Bob Melvin is gone.
A.J. Preller is moving on.
“Our attention really switches forward to hiring a manager,” Preller said. “And I think we’re super excited about the process.”
The Padres’ President of Baseball Operations spoke Wednesday afternoon, shortly after Melvin concluded a news conference in San Francisco introducing him as the manager of the Giants.
The Padres’ search for a replacement — their third manager in four seasons — is underway.
The organization began its interview with Mike Shildt on Wednesday, and an interview with Ryan Flaherty is scheduled for Friday.
Shildt, who has served as an adviser in player development and on the major league staff the past two seasons, and Flaherty, a Padres coach since 2020, are widely seen as the leaders in the clubhouse. It seems likely the team will also interview pitching coach Ruben Niebla, who has expressed interest in managing and has a strong rapport with both Preller and players.
The Padres plan to conduct interviews with outside candidates as well, because sometimes leaders in the clubhouse are overtaken and Preller has never been confined by expectations.
“I think we have some (internal) candidates that … we feel strongly about that are really well qualified, and we have some other candidates in the organization that we’re going to talk to and engage their interest level,” Preller said. “I can just tell in the first 24 hours there’s a lot of interest in this job. We’ve had some very interesting names and some people that are very accomplished that have expressed interest in this job. I think, really, it’s a testament to our team, our roster, the talent that’s here, the fact that we’ve gotten to the playoffs a couple times here in the last few years (and) our city. We’ve got amazing fans that support this team. So it’s an attractive job.
“I think we’ll sit down with some internal candidates the next few days, but we’re going to make sure we exhaust all the different possibilities to get the right choice. There’s no real timeframe. … It’s a big offseason for us. We’ve got a lot of decisions to make. This is the first one. We want to try to get it right.”
The next few months do promise to be full of significant decisions.
Foremost, the Padres plan to trim at least $50 million from their payroll, which could involve their moving left fielder Juan Soto. A report out of New York on Wednesday said the Padres and Yankees have held preliminary discussions about Soto. A Padres source said the sides have not talked this offseason. Two different sources said previously the Yankees were among the teams that expressed interest in Soto before the trade deadline. And it was fairly common knowledge within the organization that Melvin favored trading Soto.
There are multiple other free-agent decisions for the Padres to make, as well, many of which will help determine the state of the pitching staff. Most of the coaches are expected to return, though the contracts of associate manager Ryan Christensen and third base coach Matt Williams, who came from Oakland with Melvin, have expired.
But first up is deciding which man will preside over the players and coaching staff.
The next manager will be the fifth full-time manager since Preller took over at the end of 2014. He inherited Bud Black, replaced him with Andy Green before the 2016 season, hired Jayce Tingler before the ‘20 season and Melvin before the ‘22 season. The Padres will be tied with the Angels, Mets and Phillies for most full-time managers (five) since 2015.
“We’ve been through the process a few times here,” Preller said. “Every time you go through any process you gain experience, what you’re looking for, different questions you’re asking, how you’re vetting different guys out. I think we’ll have some good knowledge and experience as we go to this one. But each situation is different.”
Preller referred to the belief the Padres’ roster is situated to contend for a World Series title. But Melvin departed in large part due to his tenuous relationship with Preller that stems from differing philosophies on communication, roster construction and other intricacies.
It is true that Melvin is a Bay Area native, managed the A’s, played for the Giants and has openly admired how they run their organization in terms of analytics and roster construction.
“This is probably the only (job offer) I would have listened to,” Melvin said Wednesday.
But the reality is he and Preller were going to suffer an uneasy truce, at best, in 2024.
The two men only opaquely addressed that friction in their respective media gatherings Wednesday.
“Some things transpired last year in a difficult year for the team with high expectations,” Melvin said. “I think there was a narrative at the end that probably wasn’t going to go away.”
Preller spoke of ways both he and Melvin might have handled their working relationship differently during a two-season run that included the Padres advancing to the National League Championship Series in ’22 and finishing with an 82-80 record and missing the postseason in ’23. But with almost every answer, he played it forward.
“There were some adjustments that Bob had to make coming from Oakland, there were adjustments that I had to make with a new manager,” Preller said. “… I think as we went through the process the last two years, like any relationship, there were things you liked, there were things that we felt we could have done better. We played deep into the postseason (in 2022), so I think people view that as a success. We didn’t get it done this year. I think our focus is on let’s go get a manager, let’s go get better this offseason.”
