Craig Stammen’s first year in the Padres’ dugout has already turned into a pressure cooker.
San Diego entered the season with a fresh managerial reset after Mike Shildt retired at the end of the 2025 season, and the search that followed quickly became one of the more intriguing storylines in baseball. The Padres were linked to names like Albert Pujols, Bruce Bochy and others, with Pujols viewed as one of the favorites before the club went in a completely different direction and handed the job to Stammen, a former reliever with no managerial or coaching experience.
That decision shocked plenty of people at the time. Now, with the All-Star break here and San Diego sitting right at .500 after a win over the Toronto Blue Jays, the early returns have left the rookie manager in a tough spot.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today pointed directly at the unusual hire and the possibility that the fallout could land on Stammen if the season keeps drifting.
"Remember when the Padres stunned everyone by hiring Stammen, a former reliever who had no managerial or coaching experience, to be their first-year manager, choosing him over the likes of Bruce Bochy, Albert Pujols, Brandon Hyde and Phil Nevin?" Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote.
"It’s not as if Stammen can be blamed for all of their offensive troubles and battered starting rotation, but someone is going to have to take the fall, and it’s not going to be general manager A.J. Preller, who has already hired six different full-time managers," he added.
That’s the reality hanging over the Padres now. Preller has cycled through managers before, and after the Bob Melvin and Mike Shildt hires, the organization chose to try something different with a younger voice. Stammen’s easygoing style and his rapport with players looked like a clean fit on paper.
But the results haven’t backed it up. The Padres have been dragged down by offensive issues and a starting rotation that has taken a beating, and the team’s biggest names haven’t exactly carried the load.
Jackson Merrill, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado all got off to rough starts and were hovering around the .200 mark entering the break. Fernando Tatis Jr. also went months without a home run.
On top of that, Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove have missed almost all of the year to this point.
That combination has left Stammen’s future in question after just one season, even though the problems around him go well beyond the manager’s chair.
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