How does John Mozeliak stack up against other long-term general managers?

A.J. Preller, San Diego Padres -- August 6, 2014

A.J. Preller is known to be a bit of a wild card amongst his peers. Preller has made trades for Juan Soto, Dylan Cease, Matt Kemp, Fernando Tatis Jr., Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, and Blake Snell. It seems like Preller is playing fantasy baseball with a real organization at times, but his team has finished above the .500 mark in 3 of the last 4 seasons, so something must be going well for him.

Preller joined the Padres in the summer of 2014 after spending time as the Texas Rangers assistant general manager. He was primarily in charge of scouting and player development while with the Rangers. Preller was 37 at the time, making him one of the youngest executives in baseball.

Preller's success both in the regular season and postseason pales in comparison to Mozeliak's. A.J.'s winning percentage is drastically lower, his team has never won a division title, albeit in one of the toughest divisions in baseball, and not one of Preller's teams has made it to the World Series in 9 years.

Since 2015, Preller's first year at the helm, the Cardinals have made it to the postseason 5 times, and they have just one season with a below-.500 record. The Padres, meanwhile, 6 seasons where they weren't a .500 team, and they have just two playoff appearances.

To make matters worse, Preller was given relative financial freedom in 2022 and 2023 while Mozeliak was being asked to maintain payroll well below the luxury tax threshold. Given the lack of playoff success among recent Padres teams, John Mozeliak has outpaced A.J. Preller in franchise success during each's tenure.