The San Diego Padres coaching staff is slowly but surely fully developing for club new manager Bob Melvin.
On Monday, the Padres organization announced Bob Melvin's newest additions to his major league staff.
The new hires are the following:
- Bench coach: Ryan Christenson was acquired from Oakland A's coaching staff.
- Pitching coach: Ruben Niebla, former assistant pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians
- Hitting coach: Michael Brdar, acquired by San Francisco, was the hitting coordinator for the Giants.
- Third base coach: Matt Williams, a five-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glover, and World Series champion from the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks team.
- First-base coach and outfield instructor: David Macias on his first major league's job, after coaching at the collegiate level for Vanderbilt and East Carolina.
- Catching coach: Francisco Cervelli, the Italian-Venezuelan who played 13 major league seasons with the Yankees, Braves, Pirates, and Marlins.
- Bullpen catcher: Herberto Andrade, who had worked under the Pirates organization for up to 20 years before now joining San Diego.
In addition, the former Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price is also making his way to San Diego, where he will be the club's senior adviser to Melvin's coaching staff.
These new hires come nearly two months after the San Diego Padres hired Melvin on October 28 to take over Jayce Tingler's job, after reportedly losing the trust of the Padres locker room towards the end of the 2021 baseball season. The tension in the locker room became pivotal on how the club finished their season, exiting with an 18-38 record in their last 56 games played.
The second-half collapse in 2021 was the worse collapse in franchise history, which came as a surprise to baseball fans and experts when one considers that Jayce Tingler had finished second in voting for National League Manager of the year, just one season before his expected firing as club manager.
As of today, the only highly-significant position that remains vacant at the coaching level is the first base spot.
