Early last season, some Padres players discovered something about a new member of the coaching staff.
It started with someone looking up assistant hitting coach Damion Easley’s statistics from a 17-year major league career. Word spread.
Most of them knew the name, knew he’d played for some time. But Easley retired before all but four current Padres got their first professional paychecks. Craig Stammen, the most experienced among Padres players, made his major league debut on May 21, 2009, eight months after Easley played his final game.
“He was really good,” Greg Garcia said, his earnestness giving away that he wasn’t aware just how true that was until he dove into Easley’s numbers.