Well, good news everyone!
The Mariners' hiring of Jack Zduriencik as their GM was welcomed by [Padres GM Kevin] Towers. The two are longtime friends, dating to their time together as scouts with the Pirates, and Towers has said having a friend among the GM ranks tends to be helpful.
--Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune
The more things change...
Kidding aside, this is actually some decent news since that marks a second team, with Milwaukee being the obvious first, that will have a good working relationship with our new GM right off the bat. That's going to be useful for a team that have some pieces to sell, even if the Padres aren't likely to be among the group stopping by our yard sale.
Anyways, the Padres are aggressively shopping Jake Peavy and given the timeline for this, coming up while the postseason is still active rather than as a "hey maybe" rumor during the winter meetings would indicate to me that these are serious talks. Peavy is going to command a ransom in talent. CC Sabathia is going to command a ransom in money. Jarrod Washburn is going to command neither. Time to get to work Jack, we need this guy to be somewhere else and we needed it back in July.