Craig Stammen didn’t stumble into the manager’s chair. He was walked there, one deliberate step at a time — by the same executive San Diego Padres fans have spent the last decade trying to decode. In a winter full of optics, noise, and “What is AJ cooking now?”, Stammen finally peeled back the curtain and confirmed what many suspected: this wasn’t a panic hire or a leftover option. This was a play years in the making, orchestrated by a GM who decided long ago that the next voice in the Padres dugout was already in their clubhouse.
According to Stammen, AJ Preller wasn’t just involved in the process; he initiated it, pushed it, and framed it as the natural evolution of a relationship that started back in 2017.