Bob Melvin, who is dressed in orange and black this spring, has had a rollercoaster last couple of years.
In 2022, his first season in San Diego, Melvin led the Padres to the franchise's first National League Championship Series appearance since 1998. The Padres took down the 101-win Mets in New York and then slayed Goliath, the 111-win Dodgers, en route to the NLCS.
Then Year 2 happened.
The Padres, who entered the season with apparent momentum and red-hot expectations, resembled a smoldering heap of ash. Melvin's role in the Padres' 82-win season was mostly glossed over in the late-season postmortems, and few outsiders would have batted an eye if Melvin returned.
The late team chairman, Peter Seidler, had given Melvin his blessing. However, general manager A.J. Preller and Melvin didn't see eye-to-eye.
That's when Preller told Melvin the Giants called and asked permission to interview him for their manager job.
“We started talking about some of the things going forward and it became apparent to both of us that there was still going to be some conflict.
“Me on a one-year contract, anything that went wrong, there was going to be drama again. There was tons of drama leading up to the end of the season, so how was that going to affect the team moving forward?”
Melvin takes responsibility for the team not getting the job done under his leadership last year but it also took him a long time to get over the split from the Padres.
He tried to keep a consistent regimen that worked in 2022 but couldn't — or didn't — push the right buttons in 2023.
“We tried to embrace it. In the end, we just couldn’t sustain anything. All that starts to play on you a little bit. Are we handling it wrong? At least it did for me. Should we try to do things wholesale differently based on the way we executed the year before?
“I pushed back (on Preller) and got cranky near the end. I don’t feel good about that.”
As Melvin moves forward in his return home to the Bay Area, he hopes San Diego fans remember his legacy fondly from 2022. Eliminating the rival Dodgers in the first round of the postseason, and seeing fans rally behind the team, is a moment he will never forget.
“Watching the reaction of the fans when we beat the Dodgers that night (to go to the NLCS), that’s about, other than winning a World Series, as special a thing as I’ve ever seen. That, I’ll never forget. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
As the Padres begin their Cactus League schedule Thursday, it's time to officially move on, embrace the Mike Shildt chapter of franchise history, and wish Melvin the best of luck in San Francisco.
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