Padres actually make a decent coaching hire in former Dodgers speedster

No one ever expected Tim Locastro to be a superstar. After the Blue Jays traded him to the Dodgers for three international signing slots, he performed well in LA's minor league system but was never a top prospect, and he appeared in all of 21 games in two seasons with the Dodgers, mostly as a pinch-runner. He only collected two hits in Dodger blue before he was DFA'ed after 2018 season.

He managed to parlay his speed and make it onto a few more major league rosters over the next six years, hopping from the Diamondbacks to the Yankees to the Mets. He made his last major league appearance on Oct. 1, 2023, when he collected his second home run of the season — only the ninth of his entire career, and the only run New York scored in a 9-1 blowout against the Phillies — before electing free agency.

He tried to keep his career alive in 2024 and 2025, signing with the Padres on two minor-league deals, but he sneakily called it quits this offseason. He'll be staying within the Padres organization as a baserunning and outfield coordinator.

Former Dodgers outfielder Tim Locastro joins Padres as baserunning and outfield coordinator

The Padres have made a couple of questionable coaching hires this offseason. After Mike Shildt retired because people were being mean to him, they hired former player and first-time manager Craig Stammen after they failed to recruit Albert Pujols for the job. Stammen has built up his coaching staff slowly but surely; his hires include another former Dodger in Steven Souza Jr., who has zero coaching experience up to this point.

Locastro was probably operating as something of a player-coach when he was in the Padres' minor league system. Like Souza, his career was mostly unremarkable and he has no formal coaching experience, but at least Locastro has a fun record to his name: most stolen bases to begin a career without being caught. From 2017 to 2021, he was 31-for-34 on stolen bags.

The Padres still feel like they're starting from scratch in a lot of ways, at least with the coaching staff, which is now loaded with first-timers who, in a lot of cases, aren't that much older than the guys they're coaching (Locastro and Manny Machado overlapped on the Dodgers in 2018).

Second, third, and fourth place in the NL West might be a crapshoot with the Padres, Giants, and Diamondbacks all doing very little to even try to make up the difference between themselves and the Dodgers this offseason. San Diego still has a very good chance at getting back to the postseason, but it's still hard to see how they end up competing with the Dodgers in a serious way.