Andy Green’s Mets second act mirrors Craig Stammen’s unlikely path to Padres manager

Padres fans don’t really need to worry about Andy Green. His four seasons in San Diego were straight-up bad. He produced a 274-366 record, zero winning seasons and an ugly 2019 collapse that sealed his exit. But his second chance does give us a more interesting way to examine why Craig Stammen has worked as Padres manager. The connection is not their records. But it’s the organizational runway each man received before taking a job neither were chasing.

Green didn’t inherit the same runway the first time around. A.J. Preller hired him away from the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2015. Green was 38, had spent one season on a major league coaching staff and was walking into an organization that had no idea what it wanted to be. The Padres had just watched Preller’s frantic attempt to build an instant contender flop, and they were about to tear the roster apart and begin a rebuild.

That forced Green to learn how to manage in the majors while also learning Preller, the Padres and a roster that never stopped changing. That doesn’t excuse everything that went wrong. By 2019, Manny Machado had arrived, Fernando Tatis Jr. was in the majors and San Diego expected visible progress. Instead, the Padres went 24-40 after the All-Star break, and Green was fired. The job cooked him. He didn’t have enough respect in the clubhouse, some of it was on him, some was the job itself.

Andy Green finally received the runway Craig Stammen already had

Green’s situation in New York is different because he didn’t arrive as a stranger carrying somebody else’s blueprint. He spent nearly three seasons running the Mets’ player-development operation under president of baseball operations David Stearns. He learned the organization’s language, helped shape its young players and saw how decisions moved from the front office through the farm system. By the time the Mets fired Carlos Mendoza and called Green into the dugout, he already understood how the machine operated.

The results have been respectable, not miraculous. New York was 34-47 when Green took over and went 38-38 under him through September 22. The Mets didn’t become an instant contender. But they at least became functional again. 

Stammen’s path in San Diego carries the same basic idea. He was initially helping the Padres interview managerial candidates when Preller turned the question around and asked whether Stammen wanted the job himself. Stammen didn’t immediately say yes or no. He went home and discussed the demands with his family.

That familiarity matters. Managing is basically middle management with 40,000 people watching. The front office hands down a vision, the players live with the consequences and the manager has to make both sides believe he represents them. Green had to build that credibility from scratch in San Diego. Stammen walked into the job with it.

Preller hiring someone he knows and trusts will always invite questions about independence. There has been plenty of managerial turnover to wonder whether “alignment” is just a cleaner word for obedience. A manager who understands the front office helps. But they have to be one who isn’t afraid to challenge those at the top..

The Padres were 87-69 through September 22, so Stammen's early success is much easier to measure than Green’s stabilization project in New York. But the relationship with Preller will be tested when Stammen disagrees with a roster decision, pushes back on a player-development plan or tells his longtime boss something he doesn’t want to hear.

Green’s Mets contract doesn’t prove the Padres were wrong to fire him. It shows that failure, experience and organizational fit can change the same manager. Green is older now. He spent four seasons as a Cubs bench coach and nearly three more inside the Mets’ front office. Most importantly, New York gave him time to understand its philosophy before asking him to lead it.

Stammen received that same advantage in San Diego. Neither man was desperately trying to become a manager. Both were already serving their organizations when the job found them. That may be the most meaningful similarity of all. 

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