The San Diego Padres have fired manager Bud Black after eight long seasons.
Bench coach and former Major Leaguer Dave Roberts assumed head coaching duties for one game before general manager A.J. Preller announced that the team’s Triple-A El Paso affiliate manager Pat Murphy would be named interim manager for the remainder of the season.
Skipper Pat Murphy set to take over the @Padres : http://t.co/MSNpW9LFth pic.twitter.com/lb244ZE6ZH
— MLB (@MLB) June 16, 2015
Preller’s announcement of Murphy’s arrival.
“Pat Murphy’s 30 years of experience coaching and managing, and his success at every level, stood out to me as I came to this decision. His leadership ability, his respect in the clubhouse and his familiarity with our system will make this transition a smooth one for our players and coaching staff.”
Preller on expectations for remainder of season: “To find a way to play better baseball. Find out what this team is all about.” — San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 16, 2015
Regarding Black’s exit, Preller had this to say.
“It wasn’t one magic thing. I made the decision last night and I slept on it. At the end of the day, this was the direction we wanted to go. I’ve evaluated him overall for eight months when I was looking at everything. I’ve seen inconsistencies, ups and downs. This team is not bottoming out or playing poorly. Just too much inconsistency. We have not played to the level we are capable of.”
Currently, the Padres sit in fourth place in the National League West with a record of 32-34. After an offseason that included signing ace James Shields and trading for outfielders Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, and Wil Myers, the ball club has been considered an overwhelming disappointment thus far into the 2015 campaign.
Before his stint in professional baseball began with the Padres in 2010, Murphy was the head coach for the Arizona State Sun Devils for 15 years where he was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year on four separate occasions (2000, 07-09).
As far as what this firing means for Black, baseball lifer and ESPN analyst Buster Olney says he shouldn’t have any problems finding another managerial job some day.
Bud Black will have no problem finding another managerial job. Highly respected within the industry; won’t be assigned any blame for SD ’15.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) June 15, 2015
Here’s what Murphy had to say on the situation.
Murphy on new role: “You have to rely on your staff. We’re going to work on moving the needle in the right direction.”
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 16, 2015
Murphy on next step: “To engage, try to get as much information as I can and hit the ground running.”
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 16, 2015
What baseball fans may find interesting is that the move of replacing Black with Murphy was more than likely going to take place in the near future, regardless of how well the San Diego club performed. According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports , the organization was not willing to let Pat talk with the Milwaukee Brewers about becoming manager when they replaced Ron Roenicke with Craig Counsell earlier in the season.
One Padres official, however, said that the team’s desire to keep Murphy is not a reflection on Black’s status. Rather, the Padres consider Murphy an “impact guy,” even though he is only at Triple-A, the official said.
“(Murphy) must have been made promises — big ones,” the executive said.
It appears those big promises have come to fruition for the Padres new skipper.
(Photo by Rich Pilling/Getty Images)
