The Padres are hiring Victor Rodriguez as hitting coach, according to a report from independent journalist Francys Romero.
Rodriguez, 61, had a 19 year professional career as an infielder that included two brief cups of coffee at the major league level; one in 1984 at the age of 22 with the Orioles, and one in 1987 as a 27-year-old with the Twins. While he received just 28 plate appearances at the big league level, he hit quite well in those limited opportunities with a career .429/.429/.607 slash line in the majors. Rodriguez retired from professional play in 1995 and began coaching at the minor league level the following season.
After more than three decades in the minor leagues as a player and a coach, Rodriguez joined the Red Sox coaching staff as an assistant hitting coach in 2013. After winning the World Series with Boston in his first year on the job, Rodriguez spent four more seasons with the Red Sox in that same role before departing for Cleveland following the 2018 season to replace current Royals manager Matt Quatraro as the club’s assistant hitting coach. Rodriguez has been in Cleveland ever since, but after six years he’ll now depart the Guardians for San Diego. Rodriguez will join the coaching staff of new Padres manager Mike Shildt, who took the role last month after former manager Bob Melvin was allowed to depart to take a managerial gig in San Francisco.
Little has been made public about Shildt’s coaching staff since. Bench coach Ryan Flaherty has since departed to join Craig Counsell’s coaching staff on the north side of Chicago, while pitching coach Ruben Niebla and bullpen coach Ben Fritz are expected to remain in San Diego. Martinez serves as something of a replacement for Flaherty, who served as the club’s offensive coordinator in addition to his duties as bench coach last year. Per Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union Tribune, Martinez will be joined on the hitting staff by assistant hitting coaches Oscar Bernard and Scott Coolbaugh, both of whom are expected to return to San Diego under Shildt in 2024 alongside Niebla and Fritz. Presumably, the remainder of Shildt’s coaching staff, including the bench coach role, will come into focus over the coming weeks as the Padres gear up for Spring Training two months from now.
Hopefully he can instruct them to stop striking out with runners on third and less than two outs.
I’m confused. I looked it up and they hit well with a runner on 3B and less than 2 outs. .310/.328/.490/.818 with a 19.8% SO rate. So what is wrong with that?
baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&te…
93 OPS+
Wait! Who is Martinez?
I wondering the same
Baseball Reference also says RODRIGUEZ is 62, not 61.
Writer should have gone for the trifecta and called him Ramirez somewhere else in the story.
And he was 23 when he debuted in the majors, not 22.
“a career .429/.429/.607 slash line in the majors”
Two cups of coffee. It’s not like he failed. Who knows why the guy didn’t get any more shots?
I thought they said that was Rodriguez!?!
Could be injuries. Could be lots of things. Padres had an up and coming SS some years back who looked like a sure thing, 5 tool ballplayer. Made it to AA/AAA, sure to make the club in Spring Training. Ended up with concussion syndrome before he made a single MLB appearance, permanent vertigo, and had to retire.
Pro baseball isn’t a “fair” place to live. Prospects are a crap shoot, even terrific prospects.
Looks like he was continuously playing in Minors before, in between, and after. Also looks like he hit rather well in Minors as well.
The little they have of his fielding stats look atrocious though.
Are you talking about Drew Cumberland?
You’d think he’d have been given some more AB’s with a line like that. Especially in the A.L. with the DH. If he could hit anywhere near that, the guy would be pulling major coin these days. lol
.429 career average… how is this guy not in the HOF?
He got to play a few games between Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken, so in some sense HOF-adjacent.
His minor league stats are pretty decent. Why did this guy not ever get a full time shot? Seems criminal
Aged 5 years in a 3 year span, that’s impressive.
Guardians SO rate the last couple of seasons has been excellent. Much better than league average.
Worst fastball hitting team in the league.
Baseball is rigged. Several types of balls in play. Look up the ‘Goldilocks’ ball.
How do you get a super team to underperform to achieve diminished results leading to a justifiable fire sale?
A strike zone determined by subjectivity- the human eye and human interpretation.
Rigged equipment.
Outcome-furesale.
Can’t tell if serious
I know about the Goldilocks but they’re supposed to be hitter friendly, why would the league make offense less?
If multiple balls are in play a dead ball, goldilocks ball and live ball then the game can be steered one way ot the other.
Couple that with an inconsistent strike zone and you can manipulate an outcome.
Both the Yankees and Padres were 82 and 80 last year.
Both teams had greater talent then their outcome would factor.
In the Padres case the outcome was a severely underachieving team.
1 and 13 in extra innings games? With all that talent, Juan Soto included, and not one Padre could get a clutch hit?
The Padres had 100+ run differential and finished barely above .500.
A CY Young award winner for both the Yankkes and Padres.
If you mix and match different balls and call strikes in certain counts outside a zone you can steer a game.
The Padres results “justified” cutting payroll as the team “underperformed”.
The league also is able to justify that small market teams shouldn’t spend money by pointing at the Padres failed experiment.
The Padres weren’t “prudent”.
He’s totally serious. I get the biggest kick out @towinagain’s posts. Try arguing the basis of any of his “points”.
Manfred is, and has been, screwing with the balls.
youtu.be/CCratPDID-g
The Padres fire sale is going to be a ton of fun come late July early August. Remember I said this was going to happen all along
Taking pitches with runners in scoring position and less than 2 out ended when Juan Soso left town. What else is there to teach?
Hey Nick, it’s Rodriguez, not Martinez. Thanks for the news
Who cares. How many hitting coaches have the Pads gone through?
Nothing will ever change in SD.
I think they should keep the articles short and to the point. Most of them drag on and are repetitive which has them come off as a middle school book report.
Now regarding Rodriguez, he needs to get Padres hitters to adopt a more agreesive approach at the plate…
Rodriguez…martinez…22yo in 1984…27yo 3 years later in 1987 this article is comedic
Party’s over, Pobres fans. AJ, Shildty and his entire staff will all be in other jobs this time next year.
Xander: Why should I listen to you?
Victor: I hit .429 for my career.
Xander: Day-um! Okay, coach. Show me how.
Never heard of him, already better than Flaherty.
I think the Padres only won one extra inning game all season where you start with a runner on second and no outs. I watched every game and would bet that in half those games the runner never moved off off second base. Most of those times Tatis,Soto,Bogearts and or Machado were up. Unexcusable.