Padres sack Canadian hitting coach Stairs

The San Diego Padres have fired hitting coach Matt Stairs after one year on the job as the team continued to rank at the bottom of the majors in key offensive stats. The rebuilding Padres finished last in the NL West at 66-96, five losses worse than 2017. Stairs, from Saint John, N.B., spent the 2017 season as the hitting coach for the Philadelphia Phillies, his first professional coaching position. He played parts of 19 seasons in the major leagues with 12 different franchises, including the Montreal Expos (1992-93), Toronto Blue Jays (2007-08) and the Padres (2010).