[Acee] Victor Rodriguez leaving Padres to become Astros’ hitting coach
November 5, 2025
[Acee] Victor Rodriguez leaving Padres to become Astros’ hitting coach
25 comments
Whoever the Padres’ next manager is will have a new hitting coach in 2026.
Victor Rodriquez and the Astros are finalizing a deal for him to become that franchise’s hitting coach after he spent two seasons in the role for the Padres.
That means the Padres’ fourth manager in seven seasons will have a hand in hiring the team’s 10th hitting coach since 2015.
In 2024, Rodriguez’s first season, the Padres led the majors in batting average for the first time in franchise history. They finished seventh last season, which was their second-highest ranking in the past 22 years. However, their home run and run production fell precipitously in 2025. They ranked 28th in MLB in home runs and 18th in runs.
Rodriguez had one year remaining on his contract with the Padres, who granted permission for the Astros to speak to Rodriguez.
The Padres have yet to name a manager to replace the retired Mike Shildt. Last week, team officials conducted in-person interviews with at least three men (Nick Hundley, Ruben Niebla and Albert Pujols) who were described by sources as finalists for the job. The Padres have declined to comment on the search.
Padres must be close to hiring a new manager. This is pure speculation, but I feel like it won’t be someone internal getting a promotion.
imagine the Astros get no hit in the playoffs next year
Just some food for thought: Astros are a pretty good organization, so they clearly must see something. Also, every first year he has with a team, the squad does REALLY well. 2013 Red Sox, World Series champs. 2018 Guardians, top 10 in nearly all hitting categories. 2024 Padres? Top 10 in avg, slug, ops, and homers. We shouldn’t be surprised if Astros have a surge. AND, padres better go after David Popkins, although I’m sure it’s unlikely.
Get ready to go all in on small ball, Houston
If everyone is an asshole everywhere you go, it might be that you are actually the asshole. In other words, for everyone who thinks that 10 hitting coaches in just over a decade were all incompetent, maybe we look at the common denominator, which is the Padres’ hitters.
Can this be a clue that Pujols is going to be the next manager? Because I heard he wanted to bring Yadier Molina with him.
Sayonara!
Last year I would say we were one of the top 5 teams in baseball and our hitting was fixed after the horrible RISP issues we had. Victor was good and clearly improved us, idk what happened with this year.
I need to understand more what a hitting coach does, all the big stars have their own personal hitting coach so I just wonder how much impact a team hitting coach has.
Best news I’ve heard all day
Happy for what he brought to the ‘24 team. The ‘23 offense was so directionless and looked like 9 dudes freestyling in the batters box. It was nice to feel like there was any sense of a unified team approach last year.
No clue what went wrong this year, but I’m hoping they’ll make other changes beyond this to the hitting infrastructure to smooth out issues that really predate Victor.
Maybe the Astros don’t want to hit any more home runs
Rodriguez was Shildt’s guy, so this isn’t that big of a surprise.
Better learn trash can pal.
Good. Interested to see astros hits with RISP next year
25 comments
Whoever the Padres’ next manager is will have a new hitting coach in 2026.
Victor Rodriquez and the Astros are finalizing a deal for him to become that franchise’s hitting coach after he spent two seasons in the role for the Padres.
That means the Padres’ fourth manager in seven seasons will have a hand in hiring the team’s 10th hitting coach since 2015.
In 2024, Rodriguez’s first season, the Padres led the majors in batting average for the first time in franchise history. They finished seventh last season, which was their second-highest ranking in the past 22 years. However, their home run and run production fell precipitously in 2025. They ranked 28th in MLB in home runs and 18th in runs.
Rodriguez had one year remaining on his contract with the Padres, who granted permission for the Astros to speak to Rodriguez.
The Padres have yet to name a manager to replace the retired Mike Shildt. Last week, team officials conducted in-person interviews with at least three men (Nick Hundley, Ruben Niebla and Albert Pujols) who were described by sources as finalists for the job. The Padres have declined to comment on the search.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/11/05/victor-rodriguez-leaving-padres-to-become-astros-hitting-coach/
Good
Padres must be close to hiring a new manager. This is pure speculation, but I feel like it won’t be someone internal getting a promotion.
imagine the Astros get no hit in the playoffs next year
Just some food for thought: Astros are a pretty good organization, so they clearly must see something. Also, every first year he has with a team, the squad does REALLY well. 2013 Red Sox, World Series champs. 2018 Guardians, top 10 in nearly all hitting categories. 2024 Padres? Top 10 in avg, slug, ops, and homers. We shouldn’t be surprised if Astros have a surge. AND, padres better go after David Popkins, although I’m sure it’s unlikely.
Get ready to go all in on small ball, Houston
If everyone is an asshole everywhere you go, it might be that you are actually the asshole. In other words, for everyone who thinks that 10 hitting coaches in just over a decade were all incompetent, maybe we look at the common denominator, which is the Padres’ hitters.
Can this be a clue that Pujols is going to be the next manager? Because I heard he wanted to bring Yadier Molina with him.
Sayonara!
Last year I would say we were one of the top 5 teams in baseball and our hitting was fixed after the horrible RISP issues we had. Victor was good and clearly improved us, idk what happened with this year.
I need to understand more what a hitting coach does, all the big stars have their own personal hitting coach so I just wonder how much impact a team hitting coach has.
Best news I’ve heard all day
Happy for what he brought to the ‘24 team. The ‘23 offense was so directionless and looked like 9 dudes freestyling in the batters box. It was nice to feel like there was any sense of a unified team approach last year.
No clue what went wrong this year, but I’m hoping they’ll make other changes beyond this to the hitting infrastructure to smooth out issues that really predate Victor.
Maybe the Astros don’t want to hit any more home runs
Rodriguez was Shildt’s guy, so this isn’t that big of a surprise.
Better learn trash can pal.
Good. Interested to see astros hits with RISP next year
Wow that’s terrible. Anyway….like I was saying….
Don’t let the the door hit you on the way out.
Thank goodness