Coaching Notes: Leiper, Weeks, Rangers, Twins
With so many new managers taking over this season, it’s no surprise we’ve seen plenty of coaching staff turnover. Changes have been trickling in this week. Here are some quick highlights…
- The Mets are expected to hire Tim Leiper as their third base coach, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Leiper has spent nearly three decades as a coach at various levels. He most recently served as the Padres’ third base coach, a role he has held since 2024. Leiper would be taking over for Mike Sarbaugh, who was not brought back after the season.
- Rickie Weeks is changing roles with the Brewers, reports Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. After serving as associate manager for the past two seasons, Weeks will move to the front office as a special assistant to the general manager. Weeks was drafted by the Brewers with the second overall pick in 2003. He spent 11 of his 14 big-league seasons with the team. Weeks returned to Milwaukee in 2022 as an assistant to player development. The Brewers will not be hiring a new associate manager, notes Hogg.
- The Rangers are in the process of filling out new manager Skip Schumaker‘s staff. The club is expected to add Alex Cintron as an assistant hitting coach, reports Michael Schwab. Cintron has been a hitting coach with the Astros since 2019. Texas has also expressed interest in Twins’ bullpen coach Colby Suggs, reports Dan Hayes of The Athletic. Suggs seems to be on the market, with Minnesota expected to hire LaTroy Hawkins for the bullpen coach position.
- More from Minnesota, as new manager Derek Shelton continues to put his staff together. Hayes reported that Hank Conger will not be returning next season. Conger joined the Twins in 2022 as first base coach. After three seasons in the role, he served as assistant bench coach in 2025. Minnesota is also slated to lose bench coach Jayce Tingler, who is expected to join San Francisco’s staff in some capacity.
13 Players Receive Qualifying Offers
Thirteen players have received a qualifying offer this year, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The list is as follows:
- Kyle Tucker, OF, Cubs
- Kyle Schwarber, OF/DH, Phillies
- Bo Bichette, SS/2B, Blue Jays
- Framber Valdez, LHP, Astros
- Dylan Cease, RHP, Padres
- Ranger Suarez, LHP, Phillies
- Edwin Diaz, RHP, Mets
- Zac Gallen, RHP, D-backs
- Shota Imanaga, LHP, Cubs
- Michael King, RHP, Padres
- Trent Grisham, OF, Yankees
- Gleyber Torres, 2B, Tigers
- Brandon Woodruff, RHP, Brewers
This year’s QO is valued at $22.025MM. All 13 players will have until Nov. 18 to decide whether to accept that one-year offer or decline and become a free agent. They can spend that time gauging the open market to determine interest in their services. If a player accepts the QO, he’ll be treated as a free agent signing and thus will be ineligible to be traded without his consent until June 15 of next year. If he declines, any team that signs him will be subject to draft and/or international bonus forfeitures, depending on its revenue-sharing and luxury tax status.
The bulk of the list was generally expected. Every recipient other than Torres and Imanaga was pegged as likely or a no-doubter to receive the QO on MLBTR’s annual lists of qualifying offer previews for position players and for pitchers. Torres was viewed as something of a long shot, at least on the MLBTR staff. He’s coming off a nice season in Detroit but struggled through a poor finish — perhaps in part due to injury — and wasn’t hit with a QO last offseason when coming off a comparable year at the plate in the Bronx.
Imanaga was listed as a borderline call on our preview as well. The Cubs declined a three-year, $57.75MM option on Imanaga last week. He subsequently declined a $15.25MM player option (which came with an additional player option at $15.25MM) — effectively opting out of a remaining two years and $30.5MM. The Cubs are banking on Imanaga also turning away one year at just over $22MM after turning down that remaining $30.5MM in guaranteed money.
The qualifying offer is determined each year by taking the average of the game’s 125 highest-paid players. We’ve already covered the penalties that each team would face for signing a qualified free agent, as well as the compensation each club would get for losing a qualified free agent to another team.
Among the notable free agents to not receive a qualifying offer are Lucas Giolito, Robert Suarez, Devin Williams and Jorge Polanco. Giolito might have received one had it not been for a late elbow issue that ended his season. Suarez has been excellent and just opted out of the remaining two years and $16MM on his contract, but he’ll be 35 next year. The Padres have been reducing payroll in recent seasons and likely didn’t want to risk Suarez locking in that weighty one-year sum. Williams would have received a QO with a typical season, but he struggled throughout much of the season’s first four months before a dominant finish. Polanco enjoyed a terrific rebound campaign but is 32 years old and was limited to DH work for much of the season due to ongoing injury issues.
The qualifying offer grants each of these free agents the chance at a notable one-year payday, though the majority of them will reject without much thought. Players like Tucker, Bichette, Schwarber, Valdez, Cease, Suarez and Diaz are likely to see comparable or larger (much larger, in Tucker’s case) salaries on multi-year deals in free agency. Even players like Grisham, who probably won’t land a $22MM annual value over multiple years, are still likely to reject. Major league free agents typically — though not always — prioritize long-term earning over short-term, higher-AAV pacts. A three- or four-year deal worth $14-16MM per year, for instance, is typically viewed as preferable to accepting one year at a higher rate.
There’s risk in declining the offer, of course. Teams are more reluctant to sign players who’ll cost them valuable draft picks and/or notable portions of their hard-capped bonus pool for international amateurs. Every offseason, there are a handful of free agents whose markets are weighed down by the burden of draft pick compensation. That typically applies to the “lower end” of the QO recipients. For top stars like Tucker, Bichette, etc. — draft/international forfeitures are simply considered the cost of doing business and don’t tend to have much (if any) impact on the player’s earning power.
Padres Hire Craig Stammen As Manager
The Padres announced that they have signed former big leaguer Craig Stammen to a three-year deal to serve as their new manager. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Stammen’s hiring prior to the official announcement.
“Craig has been a strong presence in our organization for nearly a decade,” president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said in the press release. “He possesses deep organizational knowledge and brings natural leadership qualities to the Manager’s chair. As both a player and in his post-playing career, Craig has displayed an ability to elevate those around him. His strength of character, competitive nature and talent for bringing people together make him the ideal choice to lead the Padres.”
It’s yet another out-of-the-blue development from San Diego. Shortly after the Padres were eliminated from the postseason, initial reporting indicated that manager Mike Shildt was likely to stay for the 2026 season. A few days later, he surprisingly stepped down, amid reporting that Shildt’s relationship with other club employees was quite poor.
Now the news of Shildt’s replacement also comes as a surprise. Prior to the news of Stammen’s hiring, there had been no public indication that he was even a candidate for the job. Names like Ryan Flaherty, Ruben Niebla, Albert Pujols and Nick Hundley were connected to the job over the past month. Last week, reporting from Acee indicated that there were “no more than four” finalists, with Pujols, Niebla and Hundley being three of them. It would now appear that Stammen was the mystery fourth candidate.
It’s also a surprising development in that Stammen has no prior managerial or even coaching experience. He pitched in the big leagues from 2009 to 2022. The first seven of those seasons came with the Nationals and the final six with the Padres. He signed a minor league deal with the Padres going into 2023 but then suffered a major shoulder injury during spring training. He announced his retirement a few months later. In January of 2024, the Padres hired him in a player development role.
Despite the lack of dugout experience, apart from his time as a player, the Padres seem to feel that Stammen is the man for the job. They obviously know him well, as their relationship with him goes back at years at this point, combining his playing days with his recent player development role.
Still, it’s a notable gambit for the team to take, as the wobbly manager’s chair in San Diego has been a topic of conversation for years. Preller was hired back in 2014, with the Padres rebuilding for a while. Going into 2020, as they hoped the rebuild was over, they hired Jayce Tingler to be their new skipper. At the time, Tingler had a few years of coaching experience but was just 38 years old and had never been a manager. The Padres performed well in the shortened 2020 season but disappointed in 2021 amid reports that Tingler lost the clubhouse.
Going into 2022, they went for a more seasoned manager. They hired Bob Melvin, who was 60 years old and had almost two decades of managerial experience. The Friars made the playoffs in 2022 but disappointed in 2023. There were whispers that Melvin and Preller didn’t get along. The Padres let Melvin interview with the division-rival Giants and he jumped ship prior to the 2024 season.
Shildt, another baseball lifer with lots of coaching and managerial experience, was hired two years ago. The Padres won at least 90 games in each of his seasons but, as mentioned, recent reports have indicated that things weren’t pretty behind the scenes. It was also recently reported that Preller preferred to hire Ryan Flaherty over Shildt but he may have been overruled by ownership. Flaherty was 37 years old and barely removed from his playing days at the time.
Stammen, 41, is seemingly more towards the Tingler/Flaherty end of the spectrum than the Melvin/Shildt side. Perhaps that may not matter and the Padres just feel that, as an individual, he is the best man for the job. Stammen will have to jump right to the helm and try to steer the Padres forward. The club has had a lot of success in recent years and is surely hoping for more. The roster is filled with expensive veteran star players and all signs point to them continuing to attempt to contend.
For those who missed out on the gig, they are mostly out of chances for a managerial job. There were several managerial vacancies this winter but this was one of the last ones to be filled. The Rockies are the last club without a skipper, though a decision for that job is not imminent. The Rockies are first planning to hire a new front office leader. Whoever gets that job will then start the search for the club’s next manager. Dennis Lin of The Athletic relays that Niebla was the other finalist for the Padres’ job. Alden González of ESPN says Niebla is expected to return to the Friars as pitching coach next year.
Photos courtesy of Orlando Ramirez, Imagn Images
Padres To Exercise Option On Ramon Laureano
The Padres are exercising their $6.5MM option on outfielder Ramón Laureano, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. That was an easy call coming off Laureano’s excellent 2025 season.
The righty-hitting outfielder put up a .281/.342/.512 batting line with 24 home runs over 488 plate appearances. He divided that between the Orioles and Padres, who acquired him alongside Ryan O’Hearn in a deadline deal that sent six prospects to Baltimore. Laureano and O’Hearn each continued to hit well down the stretch. Laureano posted a .269/.323/.489 line with nine longballs and doubles apiece and a pair of triples in 50 games with San Diego.
A broken index finger on his right hand kept Laureano off the Padres’ Wild Card Series roster. It’s not expected to impact his availability for Spring Training and certainly wasn’t going to lead them to reconsider a bargain option price. Laureano will be back as San Diego’s starting left fielder. He’ll slot alongside Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill in the outfield for new manager Craig Stammen.
O’Hearn and Luis Arraez are both hitting free agency, so the Padres will need to find an answer at first base or designated hitter. Laureano’s presence means the Padres won’t need Gavin Sheets to play much outfield if everyone’s healthy. The lefty-hitting Sheets had a bad September but was reasonably productive overall, batting .252/.317/.429 with 19 homers. He’s not going to keep the Padres from considering alternatives at first base but projects as the starter there for now — at least against right-handed pitching.
This was the seventh and final option decision for San Diego. Laureano and Wandy Peralta are back, as the lefty reliever decided not to opt out of the remaining two years on his contract. Robert Suarez, Michael King, Elias Díaz, Tyler Wade and Kyle Hart are all free agents. Suarez and King declined their options, while the Padres bought out Díaz, Hart and Wade.
Astros To Hire Victor Rodriguez As Hitting Coach
The Astros are finalizing a deal to hire Victor Rodriguez as their new hitting coach, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He has been serving as the hitting coach in San Diego for the past two seasons. Rodriguez has a year remaining on his deal with San Diego. Houston parted ways with hitting coaches Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker in early October.
Rodriguez has more than a decade of hitting coach experience at the MLB level. After several years coaching in Boston’s minor league organization, he became the Red Sox assistant hitting coach in 2013. Following the 2017 season, he moved on to Cleveland, once again as the assistant hitting coach. Rodriguez took over as hitting coach in San Diego ahead of the 2024 season.
San Diego has hit safely at an elite rate under Rodriguez. After ranking 20th in batting average as a team in 2023, the Padres finished first in 2024. As Acee points out, it was the first time in franchise history that the club paced the league in batting average. San Diego also had the lowest strikeout rate in the majors by a decent margin in Rodriguez’s debut campaign. The Padres’ 17.6% strikeout rate was 1.7% lower than the next-closest team (Houston at 19.3%). The midseason addition of Luis Arraez certainly provided a boost in terms of batting average and contact, while a strong rookie debut from Jackson Merrill helped the club finish eighth in scoring.
The Padres ranked seventh in batting average this past season. They had the third-lowest strikeout rate. Scoring was an issue, as San Diego finished 18th in runs. Merrill, slowed by injuries, took a step back. Xander Bogaerts also missed time. The team had just two regulars finish with an OPS above .800 (Fernando Tatis Jr. and trade deadline acquisition Ramon Laureano).
Houston’s typically dynamic offense scuffled mightily in 2025. The Astros were 21st in scoring this past season. They hadn’t finished bottom 10 in runs since 2014. Houston traded Kyle Tucker to the Cubs and lost Alex Bregman in free agency this past offseason, leaving a gap in the middle of the order. Injuries limited Yordan Alvarez to 48 games, which didn’t help matters. The Astros got solid contributions from Isaac Paredes, who came back in the Tucker trade, though he also missed two months with a hamstring injury. Better luck on the health front, plus continued development from youngsters Cam Smith and Zach Cole, should help Houston bounce back under Rodriguez.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Padres Decline Options On Elias Díaz, Tyler Wade, Kyle Hart
The Padres have turned down options on three players, per Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune. They have declined a $7MM mutual option for catcher Elias Díaz, going for the $2MM buyout instead. Infielder/outfielder Tyler Wade‘s $1MM club option has been turned down in favor of a $50K buyout. Left-hander Kyle Hart‘s $5MM club option has been turned down in favor of a $500K buyout. All three will head to free agency.
None of the three moves comes as a major shock. The Padres signed Díaz last offseason, a one-year deal with a $3.5MM guarantee for his age-34 campaign. That took the form of a $1.5MM salary and a $2MM buyout on the $7MM mutual option. It’s been over a decade since both sides of a mutual option were exercised. They are usually a way for the team to kick part of the payment down the road. That appears to be the case here, as the option buyout was more than the salary in this case.
Díaz got into 106 games for the Padres, slashing .204/.270/.337 for a 74 wRC+. His defense was considered around par. With Díaz now removed, the Padres are down to two backstops on the roster. Freddy Fermin projects as the top option. Luis Campusano is still there but the club doesn’t appear to trust him behind the plate, as they opted to give playing time to older veterans like Díaz and Martín Maldonado, even though Campusano was crushing in the minors. It wouldn’t be surprising if Campusano were traded, now that he’s out of options, with the Friars circling back to Díaz or some other veteran.
Wade, 31 in November, has long been a glove-first utility guy in the majors. He got into 60 games for the Padres this year and played all the outfield slots as well as the three infield positions to the left of first base. However, he hit just .206/.309/.252.
The Padres signed Hart in February, hoping he could build off a strong year in Korea. Pitching for the KBO’s NC Dinos in 2024, he posted a 2.69 ERA in 157 innings. The Friars brought him back to North America on a one-year deal with a $1.5MM guarantee. That included a $1MM salary this year and a $500K buyout on a $5MM club option.
Unfortunately, his return to the majors didn’t go smoothly. He logged 43 big league innings with a 5.86 earned run average this year. His 20.7% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate were decent but he was mostly used in a low leverage swingman role. The Friars need pitching but they have a tight budget and Hart didn’t perform well, so it’s understandable that they haven’t given him a raise.
Photo courtesy of Denis Poroy, Imagn Images
Yu Darvish Undergoes UCL Surgery, Will Miss Entire 2026 Season
The Padres announced that right-hander Yu Darvish underwent surgery last Wednesday to fix a damaged right UCL and flexor tendon. The procedure was an internal brace surgery instead of a full Tommy John surgery, yet the outcome is still the same — Darvish will miss the entire 2026 season while recovering.
This will be the second entirely lost year of Darvish’s career, as he missed all of 2015 due to a Tommy John procedure. He has had some bouts of elbow soreness in the decade since that surgery, most prominently a stint on the 60-day injured list this season stemming from a bout of elbow inflammation that arose during Spring Training.
It wasn’t until July 7 that Darvish finally made his season debut for the Padres, and he clearly didn’t look 100 percent while posting a 5.38 ERA over 15 starts and 72 innings. Small sample size notwithstanding, Darvish’s 23% strikeout rate was the lowest of his 13 MLB seasons, and his chase and whiff rates were far below average. His 6.4% walk rate was still quite strong and Darvish did a very good job of limiting hard contact overall, but batters tended to thrive when actually squaring up on the veteran, as Darvish allowed 14 homers over his 72 frames.
Beyond these statistics, perhaps the most prominent numbers are 39 (Darvish’s age) and 3119. The latter figure is the total number of innings Darvish has amassed over 20 total seasons pitching in the Major League regular season and postseason, as well as seven seasons in Japan with the Nippon-Ham Fighters. Darvish will be 40 years old on Opening Day 2027 and it is anyone’s guess how he could perform after such a long layoff.
Last month, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune addressed the possibility of Darvish’s retirement, writing that “there has been talk for more than a year about the possibility he could retire at any time,” and that “Darvish has not made any assurances about completing his contract.” The fact that Darvish has undergone this surgery would surely indicate that he wants to keep pitching, though any setbacks in rehab could perhaps create fresh doubt in the right-hander’s mind.
Darvish signed a contract extension with the Padres in April 2023, and he is still owed $43MM over the course of the 2026-28 seasons. The $15MM owed to him in 2026 is now a wash, and retiring outright would mean that Darvish is voluntarily walking away from his remaining two years of salary. The likelier outcome in the event that Darvish is unable to keep playing is that some kind of deferred buyout agreement is made with the Padres so that Darvish will still get his money over a longer period of time.
Given Darvish’s injury history, he was already viewed as a question mark for San Diego’s rotation heading into 2026. Now that the question has been answered in the most unfortunate way possible, the Padres will go into next season with just two (Nick Pivetta and Randy Vasquez) of the seven pitchers who made the most starts for the team in 2025. Dylan Cease and Michael King are free agents, Stephen Kolek and Ryan Bergert were traded to the Royals at the deadline. and now Darvish has been sidelined by his UCL repair.
Next year’s rotation projects as Pivetta, Vasquez, deadline pickup JP Sears, Joe Musgrove in his return from Tommy John surgery, and a fifth starter role that could be contested between Matt Waldron, Kyle Hart, or (more intriguingly) star relievers Mason Miller or Adrian Morejon. San Diego was already expected to add at least one starter to this mix even before Darvish’s injury news surfaced, so the team’s search for rotation help will now be even more pronounced.
Inset image courtesy of Denis Poroy — Imagn Images
Wandy Peralta Will Not Opt Out Of Padres Deal
Veteran reliever Wandy Peralta will forgo the opt-out in his contract, reports Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Peralta’s four-year, $16.5MM contract contained opt-out opportunities after each season. He’s exercising a $4.45MM player option for the 2026 season and will have one final player option for the same amount next offseason.
Peralta effectively has two years and $8.9MM remaining on his contract, with an opt-out at the midway point. He might’ve had a chance to beat that in free agency on the back of a 3.14 ERA in a career-high 71 2/3 innings, but it’s far from a sure thing. The 34-year-old doesn’t exactly have age on his side, and this year’s 20.1% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate were both a fair bit worse than the league average.
Peralta still throws hard, sitting 95-96 mph with his sinker, and piles up grounders at a near-60% clip, but he’s worked primarily in low- and medium-leverage spot since signing with San Diego. He’ll stay put and once again be a heavily used piece of the Friars’ bullpen picture.
The Padres boast a deep bullpen, headlined by deadline acquisition Mason Miller. Closer Robert Suarez opted out of the remaining two years on his contract earlier today. Assuming they keep Miller in the ‘pen — they’ve reportedly at least considered moving him into the rotation — he’ll be supported by Peralta, Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada and standout rookie David Morgan. The Padres will have a notable decision to make on excellent setup man Jason Adam, who is projected for a $6.8MM salary in arbitration but suffered a ruptured quadriceps tendon in September, which required season-ending surgery.
Robert Suarez Opts Out Of Padres Contract
Padres closer Robert Suarez has opted out of the final two years and $16MM on his deal with San Diego, according to a report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Suarez will now head into the free agent market in search of a new deal.
San Diego signed Suarez to a five-year, $46MM deal ahead of the 2023 season. Injuries limited him to 27 2/3 innings that year, but he broke out as a premier closer the following season. Suarez notched 36 saves in 2024, earning an All-Star nomination. He followed that up with a National League-leading 40 saves in 2025.
Suarez took a roundabout way to MLB stardom. He pitched in the NPB from 2018 to 2021, emerging as a top reliever over his final two campaigns. Suarez piled up 67 saves in two seasons with the Hanshin Tigers, which earned him a look in the big leagues. San Diego brought him over on a major-league deal in December 2021. He made 45 appearances for the Padres that season. Suarez posted an elite 31.9% strikeout rate, but it came with an elevated 11% walk rate. Following his first MLB season, Suarez elected free agency, but returned to San Diego on the aforementioned five-year pact.
The 34-year-old Suarez wraps up his San Diego tenure with 77 saves across 206 appearances. He recorded a 2.91 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP over 210 innings. Suarez earned two All-Star selections.
Suarez is entering a crowded reliever market. Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, and Raisel Iglesias are among the top names, while Edwin Díaz could join the mix if he opts out of his current deal. Proven veterans Emilio Pagan, Luke Weaver, Kenley Jansen, and Kyle Finnegan are also available.
San Diego shouldn’t have to look far for Suarez’s replacement. The team landed their closer of the future at the trade deadline, acquiring Mason Miller from the Athletics for a package led by shortstop prospect Leo De Vries. Miller was dominant as a setup man for Suarez, posting a 0.77 ERA with an insane 54.2% strikeout rate in 22 appearances with his new team. The young flamethrower is entering his first year of arbitration, so he should function as San Diego’s stopper for the foreseeable future.
Coaching Notes: Mets, Padres, Leiper, Rays
Many teams are still setting up their coaching staffs for the 2026 season, and some news broke about some departures on the Rangers staff earlier tonight. Let’s check in with some more coaching-related rumblings from around the league…
- The Mets have interviewed Padres third base/infield coach Tim Leiper for an unspecified role on New York’s coaching staff, according to The Athletic’s Tim Britton. SNY’s Andy Martino reported yesterday that the Mets were nearing a hire for their third base coach vacancy, so it would seem logical that Leiper might be the one being tapped as Mike Sarbaugh’s replacement. Leiper has been San Diego’s third base coach for the last two seasons, and since the Padres are looking for a new manager, it makes sense that Leiper would be exploring other options if the Padres’ staff is about to get shaken up. Leiper has close to 30 years as a coach and manager in the minors and in international baseball, plus he was also the Blue Jays’ first base coach for five seasons (2014-18).
- The Rays are looking for a new assistant hitting coach, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Brady North previously filled the role, but the team announced last month that North would be moving on to a possible new role in the organization after four years on the coaching staff. Topkin notes that Ozzie Timmons is one of the internal candidates for the assistant hitting coach role, which would mark Timmons’ return to Tampa’s staff after a four-year absence. Timmons was the Rays’ first base coach from 2018-21 before moving onto a three-year stint as a hitting coach with the Brewers. Tampa Bay brought Timmons back into the fold as a special assistant and roving coach role within the organization prior to the 2025 season.