Sad news for San Diego Padres: He will not return..
Notwithstanding missing the 2023 MLB Playoffs, Bob Melvin will rejoin the Padres in 2024 as manager.
The San Diego Padres aren’t contemplating on a leadership change this offseason despite their extremely poor 2023 season in which they missed the playoffs.
On Wednesday, A.J. Preller, president of baseball operations for the Padres, informed media that Bob Melvin will continue to lead the team as manager.
“Both he and I are very excited about the challenges of getting this group back to postseason next year,” stated Preller.
With an 82-80 record at the end, the Padres were two games outside of the National League’s last wild-card place. San Diego’s third winning season in the previous four years required the team to win 14 of its final 16 games, but even that small success seems hollow for a team that had the third-highest payroll in MLB going into the season.
The Padres had high expectations going into this season after an unexpected run to the NLCS in 2022. Manny Machado, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Xander Bogaerts anchored the team’s star-studded squad. San Diego’s combined batting average of.244 placed them 20th in the majors, though.
It comes as a bit of a surprise that Melvin and Preller were retained, as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune revealed that the two of them had “a divide” that has existed since 2022.
“Their communication waned, as they differed over player usage, roster construction and other philosophies,” Acee said. “It was bad enough that several people around the situation had opined they did not think the relationship was salvageable.”
They seem to have figured things out sufficiently now to carry on collaborating. Next season will mark Melvin’s contract’s final year, thus San Diego’s performance will undoubtedly impact whether or not he stays on the team after that.
Nearing his comeback, Manny Machado takes a break from IL to reset
Padres star Manny Machado is considering a return on Friday, but he’s not ruling out anything earlier.
“It might happen tomorrow,” he stated. “I might decide that tomorrow is the day to leave when I wake up. Let’s head out.
Machado, who hasn’t played since being struck by a pitch on May 15 and breaking his left hand’s bone, spoke following his second intense session in three days, during which he took grounders in the field and hit off the batting cage’s velocity machine. For the first time, he intends to repeat the action on Wednesday.
“A couple of days with a high workload… and observe my feelings,” he stated.
Machado admitted that he was still experiencing some hand pain.
It’s okay, he remarked.
“I get back, I want to be 100 percent,” he remarked. “The hand is something that requires perfection all the time. I mean, I use it for everything—hit, catch, and that flick, of course. We played all day. Our hands are used in everything we do. Therefore, you want to be fully recovered as soon as possible to make the process of recovering less painful. The recovery tomorrow is what matters most.
Machado did not use the word “100%” in a literal meaning. His third metacarpal fracture won’t heal completely when
He declared, “I just want to be as close to 100 percent as I can be.” “With baseball like it is, I don’t think I’ll ever be 100 percent again this season. But until that day arrives, just get as near as I can.
With a.231 hitting average and a.654 OPS, Machado was having the worst start to his career. He described going on the injured list for the first time in nine seasons as a kind of reset.
With a smile, he replied, “Definitely.” “I’ve been putting some work into the cage.”
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