Niebla has two years left on his contract and could see his role expand after joining Albert Pujols and former Padres catcher Nick Hundley as finalists. Niebla, Stammen said he and A.J. Preller, the Padres’ president of baseball operations, have already had a couple of “15-hour days” putting their heads together about the coaching staff that will come together shortly and the direction of the organization.

Asked if there could be an extra job title added to Niebla’s resume — the “associate manager” was essentially invented for Skip Schumaker when he was made a part of Jayce Tingler’s staff (2020-2021) — Preller said “we’ll be talking about that over the course of the next couple days.”

“When we make like the staff announcements … we’ll make sure that we have a lot of different areas covered and Ruben’s going to cover a lot of those areas,” he said

Preller added: “He’s going to have a big-time voice in it. He’s going to continue to get more opportunity, not just to help the pitchers and the pitching staff. I think Craig mentioned it. He’s a good coach. It’s not just a good pitching coach. And he’s got a lot of good perspectives that we even saw in this process … that we want to make sure we get through to that big-league clubhouse. Craig’s going to use him a lot.”

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/10/padres-notes-craig-stammen-eager-to-rely-on-ruben-niebla-a-j-preller-talks-extension/

16 comments

  4. This is exactly the right thing to do. Pitching is such an important aspect of the game that it makes no sense for every pitching coach to have differing approaches at each level.

  6. Niebla will win a title one day. But I am just not sure if it’s going to be with us or not. He is extremely good at his job.

  9. This all kinda reminds me of when the Raiders hired Antonio Pierce, then tried to compensate for his own lack of experience by surrounding him with experience. Same vibes, but I hope the end result here is actually successful.

  10. Ruben gets the keys to the pitching lab. Everything from rookie ball to the show regarding pitching performance and development is under his control as well as scouting and international signings. Just my guess at least.

  11. Whenever Niebla takes over, huge changes are gonna happen. Whatever the rot is or the issues are over the years with the last three managers, it’s going to be pretty clear to him what he has to do to build a strong team. He’s definitely next after this tenure.

  15. Ruben has earned an “Associate Manager” title. Not only that, I expect a lot of the decision making regarding pitching changes and bullpen order will be deferred to Ruben, at least initially.

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