He is back, the San Diego Padres have just announced the return of their former head coach

He is back, the San Diego Padres have just announced the return of their former head coach

SAN DIEGO On Thursday, Bob Melvin announced his return to the San Diego Padres as manager, saying he was “looking forward to having a much better year than we had this year.”

Following the most disappointing season in franchise history, Melvin will return for the final season of his contract, general manager A.J. Preller confirmed on Wednesday. However, Melvin was unavailable for comment at the time since he was moving his off-season residence.

 

Obviously, we had a really difficult year, and not everyone is happy about it, Melvin said over the phone to The Associated Press. We certainly hope for a year in ’22 that is more like the year before rather than ’23, and I am grateful for the support I continue to receive from our owner, Peter Seidler, and our big league personnel. We’re excited to get back to our spring training and work at it.

The Padres finished 82-80 this year and missed the playoffs after winning the NL Championship Series the previous fall. Although they possessed a star-studded lineup and the third-highest payroll in baseball on opening day—roughly $258 million—they had underperformed nearly the whole season and were only mathematically alive until last Friday night. They hadn’t been above.500 since early May onward.

Melvin’s comeback coincides with claims that his relationship with Preller had reached an irreversible point.

Melvin remarked, “Those are anonymous reports, so we’re fine, we’re moving forward, and we’re both excited about it.”

When asked if there were any issues that needed to be resolved, he responded, “Look, you talk about a lot of things in those meetings throughout the season, and nobody agrees on everything, and I think that’s healthy.” That is the furthest I will go with it.

On Monday, Melvin and Preller took part in organizational meetings. “As we do, you go home and you process things and you think about more things that you can do to try to get past what we thought the deficiencies were and how to make it better,” Melvin said.

Under Preller’s leadership, Melvin has led the Padres to their first NLCS appearance since 1998 and the only two winning records in a complete season.

As a major league manager, Melvin concluded his second season with San Diego and his 20th overall. Three times, he has been selected Manager of the Year, winning in both leagues. With three teams, he is 1,517-1,425 overall with eight postseason appearances.

When asked on Wednesday if there had been discussions with Melvin about a contract extension, Preller declined to answer.