The Padres announced the coaching staff that will be working under manager Mike Shildt in 2024. Much of the staff includes coaches returning from last year’s club or previously-reported hires. In terms of new information from today’s announcement, Tim Leiper has been hired to serve as third base coach, as well as infield and base running instructor. Mike McCoy and Pat O’Sullivan were promoted from within the organization to serve as assistant hitting coaches in the major leagues. Ryan Barba has also been promoted from within, in his case taking on the title of major league field coordinator.
Notably absent from the announcement was a bench coach and Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the club does not plan to have a traditional bench coach this year. Instead, the bench coach duties will be divided between pitching coach Ruben Niebla, catching coach and game strategy assistant Brian Esposito, as well as Barba and McCoy.
Leiper, 57, was a first base coach with the Blue Jays from 2014 to 2018 but more recently has been working with the Giants in a player development role. He has also coached for Canadian teams in the Olympics and in the World Baseball Classic.
McCoy, 42, played in 170 major league games from 2009 to 2012, suiting up for the Rockies and Blue Jays. He’s been working as a coach in the Padres’ minor league system for the past eight years. O’Sullivan, 46, spent several years in the minors as a player and has also been coaching in the minors with the Padres for the past six years. Barba, 39, also played in the minor leagues before transitioning to coaching, having worked in the minors with the Padres for the past two years. All three will now get bumped up to the big league staff.
I assume the lack of a bench coach is to save money.
By most accounts, Melvin delegated a lot of in-game decisions and maneuvers to Ryan Flaherty. This seemed like a middle finger to AJ.
If this was all true, losing Melvin and adding Schildt is hugely positive move for the organization.
When did the bench coach become a position? The first one I can recall is Don Zimmer for Joe Torre. Before that I remember the first and third base coaches basically assisting with the pitching coach when the team was in the field.
The Rangers just won the WS with a Manager, an Associate Manager, a Bench Coach/Offensive Coordinator and Nine other coaches. I guess a staff of 12 is the new Gold Standard for running an MLB team on field.
mlb.com/rangers/roster/coaches
I would assume it would be the most convenient to have a designated bench coach as somebody always by your side in the dugout that you can bounce ideas of off and strategize/spitball. Like your second brain. Having it diffused amongst 4 different coaches does not seem efficient.
@ deweybelongsinthehall
First off, you do realize Zimmer/Torre dates back to 1996 which is 28 years ago (almost 3 decades)
But bench coaches have been around in some form in MLB since the 1960’s (so says wikipedia)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coach_(baseball)
It’s not exactly new.
Like basketball. Teams used to have one assistant coach. Now they have, like, eight.
No one here cares
Wikipedia is only as good as the people who contribute. Staffs were bare bones in the 60’s. 1st, 3rd, hitting and pitching coach, with a bullpen catcher. Does not mean the closest confidant of those coaches did not sit next to the manager when available.
Okay then Baseball Reference has the earliest Bench Coach for the Yanks as Yogi Berra in 1977. The Cubs had a bench coach by the name of Peanut Lowrey in 1981. The Dodgers had Many Mota as their bench coach in 1985.
Basically, while there are random instances of bench coaches as far back as the 1930’s, the league mostly adopted the position by the early 1980’s… 4 decades ago or as I said before not exactly a new position.
Perhaps its Day of the Week Bench Coach!
Why is it bad to delegate moves to your bench coach? Seems to me sending a middle finger to Preller is possibly a good idea. These people always hire the manager then make the important decisions for them so what’s the difference? At least Flaherty was a coach, not a suit.
We’re happy to have Melvin and Matt Williams. No different than the players changing scenery and then having a bounceback year. I think it’s probably the same with coaches and Managers. Melvin now loves where he works. It just might rejuvenate the whole organization and be a good year for the Giants but they have lots of work left to do.
If you can’t find anyone that makes a difference why pay for one. If someone was available who would bring something then a few hundred grand is nothing to pay.
Gotta save money somewhere, who needs coaches?
What does a bench coach do and why does a bench need coaching
Hey! You’ve had enough Gatorade
Hey! No more gum
Hey! Stop throwing peanut shells on the ground this isn’t dicks last resort!
More like “Bench! Don’t you tip over!” Or “Bench, you need to be dusted off”.
The bench is self-coached
Man, that is a lot of coaches, or “field coordinators,” or quality control managers or whatever you want to call it.
I would love to be a MLB coach of some sort and travel around the nation partying each and every night in every single city.
Lol I get the sense it’s actually an extremely demanding and stressful job, but I do like your vision of it as being like these guys are in Led Zeppelin or something.
I don’t think it is demanding. I have read a few times that being a first base coach is a nothing job, even if I would also have to coach outfield defense.
I don’t think it would be that difficult to hit the town every single night and still get to the ballpark at noon the next day, which is still pretty early.
They might fire me, or not renew my contract because even if I was totally taking care of my responsibilities, I am setting a horrible example for the players.
Do you think that this would make a good tv show? A show about a random baseball coach’s cavorting, but it has minimal baseball in it. It can be called “For the Love of the Game.”
I think that baseball players have far more opportunities to cavort than other athletes or rock stars as they go to cities for multiple days. Even Led Zeppelin often had to hit the road right after a show.
@truthlemonade, I love all of this. I am a huge Grateful Dead fan and the notion of these coaches being like Dead roadies really tickles me lol. I want you to be right about this, so I won’t argue. 🙂
Truthlemonade,
No. It would not make a good tv show.
It would make a great show. I will prove you wrong, and become an MLB first base coach and paint the town red every single night.
Taylor Swift will be my girlfriend and sit in the first row on the first base side and cheer me on.
@truthlemonade We both know this is extremely far from reality, but I honestly love your vision of being a MLB coach, and I will watch your TV show! Especially if Taylor Swift occasionally makes an appearance:)
Thank you. I think that few coaches do this as they are older and usually married with children.
But a 1b coach totally could if he wanted to! It really is not difficult to get loaded at night and show up at work at noon, which probably is still earlier than expected.
@gardy Big fan of the Dead as well. In fact I only got to see them live as The Dead, after Jerry passed. The full crew was otherwise there though. Resplendent affair…Gorge Amphitheater circa 2003 or so.
What was the TV show that was baseball related that had that bearded comedian, Kenny,something,??? Never did see that, heard it was funny.
Eastbound & Down
My favorite show ever!
Dollar, dollar, bills, y’all
The constant travel and living out of hotel rooms and eating the team supplied food probably starts getting old by the third week of April.
Not for me. I would love it! It would be cool to be a player for 9 years, and then spend one year coaching 1b just to reach the 10 years of the pension.
I hear ya, but there are also a lot of temptations being out on the road forever…wine, women, song…you’re gonna think you’re Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrison.
Think you just need a Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale with a Mike’s Hard Lemonade
Either that or be a roady for Billy Idol
Right on!
@Manny, I am not a huge Billy Idol fan (though I do respect his music) and I think my back would get very cranky if I was hauling amps and setting up lighting rigs every night (and spending every day on a bus), but your Spring Break proposal sounds extremely attractive to me. Maybe I’ll see you there!
You don’t have to be a coach to travel and party. But as long as you get results and aren’t doing anything generally thought of as weird and illegal they shouldn’t care.
You don’t have to be an MLB coach to travel and party, but it sure is a lot easier if you are!
Results: If you’re a hitting or pitching coach and you are clearly effective, the team might ask you to tone it down, but would tolerate it.
I don’t think think 1b coaches really distinguish themselves enough for a team to tolerate it. It would be setting a bad example for the players. I really don’t think it would be hard to get to the ballpark at noon every day, which might actually be pretty early. They probably wouldn’t fire you midseason, but would probably not retain you.
Just try to assemble a bunch of diehard fans who travel across the country visiting different ballparks. You don’t even need to be a 1B coach. All you need to do is be good at creating social media content (aka being funny and belligerent at ballgames and partying hard afterwards). Create a large IG, Tiktok, and Youtube following and $$$. Hit 1M subscribers and players will be open to interviewing with you.
I’m in!
YBC: That sounds very intriguing and doable. I think you’re onto something. For godsakes we couldn’t be any worse than Pat McAfee and Aaron Rodgers lol. I guess that’s an unfair comparison because those two have had their brains smashed into the ground too many times.
If you guys are interested in stories about the party scene with major league ball players on the road at hotels in the 60s & 70s, there’s an entertaining book you can check out at the Internet Archive called “Sportin’ Ladies…Confessions of the Bimbos” by Herb Michelson. I’m sure the book is long out of print but it’s a scandalous look at part of the game you don’t read much about (and may not be happening now to the excess it does in this book back in the day.) NFL , NBA and golf players are in it as well.
I’ve been following a bunch of young Boston guys on Tiktok who built a sandwich deli set to create funny content. They’ve worked hard at building a strong following and now sometimes feature New England celebs.
Padres: “Hey, we’ll take that number 4 spot in the standings”.
Says the Giants fan who actually did occupy the 4th spot and really, how much has your team improved this off-season to he talking crap nearly 3 mo this from the start of the season?
The San Diego Padres. LOL!
Padres: Don’t hire an arguably useless position.
MLBTR Commentators: HaHa GeT WrEcKeD StOoPiD PaDrEs GiViNg Up AlReAdY
Do you think before you comment?
Padres a mess.
lol for not having a bench coach?
100%
Bobby the hot dog vendor has a real shot at assuming bench coach duties this season apparently.
Not the first hot dog in that dugout, but maybe they can pile some cheddar sauce on it, right Trumbo 2.0!
Manny, Haha Nope. And I ain’t even counting the “Pad Squad!”
Good, bench coaches are useless. Throw in an AI to manage instead.
Old York you would make a superb bench coach and you don’t even realize it.
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I’d hate myself if I was.
Old York I was just teasing ya…(but I seriously don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a bench coach, it just means you’ve been around the game a lot, and have a lot of experience & wisdom to share.)
The name Coach Mike McCoy will get you a lot of side eye in San Diego (I know it’s not the same guy).
HAHA. Reading that name again made me twitch a little.
They will still most likely max out the amount of coaches you’re allowed in the dugout a game, whether you call your special instructor the bench coach or not is just semantics, and any good org uses collaborative decision making rather than a strict delegation of tasks. This is a nothingburger, it’s the same amount of coaches.
I’m guessing Shildt doesn’t want his eventual replacement looking over his shoulder.
Bring back Peter Seidler. NOW.
Idk. Pet cemetery results are iffy at best.
He was a good guy.
I asked God, he said he’s all out of resurrections for the next few millennia.
@D23 You and I were on the same wavelength pal
Okay maybe with the Resurrection of the Dead and the Second Coming but we could be waiting forever for that to ever occur.
The Second Coming is going to happen a lot sooner than you might think and it may be in the process already even now.
We will be fighting WWIV with sticks and stones.
People have been saying that and speculating and forecasting and predicting that for the last 2000 years. Jesus did say he would come like a thief in the night, so who knows.
Or it might not. Didn’t your prophet say that no one would know the day of His coming. Parable of the 10 virgins and all that?
And they will break your bones?
@FanOfTheUmpires: How do you know anyone will come as opposed to just breathing hard?
Blue Baron that might have been a movie you had playing in an adjacent window and not necessarily your Study Bible that you thought you had open. I know it’s easy to get the two confused though. The “Old” Testament patriarchs were a bunch of pervs (and genociders)
Who’s studying any bibles?
I must have been hallucinating…too much frankensense and myrhh (and fermented something or other). Back to baseball!!!
“What is myrrh, anyway?”
– Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Haha had the exact same thing in my head Baron “Mmmmmyyyrrrrhhhhhhhh????”
@ignorant and baseball
Considering I don’t believe in Geebus you’re way off. I say that phrase in the context of a nuclear war taking us out not some made up dude. Should have been more specific. Sorry ‘bout that.
“We are three wise men.”
“Sneaking about in the middle of the night doesn’t seem very wise to me!”
“We have brought gifts. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so? Thanks for the gold and frankincense, but don’t worry so much about the myrrh.”
Since we were on a Jesus theme, we should have been quoting ‘Life of Brian’ instead…but it’s all good.
What if the Resurrection of the Dead happens, and only Jerry Garcia returns?
Blah blah blah. Jesus was a rebel, so anything is possible in terms of His return. Your loss.
Or your delusion.
@styme Comment of the year +1
Styme, wish I could like your comment more than once.
Amazing for over 150 years MLB teams didn’t need offensive coodinators, game strategy coaches, associate managers and multiple hitting and pitching coaches, yet in the past few seasons you see almost as many coaches on a roster as players. Seems like needlessly complicating the game beyond hit the ball/catch the ball/throw the ball
Baseball is the hardest it has ever been
No, players are arriving more unprepared than ever before. I blame the school systems.
Baseball has allowed the same number of coaches in the dugout for 40 years. What they call them has changed, but how many are allowed has remained constant.
lol at all saying it’s to save money.
The Padres will have a $200+ mil payroll again…what’s your teams payroll?
This is not about saving money.
Next you’re gonna say they will be staying at the Red Roof Inn on road trips.
They already hired their bench coach….Mike Shildt. AJ will call the shots and serve as manager from upstairs.
Hire me! For one million dollars I’ll sweep up the sunflower seed shells after every game.
Like what you commented earlier: “No one here cares”
Sounds like you do fat boy
I’m available for $1.00 and full medical plan. Been thinking of retiring early and need something to do. Problem solved.
Wasn’t there a limit to uniformed non-rostered personnel in the dugout at one time? I vaguely remember it being an issue when some teams would “call up” minor league coaches in September.
Still is. They put it in place back in the 1980s. Number has not changed since then and from the looks of things the Padres will have the maximum number of people.
The bench coach wasn’t a thing until the 1990s, and not for all teams even then.
Before that, the 3B coach was considered second in command to the manager.
Going back to the 1940s and 1950s, managers like Leo Durocher and Chuck Dressen did double duty as 3B coach.
That occasionally still happened as recently as 1999. In a Mets-Blue Jays game I attended, Mets 3B coach Cookie Rojas was ejected and manager Bobby Valentine took over for him on the coaching lines.
In a speech Jackie Robinson made at the 1972 World Series shortly before he died, he spoke of his desire for more black managers to “be seen taking over on the coaching lines.”
“Don’t need no stinkin bench coaches !”
After all, how difficult is it to COACH A BENCH ??
Johnny will be so disappointed.
The San Diego Padres. LOL!
Finished ahead of the Giants 3 of the last 4 seasons.
LOL!
C’mon now… It’s not like the Madres are a playoff team or anything.