It was somewhat controversial that the San Francisco Giants hired Tennessee coach Tony Vitiello as their new manager, despite his having no professional managing experience. Thursday, the San Diego Padres went a step further and hired a new manager who’s never managed before, anywhere.
Craig Stammen spent seven years in the Padres organization as a relief pitcher before a shoulder injury forced him to retire in 2023. He spent the last two seasons working as an assistant to the major league coaching staff and in the baseball operations department. In a move reminiscent of when Dick Cheney led the search for George W. Bush’s vice president in 2000 only to get the job himself, Stammen was part of the Padres’ first round of interviews before joining the process and getting hired.
Stammen went 55-44 with a 3.66 ERA and six saves during a 13-year MLB career he split between the Washington Nationals and the Padres. MLB.com called him the “de facto leader of the bullpen” during his time in San Diego, which is not a phrase I have ever seen in a lifetime of reading about baseball. In fact, Google informs me that’s the only place that phrase exists on the internet, which means this leadership position was roughly equivalent to Brandon Belt naming himself the Giants captain by purchasing a hat.
It’s an ambitious and risky move for the Padres, who saw manager Mike Shildt retire after two seasons at the helm, becoming the first Padres manager to win 90 games in back-to-back seasons. With an expensive and veteran-laden roster, the pressure will be on Stammen right away to do well in the playoffs with a starting lineup that should be returning intact, depending on what Luis Arraez does in free agency. The starting rotation is in flux with Dylan Cease and Michael King hitting free agency, but the Padres bullpen was excellent, and can only get better now that Stammen is the official leader of the bullpen.
Is it weird that Stammen is managing players he played with a few years ago? Maybe! Honestly probably weirder than the Giants hiring a guy who coached plenty of major leaguers in his college career.
The Washington Nationals made a controversial hire of their own, tapping 33-year-old Blake Butera to lead their team. He is the youngest managerial hire since the Minnesota Twins hired Frank Quilici in 1972. Quilici did fine, going 280–287 in 3 1/2 seasons with the team, even though he was younger than Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva.
Though Butera is very young, he managed for four seasons in single-A, winning two league titles, before going on to work as farm director for the Tampa Bay Rays. That job often involved taking players about to fall off the Rays’ 40-man roster and trading them to Farhan Zaidi.
So while the Giants hiring Vitello might be a risk, at least he was old enough to see “Jurassic Park” during its original theatrical run and he’s managed a baseball game outside of MLB The Show. He’s also not Walt Weiss. For that, Giants fans can be grateful.
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