Browsing: manage

Nov 10, 2025, 05:09 PM ET

SAN DIEGO — Moments after Craig Stammen was introduced as manager of the San Diego Padres on Monday, general manager A.J. Preller turned to the former reliever and light-heartedly said, “How’d we get here?”

That’s something Padres fans and many people around baseball have wondered since Thursday, when the Padres made the surprising announcement that Stammen replaced Mike Shildt. Citing burnout, Shildt retired on Oct. 13 after just two seasons on the job, less than two weeks after the Padres were eliminated in the wild card round by the Chicago Cubs.

The 41-year-old Stammen, just three seasons removed from throwing his last big league pitch, has been with the Padres organization since 2017. Preller felt he had enough good qualities and knowledge of the team to make him skipper despite having no previous coaching or managing experience at any level.

Stammen went from helping interview candidates for the job to becoming a candidate to getting the job. He’ll lead a team that’s made four playoff appearances in six seasons and is led by stars Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado.

He retired in August 2023 after it became clear he wouldn’t bounce back from a shoulder injury sustained during spring training. He became an assistant to the major league coaching staff and the baseball operations department, and he said Preller often asked if he wanted more responsibilities in the organization while understanding Stammen was balancing his job with his home life with his wife, Audrey, and their four young children back in Ohio.

“He was very coy about it at the beginning,” Stammen said. “We kind of got through the interview process, the beginning of it, and then he put the sales kibosh on me and said, ‘I really want you to be a part of the process; I want you to think about being the manager of the Padres.'”

Stammen wasn’t sure about moving his family to California. He had numerous conversations with his wife and others and cited Preller’s continued belief in him, without which “I probably would have not gone down the path as strongly as we did.

“Eventually it got to the point where it was a yes for us. We made some family decisions to make that happen. Once we made that decision there was a peace and a joy that came with it and an opportunity that there’s no way I could say no to. That’s where we said yes and luckily enough and thankful enough, I was offered the job and here we are today, ready to make something happen.”

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This is the third time Preller has hired a manager with little or no previous managerial experience. Stammen is the Padres’ sixth manager since 2015, not counting interim skippers.

Preller harkened back to what he’s seen of Stammen since his first season with the Padres in 2017, when he was coming off an arm injury and had joined San Diego as a free agent.

“He’s an elite competitor, incredibly hard worker, very prepared and a natural leader and somebody that as a pitcher was able to touch different elements of our clubhouse and be able to bond and connect with different players in that clubhouse over the course of a seven- or eight-year period here in San Diego.” Preller said.

“Craig has a unique seat, a unique lens. He was part of those building teams and then he’s been able to see it through to the playoff teams and the teams that have won 90-plus games here the last two years. He’s part of some really high highs … Craig starting a playoff game, which is definitely a career highlight, and he also had a front-row seat to some of the disappointments of the last few years, and I think he’s going to carry those experiences with him here in this chair.”

Stammen is best known for starting the deciding Game 3 of the 2020 Wild Card Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, who at the time were managed by Shildt. He pitched 1 2/3 innings as the first of nine pitchers the Padres used in the 4-0 win, which clinched their first postseason series victory since 1998.

Stammen said it will be a “challenge for sure. I’ve got a big learning curve ahead of me.” But he said he has a great relationship with pitching coach Ruben Niebla — was interviewed for the manager’s job — as well as with many of the players who were once his teammates.

“One of the advantages of being a relief pitcher and viewing the game from that lens is you’re always monitoring when the pitching changes are coming,” Stammen said. “Especially in the role I had, I had to be ready from pitch one until the end of the game.”

He said he and Niebla will “be a lethal combo” in making pitching decisions.

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Jurgen Klopp says it is “theoretically possible†that he could one day return as Liverpool manager. The 58-year-old walked away from Anfield in 2024, ending a transformative nine-year spell at the club that included a Champions League success and the Reds†first league title in 30 years. He has taken on roles as head of global soccer with the Red Bull group and in an advisory capacity with the German Football League.

Liverpool won the Premier League last season under Arne Slot but many fans who revere Klopp would welcome the notion that he may eventually return. In a wide-ranging interview on The Diary of a CEO podcast, he told Steven Bartlett: “I said I will never coach another team, a different team, in England. So that means if then itâ€s Liverpool…yeah. Theoretically itâ€s possible.â€

He continued: “Iâ€m 58, that means I could make the decision in a few years, I donâ€t know. Do I have to make the decision today? Then I will not coach again. But thank God, I donâ€t have to do that. I can just see what the future brings.â€

Pressed on what circumstances would have to unfold to draw him back to the dugout, Klopp admitted he was not instantly drawn to such a return. “I donâ€t even know exactly, I love what I do right now,†he said. “I donâ€t miss coaching; I donâ€t miss standing in the rain for two-and-a-half or three hours; I donâ€t miss going to press conferences four times, three times a week or having 10-12 interviews a week.

“I donâ€t miss the dressing room as a dressing room, but sitting in a restaurant with the players having a nice chat, thatâ€s nice. We won a lot of games so there was often a very good mood in the building. I still have Virgil [Van Dijkâ€s] laugh in my ear for example.â€

Jürgen Klopp signed Diogo Jota for Liverpool in 2020 and described dealing with the forwardâ€s death as ‘impossibleâ€. Photograph: James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images

Klopp was full of praise for his successor, crediting him for the tweaks tha took the title last term. Liverpool have lost four in a row in all competitions after a summer spending spree but he rubbished the suggestion it could be the start of a downward turn.

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“[Liverpool have] an incredible striker in Flo[rian] Wirtz, you will all eat your words if you use the wrong words. Heâ€s an incredible talent. [Hugo] Ekitike, incredible player. Itâ€s a really good, well-judged squad. You donâ€t have to worry about Liverpool, they will be fine.â€

Klopp also spoke emotionally about the death of Diogo Jota, a player he signed in 2020, and its impact on Liverpool. The Portugal international was killed in a car crash alongside his brother in July.

“How do you replace somebody like Diogo? Itâ€s not about the player himself, itâ€s the guy he was,†he said. “I canâ€t imagine the dressing room without him in it, thatâ€s so hard. I still cannot speak properly about it. It was an incredible shock for all the boys as well. Nobody at Liverpool will ever use it as an excuse but it is the situation. You walk in a dressing room where he was omnipresent. Dealing with that on a personal level is not easy. Impossible.â€

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SAN FRANCISCO — Giants executive Buster Posey doesn’t consider his former manager Bruce Bochy a candidate to fill the vacant position again for San Francisco.

Posey, the club’s president of baseball operations, said Wednesday that he had spoken to Bochy a couple of days earlier and mentioned there could be a position for Bochy in the organization — just not the managerial job.

“The door’s always open here for some sort of role,” Posey said during a news conference at Oracle Park. “I don’t see us going that route with Boch.”

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The Giants fired Bob Melvin on Monday after his second season ended with an 81-81 record — one more victory than last year — and a fourth straight missed playoff opportunity.

Later Monday, the Texas Rangers announced Bochy, 70, was out after three seasons that featured the organization’s first World Series championship in 2023.

Posey expressed the hope of finding someone who could provide stability for years to come on the dugout’s top step as the club tries to become a regular contender again, but he didn’t provide any details about the process except that interviews are happening this week. Under Bochy, the Giants won biennial World Series championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

“We had a pretty consistent stretch of not playing good baseball,” Posey said. “There’s a lot of good things in place, but ultimately we did not achieve our goal this year.”

When Posey, 38, took over in his current job at this time last year to replace Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ longtime catcher committed to three seasons. He is still planning to fulfill that agreement.

“I’m fully committed, but I think the focus has to be on the present,” Posey said. “That’s the way I try to look at it. Would I like to do it longer, sure, but I think the focus has to be in the moment.”

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Image credit:
Tennessee coach Tony Vitello (Photo by Eddie Kelly / ProLook Photos)

In this week’s College Baseball Podcast, Jacob Rudner and Peter Flaherty go back and forth to draft 2026 college baseball fantasy teams with four hitters, two starting pitchers and a reliever.

We also discuss recent speculation about Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as a potential wild card candidate to fill the Giants’ managerial vacancy.

Time Stamps

• (2:48) Tony Vitello’s San Francisco candidacy
• (10:56) Explaining our fantasy draft rules
• (12:32) UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky
• (15:00)Oregon State righty Dax Whitney
• (17:52) TCU outfielder Sawyer Strosnider
• (19:49) Coastal Carolina righty Cameron Flukey
• (22:59) Virginia outfielder AJ Gracia
• (24:47) Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress
• (28:04) UC Santa Barbara righty Jackson Flora
• (32:00) Mississippi State third baseman Ace Reese
• (33:56) TCU righty Tommy LaPour
• (37:50) Houston outfielder Tre Broussard
• (40:58) Texas A&M righty MJ Bollinger
• (44:30) LSU lefty Santiago Garcia
• (47:52) Texas Tech outfielder Logan Hughes

Want more podcasts like this one? Subscribe below!

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Shoaib Akhtar and Abhishek Bachchan Abhishek Bachchan has responded in trademark witty style after Shoaib Akhtarâ€s on-air blooper sparked laughter across cricket and Bollywood fans alike. During a live episode of the show Game On Hai, the former Pakistani speedster was analysing Pakistanâ€s chances in the Asia Cup final against India when he mistakenly invoked the actorâ€s name instead of opener Abhishek Sharma.“If Pakistan get Abhishek Bachchan out early on in a hypothetical situation, then what is going to happen with the middle-order? Their middle-order hasnâ€t performed well,†Akhtar had said, leaving the host and fellow panellists in splits before quickly being corrected.Bachchan wasted no time in joining the fun. Taking to X, he, quoting TOI Sports’s post, wrote: “Sir, with all due respect… donâ€t think theyâ€ll even manage that! And Iâ€m not even good at playing cricket.â€

Abhishek Bachchan’s post on X

His tongue-in-cheek reply only added to the viral moment, with fans flooding the comments section with memes and jokes about Bollywood crossing over into cricket.The gaffe comes at a time when India and Pakistan are preparing for a blockbuster Asia Cup final in Dubai — their first title clash in the tournamentâ€s history. Pakistan secured their place with a tense 11-run win over Bangladesh, while India stormed through the group stage and Super Four unbeaten.On the field, all eyes will be on opener Abhishek Sharma, who has been in scintillating form with successive half-centuries. Kuldeep Yadav leads the bowling charts with 12 wickets, but Indiaâ€s fielding has been under scrutiny after 12 dropped catches in the tournament. Pakistanâ€s hopes rest on Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf with the new ball, though their batting remains vulnerable.Akhtarâ€s slip of tongue may have been accidental, but it perfectly captured the blend of humour and intensity that accompanies any India-Pakistan clash. And as Bachchan quipped, once the final begins, it will be the real cricketers, not actors, who decide the outcome.

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