Mark McGwire departing Padres’ staff

SAN DIEGO — The Padres are adding bench coach to their offseason to-do list.

Mark McGwire has informed the team he is leaving his post to spend more time with his family, the UnionTribune confirmed.

MLB.com first reported that McGwire was departing Andy Green’s coaching staff. The Padres are also looking for replacements for hitting coach Matt Stairs and infield coach Josh Johnson, both of whom were let go earlier this month.

The three coaching vacancies present the Padres with opportunities to fill the positions from within. Triple-A El Paso’s Rod Barajas had managed 25 of the 33 players on the active roster at season’s end at some point in the previous three years and is thought of highly in the organization, as is Triple-A hitting coach Morgan Burkhart.

“We are definitely looking internal,” Green said Tuesday.

He added: “I think it actually creates greater continuity for our organizational guys.”

McGwire, 55, joined the Padres staff in December 2015 after general manager A.J. Preller hired Green as his manager.

The former USC slugger retired as a player after the 2001 season after hitting 583 homers in 16 big-league seasons. After years of speculation fueled by his appearance in a congressional hearing on steroids, McGwire admitted steroid use before becoming the Cardinals’ hitting coach in 2010 and spent three years there before serving in the same capacity with the Dodgers from 2013 to 2015.