Padres focused on the experience new manager Craig Stammen brings to job

At the start of Monday’s news conference, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller turned to his right and asked Craig Stammen a rhetorical question.

“How did we get here?”

It is an apt question when discussing any hire of great magnitude. In this case, it is also particularly intriguing.

Because Stammen was introduced on Monday morning as the new manager of the Padres — a job for which he was ostensibly not a candidate.

Stammen was near the top of the list Preller had of men he envisioned trusting the Padres’ clubhouse to when Mike Shildt retired in October. Preller has since early in Stammen’s time with the organization — first as a relief pitcher and then as a special assistant in player development — thought Stammen had a promising future in whatever role he chose in baseball.

But Stammen did not see a way to make the move from special assistant, which allowed him to practically set his own schedule, to the demanding grind of being a big-league manager. He and his wife, Audrey, have four young children. While they retained a home in Coronado, the family’s primary residence is in Ohio.

So Stammen participated in Zoom calls with candidates three weeks ago as one of those interviewing prospective managers.

After that first week, Preller doubled back.

“He was very coy about the beginning,” Stammen said.

“We kind of got through the interview process a little at the beginning of it, and then he put the sales kibosh on me and said, ‘You know, I really want you to be a part of this process. I want you to think about being the manager of the Padres.’ My immediate thoughts are to my family and like, ‘We can’t make that happen. We can’t move them out of school and move them from Ohio to California.’ And yeah, I would love to do this in my core. It’s like, yes, I’m 100% in. But there’s a lot that goes into making that decision. And so that started the process.”

Padres chairman John Seidler and CEO Erik Greupner did not know Stammen was a candidate until around that time.

“It’s A.J.’s decision,” Greupner said Monday. “I think the level of trust that he has in Craig, having worked directly with him over these last several years as a special advisor and having observed his leadership qualities as a player … I think A.J. felt that he knew everything he needed to know about who Craig Stammen is and how he can lead this team.”

Through “a lot of conversations” and a couple 24-hour fasts while they prayerfully considered a momentous change in lifestyle, the Stammens came to see how the job could work for them.

And Preller kept selling.

“He’s pumping me up and continuing to believe in me and show that belief — him and Josh (Stein, the Padres’ assistant general manager) — a belief that, like, honestly, if they didn’t have that strong belief, I probably would have not gone down the path as strongly as we did,” he said.”And eventually it got to the point where it was ‘yes’ for us. We made some family decisions to make that happen. And then once we made that decision, it was like there was a peace and a joy that came with it.”

Stammen was clearly in that frame of mind Monday, as he executed his first appearance as the franchise’s front man with the same polish, earnest enthusiasm and self-deprecation that endeared him to teammates during a 13-year major league career.

“I kind of view this as just an extension of my time with the Padres,” Stammen said. “I’ve been in a lot of different roles throughout that time — being kind of a mop-up guy, and then pitching in leverage, and then being the old guy on the team and not being very good. … To me, the most exciting part about the job is (that) I have real relationships with all these guys, and we’ve done some things together. We’ve had a lot of shared experiences of good things and bad things. And I’m going to lean on those guys and those experiences to make this Padres team great, and the Friar Faithful will be proud of us.”

Stammen, who retired in 2023 after suffering a shoulder injury in spring training, has never coached or managed.

He has the personality and the passion to speak persuasively in public, but winning a press conference still leaves him 0-0 as a manager. There is the matter of game management and other nuances of leading a team that is expected to contend for a third consecutive playoff appearance.

Stammen will likely retain a large portion of the coaching staff. One crucial member of the staff who will return is pitching coach Ruben Niebla, who was one of the other three finalists for the manager job and attended Monday’s gathering. Stammen and Preller have already begun discussing filling holes on the staff left by hitting coach Victor Rodriguez (Astros) and third base coach Tim Leiper (Mets) departing.

“It’ll be a challenge, for sure,” Stammen said. “I’ve 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., Josh, a lot of the other coaching staff. I’ve got some guys in my corner already that are on staff, like Ruben, that have tons of coaching experience, been in the dugout for playoff games, been in the dugout for long seasons. So I’m going to rely on a lot of people in the organization.

“The best part about this Padres organization is the people that we have and how great they are at all their jobs. And I’m going to rely on all those people. This isn’t a one-man Craig Stammen show. I’m hopefully the 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.”

One of the people he plans to lean on is Shildt, with whom Stammen had a close relationship and has traded texts with in the days since the baseball world was largely shocked by the announcement of his hiring this past Thursday.

“I’m going to use him as a mentor and somebody that I can rely on and get advice from,” Stammen said. “I respect him so much and what he’s accomplished in baseball, and he’s going to have a great retirement. … He and I had a great relationship working together. I think the more people you have in your corner, the better off, and especially with somebody with his experience and expertise, it’s going to be very beneficial for me.”

Preller is perhaps the only one who has envisioned this for longer than a couple weeks.

“It’s been a decade in the making,” he said, harkening back to the Padres’ attempts to sign Stammen in 2016 and eventually landing him as a minor-league free agent the next year.

Stammen ended up pitching in 333 games for the Padres, fifth most in team history. More germane to his current role, his leadership transcended the normal limitations of a middle reliever.

“The part that was fun to watch over the course of that first season and the years to come — the reasons why he’s in this chair here today — elite competitor, incredibly hard worker, very prepared and a natural leader,” Preller said. “He’s somebody that, as a pitcher, was able to touch different elements of our clubhouse. … Craig has a unique seat and a unique lens. He was part of those building teams, and then he’s been able to see it through to the playoff teams.”