all one."
If Preller needed another sign that the prospect haul he returned to the Nationals justified the singular price tag — three players were ranked No. 1 for the Padres at some point — the baseball cosmos offered a follow up.
Preller unlocked his cell phone to show a shot he snapped while driving to Petco Park on I-5, as the final I's were being dotted and T's crossed. The truck he trailed was "Soto's Air Conditioning."
"I figured that was a good sign," he said.
Preller hardly has needed galactic signals or seances to make waves in baseball, developing an MLB-wide reputation for making deals others deem impossible.
Soto, though — along with Bell, former Brewers closer Josh Hader and versatile, arrow-up bat Brandon Drury of the Reds — kicked his league lore into overdrive. At the press conference, Chairman Peter Seidler called the Preller-steered culture "the art of the possible."
That, however, sidesteps Preller's diligent and detail-oriented system. It skips over sleeve-rolling and effort. It fails to acknowledge his almost robotic inexhaustibility.
Almost. He's still human-ish, after all.
"We got done that night around 2 (a.m.) and were back at it at 5," Preller said. "I snuck home, just to get out of the room. I fell asleep on the coach talking to one of our scouts."
The 45-minute, mid-call nap is a reason Soto mega-agent Scott Boras said Wednesday, "The work ethic is extreme. How many times have we been on the phone at 2:30, 3 in the morning? Many times."
Preller has been a rip-roaring, bar-stool debate in San Diego, which has been engrossed by his willingness to fight for big names and big contracts once thought to be reserved for the likes of L.A., New York, Boston and Chicago.
There also has been withering criticism from fans who say the lack of a full-season playoff appearance since taking over in late-2014 remains proof-in-the-pudding rationale that results have to outpace the fireworks.
If there's been a whiff of wonder about Seidler, the franchise's beloved money-spending owner, it's extending Preller's contract until 2026. He believed the methods would trump the madness. He believed a day like the arrival of Soto would show unimaginable might exist in other places, but not in his GM's San Diego stomping grounds.
"It was probably among the easiest business decisions I've made in my career, to extend A.J. and also (CEO) Erik Greupner," he said. "They excel at their jobs and work very well together.
"A.J. is guy who says, 'Why can't we do it?' We started dreaming about Juan Soto, just for fun, two years ago. It's so great that he was able to pull it off."
Spending is one thing. Winning is the ultimate other. Preller understands. He embraces the lingering doubt, actually.
"When you do these jobs, you want pressure," Preller said. "The best players want pressure. The best organizations want pressure. We talk about it all the time, we want to be on the big stage. If this brings more spotlight, as an organization, that's something we welcome."
In addition to the sweat equity, Preller leans on creativity and geo-locating what makes players tick to mine advantages and connections.
Asked about chasing two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani before he landed with the Angels, Preller admitted to uniquely boning up for the moment. He rattled off 6½ minutes of Japanese so convincingly that the man tagged with Babe Ruth-level comparisons thought he spoke the language.
Ohtani was so convinced, he began asking questions in his native language. Preller can still recite the sales pitch, word for word.
"Our group, they understand that those little details matter," said Preller, moments after speaking with Soto's mother in Spanish. "You don't know what's going to matter honestly. So, the big thing is to figure out what's important to that player. What's the connection point? We take a lot of pride in trying to understand that."
Bell, the hard-hitting first baseman, confirmed the personal touch.
"First phone call with A.J. (Tuesday), he asked about my parents," Bell said. "He met them years ago when I was an amateur player, just playing in high school. First and foremost thing, he asked about family. I think that's really important."
Preller has been the ultimate stick-to-your-guns guy, no matter the outside noise.
Sitting down with him a few weeks back to unpack pros and cons during his time in San Diego, he almost bristled, or whatever that looks like in his nonplussed universe, at the notion farm-system evaluators graded the Padres mid-pack or lower.
Preller insisted the rankings deserved to be miles higher, among baseball's elite, based on conversations with other organizations. Then, with Soto et al., he simply went out and proved it.
In the end, though, Preller remains a baseball geek of the best kind.
Was the biggest snapshot of his obsessed baseball life signing Soto, or Manny Machado or Fernando Tatis Jr.?
"Earlier in the year, (manager) Don Mattingly was here with the Marlins," Preller said. "I went out and talked to him. One of the guys from the office snapped a picture of us together. That's probably the pinch-me moment.
"As a kid at 8 years old, watching Don Mattingly at Yankee Stadium, I never dreamed I'd be on the field talking to him. That's probably bigger than anything trade-wise. I sent that one immediately back to my parents and said, 'Can you believe this?' "
They should. It's Preller, after all.
