The San Diego Padres hired Craig Stammen to be their new manager this past offseason. The Padres also recently agreed to a contract extension with president of baseball operations AJ Preller. San Diego's leadership is set for years to come. However, in baseball, former relief pitchers don't often become managers. So why did Stammen — who pitched in MLB from 2009-2022 and spent six years as a reliever with San Diego — want to become a big league manager?
“I don't know if I had a moment where I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to do this.' I always felt like it's something that I had a passion for, that I thought I would be good at,” Stammen recently told ClutchPoints. “But I didn't know if the opportunity — with the way my family dynamic had started with four little kids, living in Ohio — was doable. The past couple years since I got done playing, I've kind of turned it into coaching youth, you know, the little kids, my son, you know, getting involved in the youth baseball program, high school baseball program.
“So, I guess that was, like, a part of it… I didn't know it would come to the big leagues. I didn't know I'd get the opportunity to do it this quickly. Once we started diving into it, I felt like, yeah this is what I'm supposed to do.”
Stammen had a respectable MLB career. As mentioned, he spent six seasons with the Padres, as he finished his career in San Diego in 2022. He also pitched with the Washington Nationals for the first seven years of his career.
Overall, he recorded a 3.66 ERA during his time in the big leagues. Now, he is hoping to help the Padres find success in a different role.
What led Stammen to choose the Padres? Sure, he played with them. However, players don't always want to manage the team they played with. For Stammen, though, the Padres may have been the only ball club he would have said yes to.
“I feel like I'm a pretty loyal person,” Stammen said. “I've been part of the organization since 2017. I don't know if I'd have said yes to any other team… I don't know. I don't know that answer.
“But I knew that this was the best yes for me.”
Padres fans are hopeful that Craig Stammen will lead the team to its first World Series victory in franchise history.
