Craig Stammen reveals AJ Preller was behind ploy to hire him as Padres manager all along

Craig Stammen didn’t stumble into the manager’s chair. He was walked there, one deliberate step at a time — by the same executive San Diego Padres fans have spent the last decade trying to decode. In a winter full of optics, noise, and “What is AJ cooking now?”, Stammen finally peeled back the curtain and confirmed what many suspected: this wasn’t a panic hire or a leftover option. This was a play years in the making, orchestrated by a GM who decided long ago that the next voice in the Padres dugout was already in their clubhouse.

According to Stammen, AJ Preller wasn’t just involved in the process; he initiated it, pushed it, and framed it as the natural evolution of a relationship that started back in 2017. Long before anyone was talking about managerial searches or culture resets, Preller had quietly tagged Stammen as someone who saw the game the way the front office wanted it played — detail-obsessed, accountable, wired into both analytics and the human side of a 26-man room. By the time the Padres officially pivoted from their previous manager, this wasn’t a wide-open casting call. It was Preller finally cashing in on a bet he’d been sitting on for years.

Craig Stammen details how AJ Preller handpicked him to lead Padres years ago

Stammen admitted he didn’t immediately sprint toward the opportunity. His family was rooted in Ohio, and the idea of signing up for the volatility of a manager’s life — cross-country, high-pressure, under a microscope, wasn’t a simple yes. For a moment, it sounded less like a dream gig and more like a potential fracture line between career and home. 

That hesitation matters, because it undercuts any assumption that this was some ego play or easy promotion. If anything, it reinforces the idea that Preller saw something in Stammen that went beyond availability: a measured, thoughtful presence willing to weigh the cost before grabbing the title.

The turning point came when those family conversations shifted from if to how. Once his family was on board with relocating, the road to the Padres’ dugout stopped being theoretical. Stammen’s role in the organization — first as a trusted veteran reliever, then as a respected voice around the front office, suddenly had a clear final form. What might’ve sounded like surprise news to fans landed for Stammen as the conclusion of a long, evolving dialogue with the GM who’d been nudging him toward leadership for years.

Preller, for his part, comes out of this looking less like a desperate gambler and more like a long-game operator. He didn’t pluck a random familiar face to smooth over criticism; he’d been workshopping this idea, studying how Stammen handled bullpens, media, and teammates, clocking how his voice played in winning and losing rooms. In a franchise constantly accused of chasing the quick fix, this is one move that can be traced back through nearly a decade of relationship-building and internal projection. Right or wrong, this is conviction, not convenience.

Of course, all of this also tightens the rope for everyone involved. If Stammen is “Preller’s guy” by design, then the success or failure of this era is welded directly to the front office’s vision. There’s no hiding behind fluky hires or bad fits. If the culture shifts, if the messaging lands, if the players respond — Preller gets to say he trusted his instincts. If it craters, there’s no shrugging it off as a mismatch. This was his blueprint. His timeline. His manager.

And that’s what makes Stammen’s revelation so fascinating: it reframes the hire from surprise twist to inevitable chapter. The Padres didn’t just hand the keys to a former reliever; they finally followed through on a plan one man has believed in for years. Now the question isn’t whether Stammen was chosen. It’s whether the rest of the organization is ready to live with what that choice reveals about AJ Preller’s grip on the future in San Diego.