The San Diego Padres tried to buy a dream in a matter of weeks. After inheriting a team that never finished closer than 16 games off first place in seven of the last eight seasons new general manager AJ Preller attempted to jumpstart success by loading up on name-value players including Matt Kemp, Wil Myers, Justin Upton, Melvin Upton, James Shields and Craig Kimbrel.

In a way, the plan has worked. The Padres, who finished 77-85 last season, are 32-33 and in third place in the National League West. If not for a spectacular, running, sprawling, wall-crashing catch by Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson on Sunday they’d have a winning record. But, presumably because they do not have a winning record despite the roster overhaul, the Padres fired manager Bud Black on Monday.

This was the easy thing for the Padres to do even if it doesn’t seem fair. Black didn’t acquire the defensively-challenged Kemp, who has just two home runs and a .289 on base average. He was stuck with Myers whose career WAR hovers at around 1.0 and third baseman Will Middlebrooks and his .259 on base average. Kimbrel had a bad month. Pitcher Andrew Cashner can’t seem to stop giving up home runs, Brandon Morrow can’t get healthy and Odrisamer Despaigne has crashed back to earth.

None of these things are specifically Black’s fault. Despite months of hype, the Padres’ rebuiltd always felt like a desperate lunge at respectability with a roster filled with big names and lots of holes. The fact San Diego sit a game below .500 despite so many players underachieving shows how much Black actually held things together.

Now the team will go on a search for a new manager, probably another big name to manage all the big names in the hope that maybe it buys that elusive dream. But if it doesn’t work, if Kemp and Myers and Middlebrooks and the rest of the shiny new acquisitions aren’t really that good then who will management have to blame now that the easy target has taken the fall for something that was never his fault?