Jon Heyman tweets that the Padres are letting manager Jayce Tingler go
MLB Rumors: Jayce Tingler and the San Diego Padres are parting ways, according to Jon Heyman, who says that the Padres manager “will be relieved of managerial duties” after San Diego’s disappointing 2021 campaign. While Heyman doesn’t specify the timing of the move, his wording suggests that Tingler may finish out the year — of course, with this news coming out now, the Padres may decide to just rip the bandaid off rather than wait until after tomorrow’s season finale.
This is potentially meaningful for Rangers fans — Tingler was acquired as a minor league player in the 2005 minor league Rule 5 Draft, and he started coaching in the organization in 2007. He spent time as a minor league coach and manager in the Rangers’ organization, was the Minor League Field Coordinator from 2012-14, was the team’s Major League Field Coordinator in 2015 and 2016, then became an Assistant General Manager after the 2016 season.
Tingler finished out the 2018 season as the major league bench coach for the Rangers for the final couple of weeks after Jeff Banister was fired, interviewed for the managerial job, and when he did not get that position, became the Major League Player Development Field Coordinator for the 2019 season.
It was after the 2019 season that Tingler was hired by his former colleague with the Rangers, A.J. Preller, to become the manager of the San Diego Padres. Tingler oversaw a squad that went 37-23 in 2020, won their Wild Card series against the St. Louis Cardinals, but then was swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS. Expected to vie with the Dodgers in 2021 for the N.L. West division title, as well as the claim of being the best team in baseball after a series of splashy offseason moves, the Padres got off to a slow start to the season, heated up in the summer, and then cratered over the final seven weeks of the 2021 campaign. San Diego had a 67-49 record on August 10, but has gone 11-33 since, and there have been reports of Tingler losing the clubhouse, as well as being the recipient of the players’ unhappiness with g.m. Preller, with Tingler being seen as Preller’s guy and essentially an extension of the g.m.
Tingler was very well-regarded within the Rangers’ organization at the time he was hired away by the Padres, and I suspect that Texas will look to bring him back into the fold once he is officially on the market again.
UPDATE — The Padres say that they haven’t made up their mind yet and so maybe he won’t be fired:
“Per A.J. Preller, no decision has been made on Jayce (Tingler’s) employment status at this time,” a Padres spokesperson says. “Heyman’s report is completely premature. He will be managing our game today.”
— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) October 2, 2021