Padres fire manager Bud Black after disappointing start to the season
With huge expectations after a high-profile offseason roster makeover, the San Diego Padres are sending the message that they won’t settle for .500 baseball. And so they’ve fired manager Bud Black, who was in his ninth year as the team’s manager.
The Padres announced that Dave Roberts will take over immediately until a new manager is named:
The club will immediately begin the formal search for an Interim Manager for the remainder of the 2015 season. Until that process has concluded, Bench Coach Dave Roberts will serve as the Manager beginning with [Monday’s] game against Oakland.
The Padres are 32-33, third place in the NL West and six games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers. Obviously, first-year general manager A.J. Preller and the front office expected better after they acquired Justin Upton, Matt Kemp, Craig Kimbrel and Derek Norris in trades, plus signed free-agent pitcher James Shields.
This all put Black in a tough situation. We knew before the season, Black had to win with the team Preller assembled or he’d probably reach this fate. The Padres have scored runs (they’re sixth in MLB in runs and 10th in hits), but their pitching hasn’t been as good as they hoped and their defense has been shaky. Since Justin Upton is a free agent after this season, there’s a certain must-win-now attitude in San Diego this season.
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So Black takes the fall. He had a 649-713 record in his nine seasons with the Padres. It speaks about how much Black is respected as a baseball man that he lasted this long. The Padres had just two winning seasons with Black as their skipper. Don’t expect him to be out of work for long either. Black could slide into a coaching gig somewhere. Or his availability could inspire another team to fire its on-the-hot-seat manager.
The Padres manager search already has a numbrer of names being floated around, from former players with ties to the team like Phil Nevin and Mark Kotsay to experienced managers such as Ron Washington, Ron Gardenhire and Mike Redmond. Another name worth watching is Pat Murphy, who is the Triple-A manager in the Padres system. The Brewers recently wanted to talk to Murphy for their manager job (which went to Craig Counsell), but the Padres refused. Maybe they’ve had Murphy pegged as a possible replacement for Black for a while now?
These 2015 Padres, from the offseason until today, have proven they’re not afraid to make bold moves. This is just the latest one.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
