Report: Padres hiring former A’s skipper Bob Melvin as manager

Who the heck predicted Bob Melvin as the next manager of the San Diego Padres? Not me. But it looks like that’s the guy the Padres have picked, according to MLB.com’s A.J. Cassavell.

You can watch or listen to my instant reaction to the hiring here!

We all were hearing the names Ron Washington, Mike Scioscia, Buck Showalter, Bruce Bochy, Ozzie Guillen, Mike Schildt, and Luis Rojas. But Bob Melvin? He wasn’t even in the picture because he’s under contract with the Oakland A’s.

He had his 2022 contract option exercised by the A’s in the middle of the 2021 season so there wasn’t a thought that he’d leave the place that he had managed for the last decade.

Melvin certainly fills the boxes that fans were hoping the Padres would check. He has plenty of managing experience, as he’s the winningest manager in Oakland A’s history. He obviously is a players manager or else he wouldn’t have been with the A’s for that long. And even though he hasn’t won a World Series, this move from Oakland to San Diego signifies that he really wants to win a title.

“Bob is my favorite manager I ever played for,” former pitcher Jerry Blevins said of Melvin. “Bob, I’ll tell you, he’s the best I ever coached for,” Ron Washington told The Athletic in May.

I’m still a little puzzled as to why we didn’t hear Melvin’s name come up at all in the manager search and why Oakland allowed him to leave to San Diego when they had him under contract for the 2022 season. Bob Nightengale is reporting that Melvin was “unhappy” in Oakland. Why that is I don’t know but it could be because the team looks like they’re slashing payroll and Melvin obviously doesn’t want to go through a rebuild.