SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres fired Jayce Tingler, who presided over the biggest meltdown in franchise history just one season after finishing second in the voting for NL Manager of the Year.
President of baseball operations and general manager AJ Preller announced the move Wednesday, three days after the Padres finished 79-83 and in third place in the NL West, 28 games behind the San Francisco Giants. Tingler will have the opportunity to remain in the organization.
“Jayce accomplished a lot in his two seasons with the Padres, leading our team through an unprecedented pandemic and into the postseason for the first time in 15 years,” Preller said in a statement. “I have great respect for him as a coach, colleague and friend. After much thought and consideration over the past few weeks, we felt a change was needed at this point to finally reach our championship potential in San Diego.”
Tingler’s fate was sealed during a brutal free fall that saw the Padres go from a one-game lead for second place in the NL wild card on Sept. 9 to being eliminated from playoff contention with seven games to play. . The Padres achieved their 10th losing record in 11 seasons.
Tingler was 116-106 overall in two seasons.
Tingler had no previous managerial experience above the rookie-level ball and stints in various Dominican leagues before being hired on October 28, 2019 by Preller, a friend from their time together in the Texas Rangers organization.
Tingler led the Padres to a 37-23 record in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and their first playoff appearance in 13 years. They beat the St. Louis Cardinals in a wild-card series before being swept in the divisional series by eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Led by superstars Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny machado, and with a payroll of $ 175 million, the Padres entered this season with World Series aspirations and played arrogantly until several problems arose during the second half, on the field and in the clubhouse.
Although Tatis remains a favorite for the National League MVP award, he was bothered by a recurring injury to his left shoulder and he was even moved to the outfield for a time in an attempt to reduce his exposure to injuries.
The Padres failed to land a starter on the trade deadline and then saw their rotation decimated by injuries from Yu darvish, Blake snell and Chris paddack, no depth available to complete.
There were reports that some players were unhappy that the Padres tried to switch to first base. Eric Hosmer on the deadline. Later, reports emerged that some players had come to Preller to express their dissatisfaction with the work Tingler was doing.
In an impressive dugout fight on September 18, Machado cursed and yelled at Tatis and had to be separated from him by his teammates and a coach. The dispute came after Tatis struck out looking and later argued for referee Phil Cuzzi’s decision. Tingler had been sent off when he came out to argue on behalf of Tatis and was not on the bench when the superstars clashed.
Tingler is the fourth coach Preller has fired in his more than seven seasons. He fired veteran foreman Bud Black in June 2015 and replaced him with interim manager Pat Murphy, who was not retained. Preller then hired the relatively unknown Andy Green, who had no major league coaching experience, although he had been a third-base coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks for a season after managing four seasons on their farm system. Green was fired with eight games remaining in the 2019 season after the team collapsed in the second half. He was 274-366 overall.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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