Craig Stammen’s first season in charge of the Padres is already carrying real pressure, and a new update from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale suggests the stakes could get even higher if San Diego slips out of the postseason picture.
The Padres are in a playoff spot as of August 17 and sitting at 67-58 through 125 games, but the margin is tight enough that a late stumble would change everything. Nightengale reported that if the club misses the playoffs, Stammen could end up as the “fall guy.”
“He signed a three-year contract in November. Yet, if the Padres miss the playoffs, someone needs to be the fall guy, and Stammen is A.J. Preller's seventh manager in 12 years since becoming GM and president of baseball operations," Nightengale writes.
San Diego’s position is solid but far from safe. The Padres are tied with the Philadelphia Phillies, though Philadelphia holds the tiebreaker after winning multiple series against San Diego earlier in the year. That leaves the door open for the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are just one game back, to shake up the race if the Padres and Phillies cool off and San Diego fades.
The timing makes the situation even more pointed. A.J.
Preller went for it again at the trade deadline, adding Robbie Ray and Casey Mize to bolster the rotation. With that kind of push, missing the playoffs would be a major setback.
Stammen was hired this offseason instead of Albert Pujols, who had gained momentum late in the search. Now, with the race this close, Nightengale’s reporting adds another layer to the pressure: the Padres may be battling not just for a playoff berth, but for their manager’s job as well.
In Other News...
Alec Bohm Just Reopened A Phillies Question Fans Had Given Up On
Alec Bohms recent run at the plate has given Phillies fans something they had all but shelved for later in the summer: a reason to wonder if his season can still be salvaged. His overall OPS is still sitting below .700, but the improvement has been gradual enough to catch attention, and his showing in the recent series against the Twins added another layer to the conversation around a player who has spent much of the year trying to dig out of a difficult start.
The bigger question now is whether this is simply a hot stretch or the start of something more meaningful for a hitter the Phillies still need to keep developing. Bohm has put together a hitting streak and shown more consistent contact, which is enough to reopen a debate that had gone quiet among the fan base. For a team still weighing every answer it can get from the lineup, his bat suddenly feels worth watching again. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Suddenly Have A Zack Wheeler Concern They Can't Ignore
Since the All-Star break, Zack Wheeler has looked a lot less like the tone-setter the Phillies usually rely on and more like another starter trying to find his footing. Philadelphia has still gotten stronger work from Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter in that same stretch, which only sharpens the focus on Wheelers recent dip and makes it harder to dismiss as a small blip.
The timing matters because the Phillies have built so much of their confidence around Wheeler being the arm they can trust in any spot, especially as the schedule tightens and every series starts to carry more weight. His next turn comes August 18 against the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park, and for a pitcher of his stature, a cleaner outing would do more than calm nerves. It would help remind the team that one rough run has not changed the bigger picture. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Farm System Concern Just Got More Complicated Fast
The Phillies minor league depth has been taking on more wear and tear for a while, and the latest rankings only sharpened the concern. After trading away prospects and promoting a pair of top 100 talents, Philadelphias system has slid from No. 20 to No. 26, a reminder that the organization has been willing to pay a farm-system price in its push to keep the big league club in contention under Dave Dombrowski.
There is still some talent worth tracking, with Gage Wood, Aidan Miller and Francisco Renteria among the names that matter most in the pipeline. Millers back injury has added a frustrating layer of uncertainty, though, because his development path is now less straightforward than it was a few months ago, and for a club already leaning hard into the present, every setback in the system makes the future a little harder to map. [Read more 🡒]