One of Bob Melvin’s trusted lieutenants will join the manager in San Diego. The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reports (via Twitter) that the Padres will hire Ryan Christenson as their new bench coach. Christenson worked as Melvin’s bench coach with the Athletics for the last four seasons.
Christenson has longstanding ties to Oakland, working as a minor league manager from 2013-2017 and also playing for the A’s from 1998-2001 after being drafted by the club in 1995. The 47-year-old saw MLB action with four different teams during his six seasons in the Show, and while he played 60 games with the Rangers in 2003, this was just a year before Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller was initially hired to join the Texas organization.
The firing of manager Jayce Tingler following the season also led to an overhaul of the Padres’ coaching staff. Along with Christenson, Ruben Niebla is the new pitching coach, Michael Brdar the new hitting coach and Francisco Cervelli was hired as a catching coach. According to Lin, the Padres will announce their full slate of coaches next week.
With Christenson now moving on, the A’s have one less internal option to consider as Melvin’s replacement. Christenson had been mentioned as a possible candidate as Oakland’s next skipper, and he also interviewed for the Pirates’ last managerial vacancy back in October 2019. There has been very little public buzz about the Athletics’ managerial search, but with all other baseball business on hold due to the lockout, the team has been expected to now turn its full attention to finding a new bench boss.
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