Padres notes: World Baseball Classic looms; more coaches hired

ORLANDO, Fla. — The World Baseball Classic will again interrupt spring training.

And the tournament will again hit the Padres hard.

Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. are virtually certain to play for the Dominican Republic. Xander Bogaerts is expected to be a part of the Netherlands’ team. Nick Pivetta is weighing whether to pitch for Canada.

In 2023, the Padres had nine players miss significant time in major league camp to participate in the WBC. That was tied for fourth most in the major leagues.

The WBC is not among the primary reasons the Padres have ever stated for their most anticipated and most expensive team failing to make the postseason that year. But all those absences have been mentioned as having impeded chemistry to some extent.

“We’ve already talked about it,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said of the upcoming disruption. “It’s something that we have to be prepared for. I think you can do a better job with it, for sure, this year than we did in ‘23. And I think it’ll be a part of our conversation as we get ready for spring training.

“You have a large group of players that potentially could be not with you for three weeks. So I think just making sure that we’re ready to go from the beginning, that we’re able to put some of the processes, some of the things that we want to get done, that we make sure that from from earlier in camp that we’re able to have those those sessions and those conversations, because you may lose a significant portion of … spring training time together.”

Craig Stammen, the Padres’ first-year manager, was with the Padres in the spring of 2023.

“There’s definitely pros and cons to (the WBC),” he said. “Those guys are not going to be with us for a little while, and that chemistry that you try to build throughout Spring Training isn’t probably as good. But it also opens up opportunities for other players to lead like Jackson Merrill, Gavin Sheets, Jake Cronenworth. Those guys can kind of take the reins in spring training …  so that, when those guys come back, they’re like, ‘Holy crap, everything’s in a good spot. We’ve just got to join in and do our thing.’”

Coaching staff update

The Padres are close to completing their coaching staff for 2026.

And the newly learned names continued to demonstrate the major league playing experience and Washington Nationals flavor of the group.

Bob Henley has been hired as the team’s third-base coach, Kevin Plawecki as catching coach and Ryan Goins as infield coach.

They join new bench coach Randy Knorr and new hitting coach Steven Souza Jr., who agreed to join the staff last week.

Knorr and Henley coached for the Nationals for several years, including during Stammen’s time as a pitcher for that team. Henley coached for the Nationals under three managers before moving to back to player development in the organization in 2021.

Like Souza, Plawecki and Goins were longtime major leaguers. Souza and Plawecki will be first-time MLB coaches.

Plawecki, who spent last season as an instructor for the Padres at their minor-league complex, played catcher over parts of eight seasons for the Mets, Red Sox, Guardians and Rangers. He retired in 2024 after playing 75 games for the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate in El Paso.

Goins also spent parts of eight seasons in the major leagues, playing primarily second base and shortstop for the Blue Jays, Royals and White Sox. He spent the past two seasons coaching for the Angels.

The Padres are also bringing back bullpen coach Ben Fritz, first base coach Dave Macias, assistant hitting coaches Pat O’Sullivan and Mike McCoy and assistants Nick Punto and Morgan Burkhart.