SAN DIEGO — In a Zoom call Monday with San Diego media, A.J. Preller sat in front of the framed sports page from the San Diego Union-Tribune that captured the franchise’s second no-hitter.

Under the headline “Classic Dylan,” architect Dylan Cease is leaping into the arms of catcher Luis Campusano after shutting down the Nationals on July 25.

It was a subtle reminder of all that seismically changed in 2024 for the Padres’ president of baseball operations.

At the start of the season, whispers swirled that Preller could be fighting for his job. A promising season had unraveled, tensions with manager Bob Melvin ended with him hopping to the NL West-rival Giants, superstar Juan Soto fled to New York and payroll cuts loomed.

A little more than six months later, one trade pickup owned a rare no-hitter and another, Luis Arraez, won a batting title. A roll of the dice on a position change for rookie Jackson Merrill amounted to an organizational home run. And the team Preller reshaped became the winningest after the All-Star Game.

In Major League Baseball, fortunes can change at warp speed. Even amid that reality, Preller’s pivot has been startling in its speed and effectiveness.

Now, the question becomes: Is this the beginning of something lasting?

That’s the real test of his decade of button-pushing.

“In terms of the want-to-win and the motivation, I could just speak to myself,” Preller said when asked about any pressure he’s faced. “… It’s every year. And I think the fan base sees that. At the end of the day, (people) may not agree with every move or certain things may not work out. But like the motivation to put a winning team on the field … we have a lot of people in the organization who share that.

“I talked about it last year, like personally, pretty disappointing because I think we felt like the roster from the ’23 season was super talented and we didn’t get it done.

“So I don’t know about extra motivation because, like every year we’re very motivated and it’s one of the best traits of this group.”

The Padres and Preller, collectively and in one voice, have said his early years positioned the franchise to reach a window of consistent winning through the 2020s.

That led to an uncommonly patient leash in the industry. Now, Preller is likely the leading contender for MLB Executive of the Year.

Preller vowed that the core of the clubhouse — mammoth contract limitations aside — feels healthier than ever.

“I had like five or six different conversations where, you know, to a person, they were were saying, ‘This is the best team I’ve played on,’” he said. “Some guys that have played on 100-win teams, playoff teams and they were like, this is the best team and from an organizational standpoint, the best feeling they’ve had.”

Is that a building block that ensures winning seasons, plural? The short-term math, with offseason moves pending, says yes. The lack of playoff berths in back-to-back seasons says Preller has more proving to do.

There’s no arguing, though, that Petco Park is jammed regardless of day or opponent and the buzz in San Diego echoes from March to October.

“We just constantly are talking, talking the game, throwing ideas out there,” Preller said. “Best ideas win. We’ve got a really talented group. I listen to those guys. Nothing’s really changed on that front.

“That really hasn’t changed over the last 10 years, honestly, and definitely not in the last calendar or so. Every year is a little different, like how to do that with your roster. This year’s version was a good, balanced roster.

“Hopefully, we can keep building on that.”

That becomes the report card — the only one that matters. In 2021, Farhan Zaidi of the Giants was named baseball’s Executive of the Year. He was fired late last month.

Multiple truths exist about the current Padres. They’ve won at least one playoff series in three of the last five years. They’re also still hunting for a multiyear run.

The more bites of the apple, the more shots they’ll get to reach a World Series.

“We’re not going to be content until we get there,” Preller said.

The savvy required to assemble the 2024 roster, building wisely and broadly with less money, hitting on so many moves, showed Preller can be nimble on his feet.

Now, he’ll need more of it.

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