Padres’ early Craig Stammen lineups show he learned from last year’s biggest warning sign

Padres fans aren’t wrong to groan at some of Craig Stammen’s lineups. There are nights when the card drops and it looks like San Diego voluntarily made life harder on itself. Miguel Andujar at third. Bryce Johnson in center. Sung-Mun Song at short. A star at DH. Another star on the bench. 

Stammen’s early managerial style hasn’t been perfect. It would take a lot to read in between the lines and see a grand tactical revelation.. But one thing is already pretty clear. He’s managing the early season like someone who remembers how the Padres ran out of steam late last year. Or, at the very least, like someone who understands the regular season cannot become a slow-drip test in exhaustion.

The easy read is that Stammen values rest. But there’s more nuance to it. This is about a first-year manager being willing to lose the nightly optics battle for what he believes is the season-long benefit.

San Diego doesn't need its prettiest lineup every night in the first 60 games. It needs Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts still looking like themselves when the division race gets nasty.

Craig Stammen’s lineup strategy gives the Padres a better chance to stay fresh

Stammen’s approach is more interesting than a typical manager discussion. The Padres’ best lineup doesn’t involve stars cycling through DH days and bench nights while depth pieces take important at-bats. If the team is playing a must-win game, we know who fans want on the field. 

But baseball isn’t built around must-win games in April and May. It’s a 162 game grind. Filled with soreness, recovery, travel, weird start times, day games after night games, and the slow creep of fatigue that nobody wants to talk about.

That is the trap Stammen seems determined to avoid. Last year, the Padres had enough talent to win, but by the time the games got heavier, it was fair to wonder whether the core had been asked to carry too much for too long. 

Stammen has decided not to wait until bodies are barking and breaking down. He’s baking it in early and giving Bogaerts, Merrill and Tatis chances to get off their feet before the season starts collecting interest.

The Padres’ fan base doesn’t have to love a watered-down lineup. Fans are allowed to want the best players playing every night. That’s the whole point of having stars. Nobody buys a ticket hoping to see the “responsible workload management” lineup. 

But the manager’s job is not to win the lineup-card screenshot. It’s to manage the season.

That’s where Stammen deserves some credit. He has shown an early willingness to take the short-term heat. That’s nothing to sneeze at for a first-time manager, especially in a market that is not exactly patient and a division that does not give out charity wins.

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