My managerial choice for the Padres is the same as it was two years ago.
Hire Ron Washington.
Allow me one sticky disclaimer:
I don’t know why the Padres chose to hire Jayce Tingler instead of Washington after interviewing both men in October 2019.
On baseball credentials, the Tingler hire didn’t add up.
Washington’s baseball background was much stronger, no matter how you sliced it.
Washington had managed the Texas Rangers to a pair of American League pennants. Big leaguers praised him as an exceptionally good teacher, dating to his lengthy coaching tenures in the big leagues.
A former big league infielder, Washington could work the room.
Here’s another box he checked off: Like Tingler, he and A.J. Preller were former Rangers colleagues.
So when the Padres began to push for playoff contention two years ago, having signed Manny Machado and promoted Fernando Tatis Jr. to the big leagues, it made little sense to hire Tingler instead of Washington.
That is, unless something scared off Padres leaders.
Was there something outside of Washington’s baseball pedigree that turned off Padres leaders headed by Preller and ownership point men Peter Seidler and Ron Fowler?
The Padres did not respond Wednesday to an inquiry on why Washington wasn’t hired.
For sure, there are concerning events from Washington’s past that the Padres no doubt had to consider and investigate.
Washington tested positive for cocaine in July 2009, reported Sports Illustrated, while he was managing the Rangers. Washington admitted to the failed test but labeled it a one-time slip at age 57 during the All-Star break.
The Rangers stood by him, and Washington led them to four straight seasons of 90-plus victories, three playoff berths and the World Series in 2010 and 2011.
In September 2014, late in a dismal season, Washington surprised the baseball world by stepping down. He announced he needed time away from baseball to heal his family and marriage after his extramarital affair.
“I was not true to my wife after 42 years,” Washington told Dallas media while he was accompanied by his wife, Gerry. “I broke her trust. I’m here today to own that mistake and apologize to her and those I disappointed.”
Washington would return to MLB — more than a year later — but not as a manager.
Billy Beane brought him back to the Oakland A’s, for whom he’d worked 11 years, as an infield instructor in May 2015.
Washington joined the Atlanta Braves in October 2016 as a third-base coach under Brian Snitker, a rookie manager.
With Washington on staff, the Braves won the past four NL East races. They pushed the favored Dodgers to seven games in last year’s League Championship Series. This year’s team amassed 88 victories — nine more than Preller’s program — despite losing two stars and a co-ace after spring training began.
Washington told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he’d like to manage again.
If there’s too much baggage here, why did the Braves hire him? The hire appears to have worked out. But, it is curious that Washington hasn’t taken a managerial job since he stepped down. Washington is 69. That Dusty Baker, 72, and Tony La Russa, 77, are now in the playoffs should counter the “he’s too old” claim.
The Padres’ opening might attract several top-tier candidates.
There’s a solid core of talent in Manny Machado, 29; Fernando Tatis Jr., 22; Jake Cronenworth, 27; and Joe Musgrove, who’ll turn 28 in December.
In addition, the industry is expected to add four wild cards to the next postseason. So with seven out of 15 NL clubs going to the postseason, contending isn’t akin to swimming from La Jolla to Oceanside.
An obvious candidate for the Padres’ job is Bruce Bochy.
It seems so easy: Hire Bochy and get out of his way.
Bochy has tremendous people skills and would become the wisest baseball man employed by the Padres.
This is a future Hall of Famer who has led four teams to a World Series, winning three. He played for the first Padres team to reach the World Series and managed the other team that got there.
So why won’t this happen?
Preller and Bochy don’t have a shared history. That in itself is not a deal-breaker. But it is something that would need to be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.
Bochy had a terrific relationship with Padres GM Kevin Towers, who was a pitching coach under Bochy in the minors. Towers, who assumed the GM job one year after Randy Smith promoted Bochy from the third-base coach job, said Bochy had a rare knack for reading a baseball game and managing personalities. Towers and Bochy butted heads on occasion. But they understood how to share power. In their 11 years together, starting in 1996, the Padres won four NL West titles and a pennant.
Under Bochy and GM Brian Sabean, the Giants won three World Series titles.
Sabean loved how Bochy handled a pitching staff. Like Towers and Preller, Sabean was a former scout.
Bochy knows that when the front office and the manager chafe over beliefs that can’t be fully resolved, a tough job becomes exasperating for everyone involved. Under CEO Sandy Alderson with the Padres in 2005-06, that was the case. The Padres, to both men’s credit, still won the West in those years. But the uneven fit contributed to Bochy not getting an extension and Sabean being able to hire him.
Ozzie Guillen and Mike Scioscia, too, could educate Preller on what it takes to win in the big leagues. There are others.
If potential big-boy candidates sense Preller is looking for a yes man, he shouldn’t waste anyone’s time.
