SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres have hired longtime baseball skipper Bob Melvin as their new manager, the club confirmed Thursday.
Melvin, a 60-year-old California native, agreed to a three-year contract to manage the Padres, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com reported. He brings an experienced touch to the Friars’ dugout after first-time manager Jayce Tingler was fired by the club earlier this year.
He joins a revamped Padres coaching staff that now includes Calexico native Ruben Niebla, who joined the club this week as pitching coach. Melvin takes over a roster that’s been built to win in the highly competitive NL West with high-priced stars including Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Yu Darvish and Blake Snell.
He played 10 years as a big league catcher starting in the mid-1980s and is best known as a manager with the Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks and most recently the Oakland A’s. In his 18 seasons as a manager, he’s won more than 1,300 games, fifth-most among the league’s active managers, and three times has been named baseball’s Manager of the Year.
This past season, Melvin guided the A’s to a third-place finish with a 86-76 record in the AL West.
