Padres News: Pat Murphy Won’t Return as Padres Manager

Add Pat Murphy to the personnel changes that didn’t turn out as GM A.J. Preller had hoped for. Sunday it was announced that indeed you can drop the interim from the title of interim manager for Murphy, who replaced Bud Black as the Padres manager in June. Unfortunately for Murphy, the manager portion will also be dropped.

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As reported by Corey Brock, Preller said he would talk with the media on Monday regarding the manager search and that it would start right now. Early top candidates include former Rangers manager Ron Washington, Jason Varitek, and even former Padre player Phil Nevin. The Padres limped to the finish line, extinguishing any fire a few hot streaks gave them in late July and even into late August. They ended up losing 21 of their final 31 games which likely did not help Murphy’s case for 2016.

Preller recognized the importance of who is chosen to manage the Padres next, stating,

“It’s an important decision for us, we just want to make sure we make a good call and we don’t feel pressure from what’s going on in the industry or anything like that. We’ll get to a spot where we’re comfortable making a good decision, and we will make a good hire.”

For Murphy, who had managed in the Padres organization for six seasons starting in short season A ball in Eugene, Oregon, it was a fun but in the end disappointing experience.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to have experienced this, but at the same time, the competitor in me wishes that I could have had more impact at a deeper level in how we play, the mentality.”

While I was all in favor of firing Bud Black and liked the different mentality in Murphy, it was disappointing that Murphy wasn’t able to make more of a change in the Padres overall performance. There is a lot of debate about the difference that managers can make on the major league level – but certainly the best ones seem to make a dramatic impact. Look no further than the Cubs Joe Maddon – although certainly the break out year of Jake Arrieta and Kris Bryant helps his case as well.

The positive of this decision is that the suspense is out of the way quickly. The downside is that Murphy wasn’t maybe given a full shot at being a major league manager. There has been talk he might catch onto the Brewers coaching staff with Craig Counsell and I think that would be a good fit for him.