SAN DIEGO -- On the morning of March 12, as general manager A.J. Preller met with his coaching staff, Padres players gathered behind Peoria Sports Complex. A few of them played basketball. On a nearby field, Craig Stammen busted out a lob wedge and worked on his golf short game.

Uncertainty reigned, and as morning turned to afternoon, those players were finally called to the clubhouse for the meeting they'd been waiting for.

No matter who you are or where you were, the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic probably felt a bit surreal. Imagine it through the eyes of Preller. This was a roster he'd spent four years carefully assembling. He tore it all down, built a farm system from scratch, signed key free agents and kept his sights on 2020.

Now, Preller was telling those players to go home. Spring Training had been suspended.

• Opening Day FAQ: D-backs vs. Padres

Preller wouldn't get clarity on the next step until three months later, and when his players reported for Summer Camp at Petco Park in early July, they did so in a different world. Preller's measuring-stick season would be a season unlike any in the sport's history.

Which begs the question -- to what extent can a 60-game regular season within the constraints of a pandemic truly serve as a barometer for Preller's successes and failures?

"We've definitely been gearing toward 2020 as the start of something for the organization," Preller said on the eve of the Padres' Friday night opener against the D-backs. "The last four years have really been [about] building up the talent base to a point where we felt that we had a chance to start to move up the standings for real here this year.

"The season is going to be different. ... But the goal of trying to win, the goal of putting a very competitive team on the field, the goal of seeing players play really good baseball -- that's all the same."

• Can Padres make leap in 60-game sprint?

Nearly six years into his tenure, Preller's legacy remains as complicated as ever. His list of major transactions reads like the GM version of an all-or-nothing hitter. Preller has swung for the fences, and he's often missed. But when he connects, he’s racked up his share of home runs, too.

Preller landed Chris Paddack for Fernando Rodney in June 2016, and it wasn't even his best move that month. Three weeks prior, he'd sent James Shields and some cash to the White Sox for Fernando Tatis Jr. Then again, shortly before that, he’d dealt Trea Turner and sacrificed a handful of useful pieces for Matt Kemp.

Predictably, with those hits and misses, popular opinion is divided among Padres fans. Some love Preller, who locked up two superstars on the left side of the infield (Tatis and Manny Machado). Some do not, as he's yet to bring the postseason -- or even a .500 season -- to San Diego.

"The goal has never been to be .500," Preller said. "The goal is to win championships … and to have a team that can get to October every single year."

When Preller began to overhaul the organization in 2016, the Padres agreed to give him something that GMs are rarely afforded: time. That time appeared to be running thin when the Padres finished 70-92 last year. Manager Andy Green was let go, and executive chairman Ron Fowler apologized to fans, saying "heads will roll" if the team didn't improve in '20.

But then, 2020 happened, and if there was ever a year for reserving judgement about a baseball team, it's this one. Indeed, Padres brass has hinted that Preller's true evaluation might be pushed to '21.

Then again, on Thursday, MLB announced that the postseason will expand to eight teams per league for this year. The Padres are suddenly serious postseason contenders, and it's worth asking how Preller might fare if they don't meet that standard.

But whether Preller’s litmus test comes this year or next, one thing seems clear: his legacy as Padres GM will be sculpted more by what happens in the future than by what’s happened in the past. After all, this is the youthful and talented roster that Preller has been building toward.

“Over the last few years, it's been about getting to a team that we legitimately can look at ourselves in the mirror and say, 'That team has got a chance to play deep into the postseason,'” Preller said.

Preller finally thinks he’s built that team. And on Friday night, that team finally takes the field.