Padres hire former forgettable Dodger as hitting coach on new 2026 staff

Watching the Padres flail is becoming a time-honored offseason tradition for Dodgers fans. Last year, they were embroiled in what seemed like a pretty ugly ownership battle, lost out on the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes, and barely signed anyone. So far this year, the Seidlers are exploring a sale of the team, and Mike Shildt might've quit because Padres fans were mean to him.

They've since found a replacement for Shildt in former pitcher and first-time skipper Craig Stammen, who retired after the 2022 season.

Stammen made his first two hires on Monday: former Nationals first base coach Randy Knorr as bench coach, and former outfielder Steven Souza Jr., who also retired from playing in 2022, as hitting coach. Stammen and Souza overlapped for a spell on the Nationals in 2014.

Souza spent one of his eight years in the major leagues with the Dodgers back in 2021. If you don't remember him, that's understandable; he only played in 17 games between trips back to Oklahoma City and then made the postseason roster, for some reason.

He has a year of front office experience since retiring, as a special assistant for the Rays, whom he spent three seasons with. He has zero coaching experience.

Padres hire former Dodgers outfielder Steven Souza Jr. as hitting coach

Souza hit .229 with a .729 OPS in 505 major league games and was only a true everyday player for one season in 2017, when he put together a 30-homer year. He hit .152 with a .556 OPS in his 17 regular season games with the Dodgers, then .125 with a .347 OPS in the postseason.

Everyone's gotta start somewhere, we guess, and maybe the Padres hope that they have a Steven Vogt situation on their hands with Stammen, but there are far more reasons to be skeptical than hopeful for the Padres' outlook in 2026.

In 2025, AJ Preller did what he does best and gutted the top of their prospect pipeline to trade for Mason Miller. The Padres failed to take the division from the Dodgers despite getting close a few times, and then they made fools of themselves after getting bounced by the Cubs in the Wild Card. Then Shildt quit, and then the Seidlers opened up the possibility of selling the team.

San Diego does still have an offensive core in Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Xander Bogaerts that shouldn't be underestimated, but it's hard to see how they get better with a career .229 hitter as their new hitting coach.