The most interesting candidate to succeed Mike Shildt as Padres manager, at this seemingly early stage?

It’s Ruben Niebla, the team’s pitching coach of the past four years.

I’m surprised to have reached that opinion. Niebla never has managed, nor did he play in the big leagues, and now wouldn’t be the time for a Padres manager to go through profound growing pains. The franchise is in win-now mode.

But Niebla’s expertise at run prevention merits a closer look. Weighing in his favor, he has many relationships within the team. Some of those go beyond the clubhouse. It was Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller who hired Niebla in October 2021, soon before Bob Melvin was hired as manager.

Because he’d never been his team’s top big-league pitching coach, I was surprised how hi

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