Padres News: Scott Servais Part of Manager Candidate Pool

Add another name to the hat for the 2016 San Diego Padres manager search: Scott Servais. As reported by Corey Brock of the UT, the Angels Assistant GM is expected to interview for the Padres job and the two did work together in Texas previously.

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Servais played 11 seasons in the major leagues, primarily as a backup catcher though he did serve as the Cubs starting catcher 1996-1998 and ended with a career .245 batting average.

Despite no previous managing or coaching experience, certainly former catchers have historically made very good managers. Look no further than the Cardinals Mike Matheny, the Royals Ned Yost or the Yankees Joe Girardi as managers of 2015 playoff teams with catchers turned managers.

Servais’ previous boss Jerry Dipoto just took the General Manager job of the Seattle Managers, and another possibility would be Servais joining him as director of player development or even filling their vacant managing spot after the firing of Lloyd Mclendon.

This is Preller’s first managerial search and I do like the fact that he seems to be exploring a lot of options. He is opening things up to a wide field of candidates from veteran Major League managers, to minor league managers, past Padres (Phil Nevin), and even managerial candidates from other teams. Servais fills a few of those buckets and you have to feel that with every interview Preller gets a better idea of what he wants out of Murphy’s successor.

The Padres also asked and were granted permission to interview Arizona Diamondback’s third base coach Andy Green, who also doesn’t have managerial experience but is considered by many as a candidate. No word yet on if or when interviews might be given to current Padres coaches like Dave Roberts who many thought might be fits as well. My guess is that Preller is excited to go outside of the organization though this time after staying within after Black’s firing.

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