This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell's Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SAN DIEGO -- Eleven years ago, the tenor of the Padres started to change. Also-rans in the National League for the better part of a decade, they made a statement during the 2014-15 offseason -- trade after trade, signing after signing.
Bud Black, the manager of the Padres at the time, had a front-row seat to the team’s first offseason under general manager A.J. Preller.
“He came out hot,” Black said last week. “And, really, he hasn’t stopped. That’s the thing that’s been impressive.”
It didn’t work out that year. The 2015 season was largely a disaster and Black was fired midseason. The bulk of that core was traded elsewhere the following year, as the Padres embarked on a rebuild that would yield much better results.
The one piece from that 2015 team to stick around for the long haul? Wil Myers.
Now, both Black and Myers are back in the organization. The team announced their hirings last week, with Black set to serve as a special advisor in baseball operations and Myers as a special assignment coach in player development.
I can’t think of many people who have better perspective of the organizational turnaround than these two. Black spent nine seasons at the helm of the Padres, then managed against them in the same division for nine seasons with the Rockies. Myers played eight seasons in San Diego -- a star on some bad teams and a role player on some very good ones.
“To see what [the Padres] have become, it’s really cool,” Myers said. “And it’s really cool now to kind of see that and work as a coach, work to try to continue to build what was going on then. It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s really cool to see what obviously [beloved late owner] Peter [Seidler] was able to build in San Diego.
“It’s weird to say it’s come full circle, but it kind of has, as I’m here now, helping on the coaching side.”
The roles for Myers and Black are wide-ranging and largely undefined. Black will work more with the Major League group. He offered himself as “a sounding board” for first-time manager Craig Stammen. He’ll have a voice in the front office as well.
Myers, meanwhile, expects to contribute on the Minor League side, working with the organization’s hitters. He’ll travel to Padres affiliates across the Minors and speak with those young hitters. Having covered Myers during his eight seasons, I suspect he’ll have plenty to say.
“With Wil, I think there’s a side of him that players can easily relate to, because I do think he’ll be open and honest with them as far as the trials and tribulations that players go through,” Black said.
Myers endured his share of trials and tribulations in San Diego. A top Draft pick, a highly ranked prospect, a big contract -- and then … struggles. It was always plain to me that when Myers wasn’t performing, he wore it hard.
Maybe too hard, sometimes. Baseball can be an unforgiving game. For Myers, there are lessons from his career that he’d like to impart on the next generation of Padres. That’s why he got back into this (after spending the past two years mostly rotating between dad duty and the golf course).
“I think every player, when they’re done, thinks about some things that could have helped them in a time where they were struggling,” Myers said. “I think it would be cool to be able to express those things to some of the players.”
Myers hasn’t been back to San Diego since his departure after the 2022 season. (When the Reds came to town in ’23, Myers was sidelined with COVID.) He says he expects that to change this year, though he’s not sure when. In typical self-deprecating fashion, Myers noted, “it’d be great to come back; I don’t know if I’d be recognized.”
Oh, he’d be recognized. Myers never quite lived up to the lofty expectations. He’s still beloved for his tenure in San Diego. That tenure, of course, ended with a run to the NLCS in 2022 and an upset of the Dodgers in the NLDS -- after which Myers and his wife were spotted buying a round of drinks for everyone at a downtown bar.
Myers revealed last week that single round cost him $1,000 -- “obviously that’s nothing compared to being able to celebrate with those fans,” he said.
Indeed, Myers has seen a lot in San Diego, the good times and the bad. Black, too. I think both hires are fantastic from a baseball standpoint. But as much as anything, those two will bring some excellent perspective on the organization as a whole -- and how much it’s evolved over the past two decades.