The Padres dismissed Bud Black after eight-plus seasons, and San Diego announced that it will begin a search for an interim manager for the rest of the 2015 campaign. Bench coach Dave Roberts will guide the team, which is 32-33 and in third place in the National League West, until it makes a decision.This year, after a feverish offseason spree that saw the Padres add Matt Kemp and Justin Upton, among others, Black lasted just 65 games.
"It's not like the team has bottomed out," general manager A.J. Preller said in a media session at Petco Park. "It's not that we're playing poorly or anything like that. But I think we've all seen some of the inconsistencies -- the ups and the downs with this team. We're just really just looking for a situation here in the next month or so where we start to play at the level that we've shown we're capable of."
Preller said the team will talk to internal candidates before settling on an interim manager for the remainder of the 2015 season. He expects that decision to come "in the next 24-48 hours." Roberts and Triple-A manager Pat Murphy would appear to be two of the leading candidates.Black, who logged a 649-713 record during his tenure, began managing the Padres in 2007 and delivered an 89-74 record and a third-place finish that season. After leading the Padres to 90 victories in 2010, Black was named the NL Manager of the Year, but the team had just two winning records under his stewardship. San Diego finished in second place in the NL West in 2010, but it never made the playoffs under Black. The Padres finished in third place in each of the past two seasons."Obviously it's a really tough call," Preller said. "Buddy is a tremendous person, a good baseball guy, he's got a tremendous family. I grew to like him and had a lot of respect for him throughout the process. But ultimately we're trying to get this team in a better position. And I felt like making the change in the managing style was a way."Black, 57, first broke into the big leagues as a pitcher. The left-hander pitched 15 seasons in the Majors and registered a 121-116 record with a 3.84 ERA in 398 appearances (296 starts), pitching for five teams -- Kansas City, San Francisco, Cleveland, Seattle and Toronto.The southpaw worked as both a reliever and a starter, but he had five seasons when he started at least 30 games. Black's best season came in 1984, when he went 17-12 with a 3.12 ERA in 35 starts for the Royals. He also delivered back-to-back seasons with 200-plus innings pitched in 1989 and '90.Following his pitching career, Black spent time in Cleveland's front office as assistant to the general manager and later served as the pitching coach for Triple-A Buffalo. Black took over as the Angels' pitching coach in 2000 and helped preside over a rotation that helped win the 2002 World Series.The Padres went 88-74 and won the NL West in 2006, the season before Black came aboard, and he led them to season-long contention in his first year. The Padres won 89 games and finished third, but they were just 1 1/2 games out of first and a half-game behind Colorado, the NL Wild Card team.San Diego fell back in the next two seasons, winning just 63 games in 2008 and 75 in '09. The Padres were right in the thick of things again in 2010, though, and they were in first place as late as Sept. 22, but the Giants edged them out and went on to win the World Series.The Padres won just 71 games in 2011 and then 76 in '12 and '13. Black, who was one of the longest-tenured managers in the league, led San Diego to 77 wins last season.
Spencer Fordin/ MLB.com
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