Even though the Padres made a huge splash in free agency last winter with the signing of Manny Machado for $300MM over 10 years, only a select few pegged them as playoff contenders entering 2019. Now, with the season nearing a conclusion, the Padres own a 69-84 record and will miss the playoffs for the 13th straight campaign. Their latest failings could lead to the end of manager Andy Green’s tenure in San Diego, as Dennis Lin of The Athletic (subscription link) writes that the 42-year-old’s seat “is unmistakably hot.”
Green’s close to ending his fourth season with the Padres, who hired the former professional utilityman, minor league manager and Diamondbacks third base coach to oversee their dugout entering 2016. The Padres have gone a woeful 274-365 since then, though it wouldn’t be fair to judge Green solely on win-loss results. After all, Green joined an organization in the throes of a significant rebuild. The Padres were impressed enough with Green’s initial work to award him an extension through 2021 back in August 2017, so they’d have to eat an undisclosed amount of money in moving on from him.
The Green-led Padres fared better than most though they would over the first few months of this season, as they owned an even 45-45 record going into the All-Star break. The second half of 2019 has been forgettable, though, with San Diego having gone 24-39 to plummet from the National League wild-card race. Relatively disappointing performances from Machado, first baseman Eric Hosmer and outfielder Wil Myers – the Padres’ three highest-paid players, who are on contracts worth a combined $527MM in total value – haven’t helped matters. And the fact that phenom Fernando Tatis Jr., a shortstop who spent a large portion of the season looking like one of baseball’s premier rookies, went down for the year Aug. 13 with a back injury only added to the Padres’ problems.
Whether Green or someone else manages the club in 2020, it’s obvious GM A.J. Preller has his work cut out for him heading into the winter. Thanks in large part to their collection of young talent, the Padres look to be on the upswing. However, they’ve got plenty to address on the big league roster if they’re going to make a run at a playoff berth next season.
Wow, talk about terrible. Green is forced to play useless Hosmer and Myers and had no pitching at all all year long. He simply wasn’t given any talent this year, he had about 6 or 7 good players and the rest were scrubs. Plus they were getting an MVP-caliber season from Tatis til he got hurt.
Andy Green should not be on any kind of hot seat, period.
Joe Maddon and his magic tricks and traveling petting zoo will be available soon.
Manny Machado has 30 homers. But his other numbers are meh.
52 players have 30 or more HRs. Machado is a dime a dozen.
most of them don’t play elite defense.
But all the third basemen on the 30 HR list I would take over Machado and there are quite a few. I give Manny credit for taking care of himself and preparing himself to play every day. But isn’t defense being slightly over rated in todays game? Most of these guys don’t even know how to get in front of and box a ball. And if they do, they don’t show it during games. Manny is number 52 in HRs. That’s nothing.
Only 5 since The All-Star break.
Say what you want about Maddon, but he has a ring and another WS appearance under his belt. Green can’t even sniff that.
If the Cubs could go into this season with Maddon as a lame duck the Padres should have had no problem doing it with Green in 2018…
I wouldn’t call .275/21hrs/96 RBI useless.
I’m mean it’s ok. But a .322 OBP and a 98 wrc+ aren’t good.
Batting average and RBI are useless as stats, everyone is hitting 20+ home runs this year, his defense sucks and he’s making $20m/yr
Just because you don’t know how to use them, doesn’t make them useless.
The fact that batting average doesn’t take walks or xbh’s into account and the fact that RBI’s are influenced by factors outside the batter’s control (specifically: having guys on base) do make them useless tho.
Walks are pretty much outside the batter’s control and yet people love them. You don’t get walks if you are facing a pitcher that throws strikes. But if you are facing a pitcher with bad control, you could get a walk by literally doing nothing.
And it still doesn’t make the stats useless, it just makes them useless for YOUR interpretation. Other people realize that RBI and OBP go hand in hand. Getting on base and not being driven in is 100% useless to the team. Scoring runs is 100% useful to the team’s chances of winning.
And RBIs are not outside the batter’s control because the batter has an opportunity to get an RBI every single time he goes to the plate regardless of anyone on base.
If you get on base and don’t score, that is the fault of the people batting behind you. Unless you TOOTBLAN of course.
Two guys with the exact same triple slash bit one batting 1st and the other batting 4th will have different RBI totals. And through no fault of their own.
While this is true, combining RBI’s and average with runners on base is an incredibly important statistic. Together they give a fairly clear picture of a hitters ability to drive in runs. But really, stats aren’t nearly as telling as they are made out to be. They don’t factor in the insane number of variables involved in rec0rdimg those stats.
What are you talking about? BA still matters. Getting hits still matters. Gimme a .320 hitter with a .350 OBP over a .280 hitter with a .350 OBP any day. Especially if he is hitting in the 3-5 slots.
What about a .280 hitter with a .500 OBP?
Walks are not completely outside a batter’s control. Some batters tend to chase pitches outside of the strike zone.
CONGRATS, hiflew, on being the stupidest person on the internet tonight!
That not what’s being argued. If you say a batter is good because he is hitting .300, you just made a bad argument. It does not tell you anything by itself. RBI’s are even more useless. At least BA you can get context with other stats. RBI is just simply based on the obp of the guys hitting ahead of you.
This is an insane comment. Literally insane. Walks are completely within the batters control. Why do you think Trout or certain players walk 100+times a year while others don’t? If there was no control by the batter there wouldn’t be such a disparity between the league leaders in walks and all others. SMH.
For those than don’t like AVG and RBI and the “old stats”, Hosmer has a negative WAR as his lousy defense is more than offsetting whatever marginal utility he has on offense. With the crappy juiced baseball, 21 homers is what you’d expect from your middle infielders and not the first baseman hitting clean-up. Preller significantly overpaid for Hosmer and he hasn’t produced near enough to justify the contract and he’s likely to decline as he gets older.
Whatever deficiencies the FO has given the Padres doesn’t say anything about whether or not Aj Green is a good manager. Bo Porter got canned in Houston after leading the rebuild. No one has given him a look either. The FO didn’t put him in an ideal spot to win right now but that doesn’t exactly mean he’s a great manager either.
How good a manager is is one of the tougher things to gauge. I like to look at his postseason record, but obviously Andy hasn’t had a chance to prove himself one way or another on that stage.
Uninspired baseball is reason enough. And this is not one season. It is a long track record of uninspired play.
I totally disagree the Mgr and his coaches should be able to bring some fire to the clubhouse that’s reportedly missing this last half. Green is OK with the kids but not with the Vets and its time to say good bye, his constatnt juggling of the line up and over managing in some situations along with a losing sttitude makes for another losing last place finish that could easily carry over to 2020. Joe Giradi, possibly Joe Maddon and a few others would bring some new freshness renewed energy to this club. .Green had his chance now bring in someone else.
Green is trash. Let’s get Moises Alou!
Haha, playoffs? Padres need to work on getting to .500 for the 1st time 2010 before they start thinking playoffs
Boche reunion.
He’s. Retiring.
May be retiring but since he lives in Alpine this could be a good thing even as a bench coach if he so elects.
I think Bochy will manage San Diego next year as well. He lives there.
Too bad he’s retiring.
I can’t even understand how people think Bochy is ever coaching again, let alone another uniform, when he’s said for over a year that this is a hard retirement and that he wants to be done.
Incorrect. The padres were .500 going into the all star break.
You’re right. Thanks.
It only counts how you finish not that for 1 day you were a 500 team.
Can’t really throw any shade on Machado. He’s putting up the same WAR as the previous couple of seasons, while playing in a park that’s historically been tough on hitters. As Dennis Green would say, he is who we thought he was. And perhaps even better, as he hasn’t caused a whole lot of drama either. He’s certainly capable of better offensive numbers but, I mean, you got the same overall production as the guy you paid for.
WAR is already adjusted for home park.
I think that’s WAR+ or something, isn’t it?
I thought it was WAROMGWTFBBQLGBTQ+
I swear all these alphabet groups make my head spin. I mean, are there even any letters left for the rest of us?
could be worse. i mean, christians have over 40000 plus versions, all with different names, ideas, lettering, etc….
and yet, none of them can actually agree on pretty much anything
I swear dude you try so hard to be cool and edgy on here bro. Whats the next hot take stephen a? Lol
let’s keep Christians and religion out of the discussions, thanks in advance
How many hits after the 7th inning does he have that either tied the game or put the Padres ahead? I’ve watched pretty much every game and can’t remember more than a couple. The guy is not clutch at all.
Machado is only hitting 6% above the major league average per WRC+. He’s definitely been underwhelming in his first year though his presence alone was never going to be enough to make this years team a playoff contender. The talent isn’t in the big leagues yet and they’ve wasted a massive amount of payroll space on two 1B.
Absolutely. Aside from a head scratcher in 2017, he’s had three 6+ WAR seasons (2015, 2016, 2018) according to BBRef, Fangraphs, and Prospectus.
This year, even his defense has been lackluster, more or less so depending on who you trust (Prospectus has him at -14.7 Fielding Runs Above Average, Fangraphs at 3.3 DefWAR, and BBRef at 0.9 dWAR).
What talent are you talking about that’s not on the big league roster? Who do they have in the minors that’s going to help in the OF? Trammell? The guy can’t hit .240 in AA; Margot was much better and younger at the same level. Miller and Edwards in the IF? Are their #’s any better than Urias was? Campusano at C? Is he any better than Hedges was? And many of the vaunted pitchers are already in San Diego. Maybe if the Padres had a coaching staff that helped develop players at the major league level, they’d continue to improve, but I haven’t seen it with this bunch.
All the pitchers. Paddack was shut down before tossing 150 innings and they still have Patino and Gore coming up. Urias and Tatis were rookies that should only get better. There’s plenty of talent still down there and they have the prospect depth to go acquire more if that’s the route they choose.
Please stop talking about the talent down there I’ll believe it when I see it, Urias hitting his weight, a few bright spots now and then but overall prospects are suspects until they can show in the Big Time for at least five years. The Padres are terrible, where are those prospects? its been years and still I am waiting so is San Diego.
No way in Hell Luis Urias weighs 223 pounds
Absolutely correct.
To nypadre66
They have a lot of issues but Machado being underwhelming is the least of them. Their left side of the infield is great but other than that the offense needs major help and its not coming from the farm. Better hope that pitching can pan out.
Padres have more talent than the Marlins mattingly takes a job no one wants. Greene almost shown the door. What’s a Padres rebuild anyway? It’s not like they’ve won the division recently or been in the play offs.
Should have been given the ax the day after he allegedly ordered Jhoulys Chacin not to retaliate against Anthony Rizzo for deliberately trying to injure his catcher.
Not sure why they felt the need to extend him when they did. Much less for 3 extra years.
some [respectable] people are above threatening the safety of others to make a statement. those can just as easily be made my rallying around an injured player and beating the heck out of the opponent in the runs column, rather than physically.
They didn’t do that either. They gave up a leadoff home run to Rizzo the very next day and then a few innings later they intentionally walked him, which would have been the perfect time to plunk him.
Still waiting for you to address my earlier question about how Madison Bumgarner can be called “injury prone” when he has missed a grand total of zero days to the IL in his entire career due to non-freak injuries.
I thought I heard on a broadcast recently maybe on MLB network where a broadcaster said he asked Bochy if he was open to continue managing and he said he’s retiring from being the Giants manager and that it would have to be the right situation for him to continue managing. Well he lives in Poway down in San Diego so I wouldn’t be surprised if Andy Green does get fired to see Bochy managing the Padres especially with them having so much minor league talent with an already decent major league roster. Seems like the right situation for him to me especially being closer to home. He could be the one to push them over the top and into a playoff berth. Heck he’s only 64 and a known gym rat in great shape.
What part of “He’s retiring” do people not get? He wants to focus on his family and his health. If he wanted to keep managing I think he’d just stay in SF.
the middle part
I agree, I don’t understand the “apostrophe s” at all. I never have. Does it really save that much time or effort to type he’s instead of he is? It just makes no sense.
The fact that “Bochy has never said he doesn’t want to manage again”. Source: Barry Bloom article at Forbes.
Also the MLB Network folks that Dodgerbluelifer mentioned.
My bad, I forgot he has to explicitly say it.
Again, if he wanted to keep managing he’d just stay in SF.
He’s doesn’t have to necessarily explicitly say it but he’s been given opportunities to say so and has declined to do so. He clearly wants to leave a door open. San Diego is a logical door that could potentially interest him. No one is saying he’s 100% wanting to manage the Padres anyway. What’s so hard about that?
Wanting to leave the door open doesn’t mean he has any intention of continuing to manage at this time. His health isn’t great and as you keep conveniently ignoring, if he wanted to keep managing he’d just stay in SF.
It’s hilarious how you are so certain of this. Is that really you Bruce??
Crap, he’s onto me…
If he wanted to keep managing why did he leave SD for SF in the first place? Why would he make the move back? Umm… he lives in SD (gets more family time). In SF, Brian Sabean is no longer in power and Peter Magowan is dead. As far as SD, Kevin Towers is dead and John Moores is no longer the owner. Padres in theory could be argued to be in more of a position to win soon vs the Giants. He could just be ready for a change. On and on… Just saying you can’t say it isn’t somewhat possible. How many guys have come out of retirement already? Or changed their mind?
Lol first you go with a stupid “Are you Bochy or something?” comment then start throwing out a bunch of cute little rationalizations for why he isn’t actually retiring like he said. Can’t even keep your arguing angle straight.
More on topic: He’s retiring. Deal with it.
He cannot stay in SF. The new GM wants his own guy.
Sure he can. He could stay there as long as he wants. He is choosing to retire.
*eye roll*
I don’t think Boch gets along with the new GM in San Fran so its his call and I’d think it would be great to have him back, He is use to a winning attitude and three WS rings, I bet he’d bring us to a wild card in 2020.
That’s never happening. No one who’s spent any significant time in the Padres organization would leave and come back unless they had nowhere else to go. And they’re WAY more dysfunctional and embarrassing now than they were in the 90s and 2000s. Did you see when Tim Flannery tore the franchise a new one on social media a few years ago? Why would Bochy see it any differently? They were side by side through the whole thing.
Preller needs to go. He needed to go years ago. The Padres are only in this current situation because of his poor decisions. What a farce. I would LOVE it if Bochy came back but there is absolutely no chance in hell.
It’s about leadership. Green always seems better fitted to be a bench coach. Nice guy and decent strategist, but way over his head managing big leaguers.
What about getting rid of Preller? Spend $$$ foolishly and changes directions on club direction at a whim.
Right on. All those extremely overpaid players were purchased by Preller and Green pays the price. Leave Green alone and put the blame where it belongs.
It’s not mutually exclusive – get rid of both of them. Preller can’t build a major league team and Green can’t lead or motivate one.
man, with the way Hosmer was talked up in his later Royals years, youdve thought he was worth 8 years at $30 million each. he’d have a bad year in KC and everyone would say its good, and now people discount anything good you wish to say about him. Obviously the contract term is great, but his aav falls to 13 mil soon and despite what people say about his D, he is a 4-time GG. obviously we all know gold gloves don’t always go to the best defender, but at the very least they end up going to the best hitter amongst the x best hitters, and you cant tell me he immediately lost the ability to field once he went to SD. Where’s the consistency?
Gloves and hitters are irrelevant. Even though myers was screwed out if gg by the voters for rizzo
His AAV doesn’t fall to $13m for 3 more years and if we’re being honest he isn’t even worth that.
Green has had 4 years and the Padres have not made progress.
They have talented players and they haven’t won.
Managers are cheap compared to players
time to get a new manager, someone who can get more out of these guys…
I called it…
Fire andy green
Keep Andy Green, fire Preller.
Where’s all the “it’s good to see a small market team getting the good free agents” guys now? That Hosmer deal is brutal. Small market teams should never sign free agents to huge muti year deals but everyone intelligent knows that. Spend less time breathing through your mouth a yelling collusion during the winter meetings and do some research on how brutal nearly every deal is for players in their 30s.
San Diego isn’t a small market. It’s just full of military, native San Diegians who root for whose whose like cubs doyuers Yankees giants and blow sux and hipster weirdos
It only counts how you finish, it’s not that for 1 day Padres were a 500 team.
If the Padres played other teams like they play the Dodgers, they would be in the post season just about every year.
Left unsaid is that this is a pretty rare year on the manager’s carousel…..Girardi is chomping at the bit, Bucky wouldn’t mind taking over a team like the Pads, and maybe even Bochy……
Dunno if the Pads would spend the money, but they are out there…..
Not maybe Bochy. He’s retiring.
Boch is retiring from SF mainly the lack of communication with the new GM but let’s get serious he does llive in Poway loves SD and give him a nice three year deal i bet in year two were in the WS.
No he’s retiring to focus on his health and spend more time with his family. He’s done.
There paying Green $1M a year he could very easily be shown the door come late Oct. and bring in Bucky, Boch (if he elects to do so) Giradi and BTW get a GM who knows what he’s doing. Preller is terrible when it comes to FA signing and or most of his trades, we need SP and he gets a C, daaa, how bright is that, we need SP and he gets an OF, daaa another bright move.
There*
Bochy won’t elect to do so
Who’s Giradi?
Soo.. because of the awful moves of the upper management Green takes the fall? Sounds about right with politics in general.
when a team goes from .500 near the AS break to last place 18 games below .500 72-90 prediction for 2019, yes he should take the blame, hello
I think both Green and Preller need to go.
Agreed
Unless the guy is Atilla the Hun, who cares who the manager is? Get eight solid baseball players to bat and play defense, nurture those young starting pitchers and get a veteran arm or two to bolster the bullpen.
Big problem I see for the Padres is the guy evaluating the talent. Hosmer is dead money, as is Myers. Basically, untradeable unless Padres eat a lot of what’s owed them. Bigger problem may be, does any team really want either one?
Margot looks like he isn’t ever gonna be the star CF many thought he would become when he was acquired from the Red Sox. Renfroe, Naylor, Hedges and Urias? Some good and some bad with each, but mostly bench level talent IMHO.
Gonna be a long time before the Padres are gonna compete for an NL West title. The second wild-card spot? That’s about their ceiling come 2020 unless big changes are made.
It’s not mutually exclusive – get rid of both of them. Preller can’t build a major league team and Green can’t lead or motivate one.