At the start of Monday\u2019s news conference, Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller turned to his right and asked Craig Stammen a rhetorical question.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did we get here?\u201d<\/p>\n
It is an apt question when discussing any hire of great magnitude. In this case, it is also particularly intriguing.<\/p>\n
Because Stammen was introduced on Monday morning as the new manager of the Padres \u2014 a job for which he was ostensibly not a candidate.<\/p>\n
Stammen was near the top of the list Preller had of men he envisioned trusting the Padres\u2019 clubouse to when Mike Shildt retired in October<\/a>. Preller has since early in Stammen\u2019s time with the organization \u2014 first as a relief pitcher and then as a special assistant in player development \u2014 thought Stammen had a promising future in whatever role he chose in baseball.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s primary residence is in Ohio.<\/p>\n So Stammen participated in Zoom calls with candidates three weeks ago as one of those interviewing prospective managers.<\/p>\n After that first week, Preller doubled back.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very coy about the beginning,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cWe 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, \u2018You know, I really want you to be a part of this process. I want you to think about being the manager of the Padres.\u2019 My immediate thoughts are to my family and like, We can\u2019t make that happen. We can\u2019t move them out of school and move them from Ohio to California. And yeah, I would love to do this in my core. It\u2019s like, yes, I\u2019m 100% in. But there\u2019s a lot that goes into making that decision. And so that started the process.\u201d<\/p>\n Padres chairman John Seidler and CEO Erik Greupner did not know Stammen was a candidate at that point.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s A.J.\u2019s decision,\u201d Greupner said Monday. \u201cI 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 \u2026\u00a0I think A.J. felt that he knew everything he needed to know about who Craig Stammen is and how he can lead this team.\u201d<\/p>\n Through \u201ca lot of conversations\u201d and prayer 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.<\/p>\n And Preller kept selling.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s pumping me up\u00a0 and continuing to believe in me and show that belief \u2014 him and Josh (Stein, the Padres\u2019 assistant general manager) \u2014 a belief that, like, honestly, if they didn\u2019t have that strong belief, I probably would have not gone down the path as strongly as we did. And eventually it got to the point where it was \u2018yes\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Stammen was clearly in that frame of mind Monday, as he executed his first appearance as the franchise\u2019s front man with the same polish, earnest enthusiasm and self-deprecation that endeared him to teammates<\/a> during a 13-year major league career.<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of view this as just an extension of my time with the Padres,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in a lot of different roles throughout that time \u2014 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. \u2026 To me, the most exciting part about the job is I have real relationships with all these guys, and we\u2019ve done some things together. We\u2019ve had a lot of shared experiences of good things and bad things. And I\u2019m going to lean on those guys and those experiences to make this Padres team great, and the Friar Faithful will be proud of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Stammen, who retired in 2023 after suffering a shoulder injury in spring training, has never coached or managed.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n