How The Padres Are Re-Defining Coaching Roles in 2024
Twenty-eight major league teams will enter the 2024 season with a bench coach. It's an important role, historically defined as the right-hand man to the manager. Pregame planning, developing tactical strategies, and assisting with in-game decision making all fall to the bench coach. Typically, he assumes the manager's job in case the manager is ejected during a game.
The San Diego Padres are one of two teams that will not employ a bench coach this year.
The Milwaukee Brewers are the other, but identifying the man who will fill the traditional bench coach's job description is easy. The reason Rickie Weeks is an "associate manager" to Pat Murphy — not a "bench coach" — was an intentional shift away from a traditional title.
As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported in November:
Exactly who will execute the bench coach's function in San Diego is less obvious. Dennis Lin of The Athletic explained how it will work:
Shildt said that in the event of his ejection from a game, Esposito would oversee in-game decisions. Barba is expected to handle much of the administrative responsibilities that often fall to major-league bench coaches, including the coordination of spring training workouts and communication with grounds crews and other teams.
Esposito, Niebla, bullpen coach Ben Fritz, first base coach David Macias and coaching assistants Peter Summerville, Heberto Andrade and Morgan Burkhart are returning from the Padres’ 2023 staff. Barba and assistant hitting coaches Mike McCoy and Pat O’Sullivan were promoted from the organization’s farm system, with Shildt touting the value of “continuity” for a franchise that could debut more than a couple of prospects this season. The Padres, meanwhile, added two external hires: former Cleveland Guardians assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez as lead hitting coach, and former Toronto Blue Jays first base coach Tim Leiper as third base coach.
The Padres' decision to go without a bench coach makes sense in the context of other cost-cutting moves offseason. One coaching position won't save nearly as much money as trading Juan Soto, or allowing pitchers Blake Snell, Josh Hader, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha to leave in free agency.
However, it could help the Padres comply with MLB's debt service rule, which the San Diego Union-Tribune reported was behind the team's pending payroll downsizing.
It's also true that coaches' and executives' titles don't always hold the same definitions in today's game as they did in the past. Prior to the 2022 season, the Dodgers named game planning/coordination coach Danny Lehmann their bench coach and shifted veteran bench coach Bob Geren to the title of field coordinator.
However, Lehmann said in a 2023 interview that his and Geren's roles on the coaching staff were essentially unchanged.
Whether the Padres are at the vanguard of innovative coaching staff structures or merely innovative cost-cutting maneuvers is beside the point. So long as the coaches are able to provide the support the players need in 2024, their decision to eliminate the bench coach's job will be heralded as a success.
