Tingler already changing rookie narrative after just three games
Who could have predicted that a global pandemic would provide a softer, safer landing pad for first-year Padres manager Jayce Tingler?
Fewer will blink at rough patches in a season like no other, where 60 games attempt to do the work of 162. Potential criticisms will be muted because of the oddness swirling around everyone in a game with designated hitters galore, playoff spots sprouting like dandelions and COVID-19 pitching in to write lineup cards.
More time away from the field meant increased chances to dive into deeper conversations with players as Tingler attempted to polish the corners of fresh relationships.
The uniqueness of the start and circumstances are showing early, even after the first loss of the season — a 4-3, come-from-ahead setback Sunday against the Diamondbacks at Petco Park.
“We’ll self-reflect (later),” Tingler said.
Pending that, let’s pinch-hit to reflect a bit now.
The smallest of sample sizes in a season of particularly small size itself left the Padres one swing or perhaps one pitch or even one fewer Diamondbacks defensive gem from being 3-0 — holding down the distinction of being baseball’s last unbeaten for about two hours. Who had that in the office pool? The button-pushing pluses and minuses continue to stack up in Tingler’s early favor.
Parking newcomer Jurickson Profar in the cleanup spot on opening day, despite the big checks roaming the clubhouse, displayed an instinct that paid off with two walks and two runs. Bringing in submarining lefty Tim Hill against Kole Calhoun on Sunday squelch
ed a key two-on threat to protect a fragile 1-0 lead in the sixth.
A gutsy double steal with two on and two outs in the seventh amped up the pressure on the Diamondbacks with dependable contact hitter Tommy Pham at the plate.
Pinch-running freshfaced Jake Cronenworth for Eric Hosmer in the eighth led to a run on Greg Garcia’s single.
Nothing shouts louder about the road map Tingler has drawn out offensively than plate discipline that, for the Padres, has been as rare as hail in Tahiti in recent years. The patient at-bats continued Sunday, as Trent Grisham, Pham, Profar and Hosmer all logged full-count walks.
Hosmer’s was particularly impressive, starting in an 0-2 hole as the Padres trailed by one in the eighth.
“He’s a professional,” said Garrett Richards, Sunday’s starter who painted a onehitter through his five innings. “He lets the veteran guys and really the whole team for that to be said. He
gives you the freedom to act as a professional. … We all have a tremendous amount of respect for him in that aspect, because, I think when a manager is too involved, it rubs guys the wrong way.
“I think the way the team’s going about it, it’s perfect. He’s our guy.”
Someone could quibble about using closer Kirby Yates in a no-save situation Saturday after he surrendered the pair of runs that flipped the script in the ninth. The fact the Padres initially weighed whether to go with an “opener” in the series finale today created questions about burning through seven arms to chase Game 3 limiting bullets for Game 4.
In the end, though, Tingler seemed in calm and confident control — piling up far more smart decisions than not. You felt miles more confident about an organizational gamble on a firsttime manager than you did, well, three games ago.
Last week, MLB Network studio host and ESPN playby-play voice Matt Vasgersian tweaked a dusty narrative from the spring.
“Nobody knows what Jayce Tingler is going to turn into, right?” Vasgersian said. “We’re starting from scratch with a guy nobody knows much about. There was a time when Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa were relatively unknown managerial commodities. I went back in the case of La Russa, if you look at the things that were written and said about him when he got his first job with the White Sox, they’re very similar to things that are said and written about new managers hired today with whom there’s not a lot of familiarity.
“I’m not saying word for word what’s being said about Jayce is what was said about Tony, but the feel is similar. Good with players. Good communicator. Baseball IQ off the charts. He checks all those boxes.
“Jayce Tingler could turn into one of those guys who sticks around for years and years and years.”
The instinct to roll the eyes a bit on that rah-rah appraisal without an inning under Tingler’s belt evaporated against a talented Diamondbacks lineup.
Asked earlier to gauge whether there’s more or less pressure in his unique managerial
start, Tinger paused.
“I don’t think it takes pressure off, by any means,” he said. “The pressure and the sense to perform, one could make the case each game can be valued three times (as much) or around that number.
“We’re not going to stress over it.”
There’s truth in Tingler’s wacky 2020 baseball math. In sum, though, it probably could not have worked out better for employer and employee as the Padres rolled the dice on a relative unknown who immediately became one of the youngest in the game.
Tingler appears more comfortable than many might expect, especially given that his introductory news conference came off a bit frayed around the edges.
“We are preparing to go be a playoff team and do damage throughout the playoffs,” Tingler said as the season approached.
At that point, it seemed like a guy simply saying the right thing.
A few games into the strangest of seasons, you just might start to believe him.