Padres Newest Leader Manager Faces Rare Challenge Of Going From Pitcher To Manager

The San Diego Padres have a new manager in Craig Stammen, and it’s fair to say that he’ll be on the hot seat from day one. In addition to leading a cash-strapped club with a thin roster and payroll issues, Stammen will be one of just nine major-league managers who played primarily as pitchers without going through a stretch as an interim manager, according to Dennis Lin of The Athletic. 

Stammen knows what he’s up against, however, to the point where he commented on it during his introductory press conference.

“You have the stigma of being a pitcher and then being a relief pitcher,” he said in November. 

Stammen has always shown the kind of overall baseball curiosity that can lead to a spot in the dugout, according to Randy Knorr, Stammer’s manager back in High-A in the Washington Nationals' system. 

“There’s about a handful in my career where pitchers would ask a lot of questions,” said Knorr, who will now serve as Stammen’s bench coach this season. “And they weren’t just questions about pitching. Like, he’d watch a hit-and-run. ‘Why’d you hit-and-run right there?’”

That curiosity won’t completely prepare him for what’s to come, though. Bryan Price made the transition from pitching coach to manager with the Cincinnati Reds back in 2013, and he described the transition in some strong terms. 

“Anytime a pitching guy gets hired, there’s always going to be a level of shock and awe,” said Price. “You can make every argument in the world why a pitching guy is going to be a second option to a former position player.”

One of the biggest issues in this transition is that pitchers don’t play every day. They tend to be focused on their daily tasks, all of which revolve around getting hitters out as opposed to seeing the game as a whole. 

“For the majority, I think people look at it as an everyday player is a leader,” said Texas Rangers manager and former utility player Skip Schumaker. “Doesn’t mean (pitchers) can’t lead. It’s just, if someone’s holding a team meeting, it’s usually an everyday player.”

Perceptions and roles are changing now, and they’re also leading to former pitchers in executive roles. Lin mentioned ex-pitchers like Jerry DiPoto and Craig Breslow, and of course Bud Black is another exception as a pitcher who made the move from the mound to the dugout. 

It’s a unique jump, however, and some of the most intriguing comments came from former Padres closer Trevor Hoffman, who now works as a senior advisor for the Pads. A lot of the job is about relationships, as Schumaker noted, and Hoffman drilled down into some aspects of being manager that are far harder than others. 

 “That can be a bigger job than just X’s and O’s,” Hoffman said. “How do you tell someone ‘no’ that might be a superstar? How do you tell someone, ‘I need you to do something that you don’t want to do?’”