How did this happen? The Padres have the most talented baseball organization in human history. They had the resources and “payroll flexibility” to add Manny Machado in the offseason. They’ve debuted some sharp pitchers and perhaps a generational talent in Fernando Tatis Jr. This was supposed to be a team on the rise.
We don’t really know how much a manager influences the outcome of a given game. We can assume based on anecdotal evidence — what players say, what analysts say, every baseball game we’ve ever watched — that individual decisions might not amount to a game-saving move, but the cumulative effect of an individual’s decision-making process might reveal itself over the course of the season.