SAN DIEGO — For the fourth time in six years, inside the upstairs auditorium at Petco Park, the San Diego Padres introduced a new manager to the world. The franchise again occupied an unusual stage, not only after four trips to the playoffs but also amid remarkable letdowns and repeated turnover in an especially visible role.
Monday, the Padres didn’t so much unveil Craig Stammen as reintroduce him. This time, in a position that was entirely foreign yet somewhat familiar. The former pitcher had lived through all of an eventful half-decade and more.
“He’s been part of some really high highs,” president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said. “He’s also had a front-row seat to some of the disappointments over the last few years. And I think he’s going to carry those experiences with him here in this chair.”
Stammen is similar to two of his ex-Padres managers, Andy Green and Jayce Tingler, in that he has never done the job at this level. He is unlike them — and perhaps anyone in the history of the league — as a middle reliever who ascended to the highest leverage of coaching jobs without any formal coaching experience.
There is this, too: He has spent far more time in the organization and as a member of the big-league club than any of Preller’s five previous managerial hires.
Between 2017 and 2022, a span in which he tallied more big-league appearances than any teammate, Stammen achieved the kind of leadership status once reserved for franchise icon and Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman. For the past two years, he absorbed a variety of perspectives while working as a special assistant to the major-league staff and Preller’s baseball operations department.
“It was a smart hire in a sense of familiarity, growth in player development in the last couple of years, and a guy who is respected in the clubhouse.”
Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman sheds insight on the managerial hiring in San Diego:@Padres |🔗 https://t.co/iXax8hx4iO pic.twitter.com/UPIqe7rwa8
— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) November 9, 2025
All of that should help in making a daunting leap. To what extent remains to be seen.
“It’ll be a challenge, for sure,” said Stammen, who received a three-year deal to manage the Padres through 2028. “I got a big learning curve ahead of me. That’ll be something that I’m going to really put a lot of work in this offseason, a lot of conversation with A.J., (assistant general manager Josh Stein), a lot of the other coaching staff.
“This isn’t a one-man Craig Stammen show, you know — hopefully, part of the process of putting a winning ballclub on the field. But I’m going to rely on a lot of people to have my back and create processes that lead us to a championship.”
Indeed, the Padres cannot afford to have Stammen embark on his education without significant help. The club is coming off its first pair of back-to-back 90-win seasons. One of Stammen’s former teammates, franchise third baseman Manny Machado, will turn 34 next summer.
Another, Yu Darvish, might have thrown his final pitch. The window for a core of high-paid stars to win San Diego’s first title appears closer to shut than open. Stammen will not receive the softer landing that awaits other first-time managers, such as the Washington Nationals’ Blake Butera and the Los Angeles Angels’ Kurt Suzuki.
And few people better understand how the Padres arrived at this critical juncture.
It was almost a decade ago that Stammen, a former Nationals reliever returning from flexor tendon surgery, signed a minor-league deal with the Cleveland Indians. They were not his only option. “We actually lost a heated recruiting battle,” Preller said.
It was less than a year later that the Padres succeeded in signing Stammen to another minor-league deal. He broke camp with the team the following spring, re-established himself as a top-notch competitor with modest stuff, and spent several years demonstrating intangibles that caused wheels to turn in executives’ heads.
Last month, after Mike Shildt resigned as manager, Preller included Stammen’s name on a list of roughly 50 potential candidates.
“It was a conversation with not just Craig (but also) a few others that we have who are talented in this organization: ‘Hey, are you interested? Do you want to be considered for this?’” Preller said. “At that time for Craig, he didn’t say no, but he didn’t say yes. So, we kind of had to make a decision, because a lot of those same people we wanted involved in the process of interviewing some of the candidates because there’s a lot of trust and faith in them and their experiences and takes.”
Soon enough, however, Stammen went from helping interview candidates to being one himself. He had received enough signals from Preller over the past half-decade that he knew the front office wished for him to eventually take on a more prominent leadership role. But when Preller finally approached him with the idea that he might fit the description of manager, Stammen initially was unsure.
“My immediate thoughts are to my family and, like, ‘We can’t make that happen. We can’t move them out of school,’” said Stammen, a longtime Ohio resident and the father of four young children. “‘Yeah, I would love to do this.’ In my core, it’s like, ‘Yes, I’m 100 percent in,’ but there’s a lot that goes into making that decision.”
Over 13 years in the big leagues, Stammen posted a 3.66 ERA, largely as a reliever. He’ll now manage the team he wrapped his career with. (Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
Stammen described leaning on his faith. He and his wife, Audrey, prayed together. They twice fasted for 24 hours. Finally, they decided Stammen would interview. He was still hungry for the opportunity.
Monday at Petco Park, after Stammen had impressed Preller and other team officials over hours of meetings, the couple was accompanied by their children, Stammen’s parents and his brother. (Craig and Audrey had also decided to move to San Diego full-time during the season.) Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla, the other finalist for the managerial job, attended in a show of support, as did Padres pitchers Jason Adam, Joe Musgrove and Yuki Matsui. It appeared to be a small cross-section of the type of environment Stammen hopes to cultivate.
“I have so much respect for Ruben,” Stammen said. “I had the privilege of being a player under him and being able to see how he can coach players and get the best out of them. … Honestly, he’s the guy I’m going to rely on the most, his experience. I think he’s one of the best coaches in our entire sport. Not just pitching coaches but coaches overall.
“I want our staff to bond in a way that creates relationships that are lifelong, lasting. And I think that’s goal No. 1 for me is just to create those relationships. If we go straight into strategy and forget about the relationships, I think we’ve lost the opportunity to create something special.”
The Padres perhaps could use a more familial atmosphere.
In 2020, under Tingler, they advanced to a pandemic-shortened postseason. (There, Stammen memorably started a game and recorded five important outs.) The next year, they collapsed as people in the organization said the relationship between Preller and Tingler deteriorated.
In 2022 under Bob Melvin, Stammen and the Padres made it to the National League Championship Series. The next year, they went down as the franchise’s biggest disappointment before an icy Preller-Melvin partnership ended with the latter leaving for the San Francisco Giants.
In 2024 and 2025, some coaches and other members of the organization privately complained of harsh treatment by Shildt. Both years, the Padres also won at least 90 games.
Now, to succeed, they will need more than positive vibes. Preller’s latest managerial hire arguably represents as big a gamble as any he has taken. Meanwhile, his longstanding relationship with Stammen could lessen at least some of the risk.
“When you study managers and you look around the league, there’s some great first-time managers. There’s some great managers that have been in their second and third stop,” Preller said. “We’ve been to the playoffs with Jayce, who was a first-year manager. … We’ve been with Bob and with Shildty and expect to go to the playoffs and win in the playoffs with Craig. I think it’s more about the individual than, ‘Hey, it has to be this type of profile or this type of experience (or) pitcher versus position player.’
“It comes down to just the fit with your team and the individual, and then we pick somebody that brings a lot to the job.”
Monday, Stammen did not shy away from his lack of coaching experience. He expressed confidence in his organizational experience, as well as his ability to motivate a roster filled with friends and a handful of former teammates. And as the Padres’ fourth manager in six years, he acknowledged something else.
“This is a challenge of a lifetime,” Stammen said. “And I’ve been a part of this organization, I love this organization, and to be in a leadership position and try to take this team to a place it’s never been is very exciting.”