The day after telling Pat Murphy he will not return as manager of the San Diego Padres in 2016 General Manager A.J. Preller started the search for his replacement.
This will be the first full-time manager Preller has hired as a GM. He knows what he's looking for, but is not yet sure who he's looking for.
"We'll look at candidates from all spectrums," said Preller on Monday. "Successful guys come from all backgrounds."
That means he'll be looking at previous Big League managers, guys with no managerial experience who have a proven track record as a coach or player, in-house candidates, people from outside the organization, Sabermatricians and old-school baseball types. He'll look far and wide for a guy who, as Preller says, will bring a winner to San Diego.
"You want a guy who's open to new ideas and thoughts, who's open to winning ideas and thoughts," said Preller.
Of course the Padres thought they had a winner heading in to Spring Training back in February, too, so it may be difficult to figure out just who can bring the roster pieces together.
Speaking of roster pieces Preller's grand experiment did not work. Why, he's still not sure.
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"There's talent in that room but like Bill Parcells said you are what you are and right now we're a 74-win team," said Preller. "Overall it didn't work. It didn't mesh."
But A.J. says that's not going to make him gun-shy when putting together next year's team. While he might not be as active as he was last off-season, he might be as active as he was last off-season. Preller says he's re-evaluating the process they used in looking at players to see how the front office can improve its performance.
There is no time frame for when a new manager will be in place. The Padres might want to talk with a candidate from a team that makes a deep post-season run and would wait to make a decision.
