The Padres on Wednesday hired Dave Cameron as senior analyst -- research and development, as the organization continues to expand its reach in that department.
Cameron, who is a much-respected figure in the analytics community, had been with FanGraphs since 2008 and served most recently as its managing editor.
In a farewell column on Wednesday, Cameron explained his decision.
"I definitely wasn't looking to leave FanGraphs," Cameron wrote. "This place was home. But when [Padres general manager] A.J. Preller called to gauge my interest in working for their organization, I was intrigued by the thought of a new challenge. When I met with [Padres manager] Andy Green, I was inspired to think about the possibilities of using analysis to help players improve on the field. And while I will always love FanGraphs and the people here, the opportunity to help continue to build a winning organization in San Diego was one I did not want to pass up."
Green has embraced analytics in his time as both a Major League coach with the D-backs and his first two seasons as manager of the Padres.
"I was familiar with his work as many in the industry were just from articles that I saw," Green said. "I always thought his insights were impressive, and we're excited to add him to the organization."
Cameron's addition follows a trend of big league teams hiring people from websites that provide a look at the analytics side of baseball.
The World Series champion Astros as well as the Cubs have hired people from backgrounds like Cameron's to be a part of their baseball operations departments.The Red Sox were early pioneers when they hired Bill James, widely regarded as the founder of modern day analytics, in 2002.
"There are things you can only learn about baseball working on that side of the fence," Cameron wrote. "While an outsider's perspective can be helpful in keeping a big picture view of the game, there is so much information being collected and analyzed by Major League organizations that just won't make its way into the public realm. For me, this feels like the right time to make that jump, to go see things from another perspective, and to learn about the parts of baseball that we don't get out here."