To San Diego Padres fans, reliever Craig Stammen represents a new breed of manager. He represents a big change from his predecessor, Mike Shildt, an old-school type who resigned suddenly at the end of the season.
It took some time for the Padres to hire Stammen, but as it turns out he represents a major trend in MLB in 2026. According to Manny Randhawa of MLB.com, young managers are one of eight major trends that are surfacing in 2026, so Stammen will fit right in.
A total of nine new managers were hired this offseason, and six are first-timers. They include Stammen, Kurt Suzuki of the Los Angeles Angels, Walt Weiss of the Atlanta Braves, Tony Vitello of the San Francisco Giants, Blake Butera of the Washington Nationals, Craig Albernaz of the Baltimore Orioles, Skip Schumaker of the Texas Rangers, Warren Schaeffer of the Colorado Rockies and Derek Shelton of the Minnesota Twins.
That’s a long list, and six of the nine will be rookie managers: Stammen, Suzuki, Vitello, Butera, Albernaz and Schaeffer. The average age of that group is 41, with Butera being the youngest at 33. Vitello gets the vote as the most controversial, as he was hired directly from the college ranks by the Giants.
Only Schaeffer has experience as an interim manager, although we’re not quite sure what that counts for with the Rockies. A lot of these are risky hires, and Stammen definitely falls into that category.
The good news with him is that the Padres know what they’re getting. Stammen was a career reliever, and he spent time with the Padres, so that should make the in-game pitching decisions easier for him. Stammen also has an experienced pitching coach to lean on in Ruben Niebla, although it will be interesting to see how that part works on the field given that Niebla also interviewed for the managerial job.
It’s what’s behind the curtain that makes this hire especially easy. The Padres spent forever looking at former first baseman Albert Pujols as a possible manager, but the fact that the team is now up for sale may have played a role in that possibility falling apart.
GM A.J. Preller definitely knows managerial talent, but he’s going out on a serious limb with this one. It might be a move forced by finances, and if Stammen does fail for whatever reason, Preller will take plenty of heat for whatever role that played in this hire.