The Padres are hiring Matt Stairs as the team’s new hitting coach, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter). Earlier today, FanRag’s Robert Murray reported that Stairs was the “strong favorite” for the job.
Stairs made his pro coaching debut in 2017, working as the Phillies’ hitting coach and drawing praise for his role in helping the team’s many young hitters. Still, with Philadelphia’s coaching staff in limbo after Pete Mackanin was removed from the manager’s job, there was already speculation that Stairs could depart for a more stable position elsewhere. Stairs will now move into another rebuilding situation with another collection of young players in San Diego, plus the added challenge of generating offense in traditionally pitcher-friendly Petco Park.
Stairs spent the 18th of his 19 big league seasons with the Padres in 2010, hitting .232/.306/.475 with six homers over 111 plate appearances. The Canadian slugger played for 12 different teams over his career, hitting 265 homers and posting a very solid .262/.356/.477 career slash line, while also setting a new MLB record with 23 career pinch-hit home runs.
Great hire! Good to see a Maritimer in MLB. Best of luck, Matt.
Ew
Couldn’t pony up for Chili Davis, so this is the knee jerk move the organization choose’s? Oh lord. Lol Mark Sweeney already works for FSSD so that was one retired pinch hitter already employed, I’m assuming John Vander Wal and Lenny Harris didn’t answer their phones when Preller dialed so he had to settle with Stairs, bring that .262 career BA in here buddy, the job is all yours! Lol
He was great for the Phils
A person who uses career BA as the reasoning why this is a poor hire. Hmmm. Probably doesn’t like the Cards hiring of Mike Maddux because he only had 39 career wins.
If they sucked as a hitter, all a “hitting coach” needs to do is tell their players “do the opposite of what I did in my career.”
Charlie Lau, one of the greatest hitting coaches ever. Worked with George Brett, Hal McRae, Harold Baines, etc. .255 average as a career back up catcher.
I wonder what Leo Mazzone’s career number’s were as a player?
Leo never made it above Triple-A. Had a 3.64 career minor league ERA.
And then there’s Dave Duncan, a great pitching coach who never even pitched.
Exactly my point.
And mine as well.
Matt Stairs was a professional hitter. That is why he had a major league job until he was 43 years old. Because he was a defensive liability across the diamond, Stairs didn’t play a full season in the majors until he was 29 and over the next 2 seasons he hit .298 with 27 HR and .294 with 26 HR. The guy could hit. What he couldn’t do was field.
He is a great hire for the Padres.
Yea and he brings that 19 year career experience with a lifetime .356 on base percentage …. oh but you do not think that counts but his batting average makes or breaks a coach. His on base and long fruitful career suggest this guy understands a hitting approach and would be a great coach. Seem like Philly fans are sorry to see him go
Matt got it done here in philly.
Adding Stairs is a step up….
Still a steep climb ahead for Padres hitters.
I see what you did there
Good hire. He works well with young hitters from what I understand.
Sure I guess, nobody on the Phillies batted over .300 this year and they went 66-96, not sure I would be salivating over plucking their hitting coach from them.
Not bashing the guy but taking hitting
advice from a guy who was primarily a pinch hitter for a majority of his career is like getting tutored by flavor flav. Just seems like a cheap/affordable hire to me. If you care so much about the young nucleus and position players coming up wouldn’t you want to surround them with a hitting coach that atleast endured the 162 game grind and was a complete player, not just a platoon player/pinch hitter?
What happened to Preller’s Texas ties? Couldn’t have given Michael Young a call?
Since when does MLB results directly translate into coaching skills?
Yeah, 23 of his 265 career homers were pinch-hit homers. Sounds like a guy who was a pinch hitter the majority of his career. Jeez man, make at least a borderline sensible statement.
He had a 19 year career and that was not platoon pinch hitter until the end so grow up. Yes I would want my young hitters around a guy who had to grind and made adjustments and was able to be a good hitter in MLB for almost two decades and what about his .356 on base percentage.
Casual fans like you do not get that I guess
Phillies Front Office. = Dumpster Fire
I have to agree. SD is very lucky to benefit from Stairs. Look at what he did for Aaron Alterr.
I’m highly disappointed.
What about what he didn’t do for Franco and J.P. Crawford?
I don’t think anyone can help Franco, but not a large enough sample size to see how he helped Crawford.
The algorithm-obsessed, analytically-inclined front office over there in Philadelphia wanted Crawford to walk a lot, so it takes the bat out of his hands to make it look good to them in their formulas they use.
“Analytics”
Using that word in Philly the quotation marks are required. That is just a scam used to justify anything the fans are outraged about. The best off “writers” have glued themselves to this buzzword and are using it now to beat down the demand for Joe Girardi.
SundownDevil, you’re clutching mate. I know you hate on analytics everywhere you go, but you’re probably best to park it until after the world series – where two of the forerunners for the analytics movement are playing.
Girardi doesn’t fit in Philly. He won with Torre’s squad in 2009 and has had little success with players brought in afterwards.
Even just this morning on XM, they detailed how uncomfortable he made a lot of the players. Just becuase he is a media darling doesn’t mean he’s a good fit.
Joe will end up in Washington and the Phillies will get Wathan.
Why Girardi? He squandered multiple opportunities with the Yankees money behind him. One World Series ring … please! If he were worth keeping around Brian Cashman would’ve kept him.
Haha. Read about the Braves…..
Hope he can help the Padres climb out of the cellar.
Or the Giants, since, you know, they were in the cellar…not the Padres.
“A more stable position elsewhere” Seriously? The average life of a hitting instructor in SD is like 1.5 years or less! We’ve had more hitting instructors here since Petco opened than most of the league combined!
Because they are all signings like this. Never an impact guy with a big track record. The Padres dumpster dive for bargains and then wonder why the results are always what they are, poor. As a Padre fan, I hope Stairs makes me eat crow but this hiring has “here we go again” written all over it to me.
Are you drunk?
If he can get the guys on this lineup to hit .265 then I guess it’s a good hire.
You Padres fans complain more than the fair weather Philly Phans.
Stairs is a great hire. You’ll see.
I’m not thrilled with the hire of stairs, but give him a shot, there is only one way to go and that’s up with this offense.
People crap on Stairs for being a career pinch hitter and sub par batting average, but how many really great players transition into being great managers or coaches? Most of the good ones were either lackluster major league guys or career minor league players. With the exception of Molitor, Mattingly, Baker, most of the coaching staff on teams are filled with has beens that are better suited at managing then when they were players.
I’m surprised they went with Stairs after being in talks with Chili Davis, but I guess it’s a decent hire. He seemed to help out the Phillies quite a bit last year, and there’s nowhere for the Padres’ offense to go but up. Hopefully he’s successful and will last longer than the average Padres hitting coach, but we’ll have to see what happens.
Stairs looks like he should be in witness protection
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