A STEADYING INFLUENCE
Padres bench coach Christenson tries to maintain even keel
ATLANTA
If you’re going to fill in for Bob Melvin, managing a team that has already been remade in his image, then you have to do it this way.
“Just continue to be the same presence that I’ve always been in the clubhouse, be a calm demeanor here in the dugout,” Ryan Christenson said. “We’re not panicking, by any means, because Bob’s gone. We’re just gonna keep on doing things as normal, as if he was here, and we’re gonna continue to go out there and play good baseball. It’s still up to the players to go out there and do it. I mean, we’ll make some decisions here and there during the game, but it’s the players’ game.”
These Padres players, who were desperate for and have responded to the steady hand of Melvin, will for at least the next six games be under the charge of his right-hand man, as Melvin recovers from Wednesday’s prostate surgery.
“Obviously Bob is Bob, and the presence he brings is unmatched,” second baseman Jake Cronenworth said. “But if there’s anybody who can step in in
his place, it’s Ryan. He’s been with Bob for forever. We trust those guys the same.”
While one only becomes a Bob Melvin by being Bob Melvin for decades, the point Cronenworth was making is if there was going to be a seamless transition it would be in handing the controls to the guy who has been Melvin’s bench coach since 2018.
“He knows me really well,” Melvin said of Christenson in March.
“Bob and I have similar minds when it comes to the game, and I’ve watched him operate for five years,” Christenson said. “So I know kind of what he’s thinking most of the time. So I think I would have a style similar to his, and I think I would make similar decisions that he would make during the game.”
A big part of Christenson’s job is essentially to manage alongside Melvin before and during games. One man, even one with Melvin’s experience, cannot be familiar with every detail regarding an opponent and anticipate everything that could happen in a game. Christenson is Melvin’s ingame sounding board, which requires a certain amount of proactive thinking.
“I’ve been with him so long that I know that the questions that he asks, so I prepare my card with, like, the answers to the test on them so I can give him his answer in a timely fashion when he does ask them,” Christenson said. “But I pretty much know what he’s gonna want to know throughout the game. … Every once in a while, I’ll make some suggestions that I’ll see maybe coming up or thoughts that I have. But for the most part, he and I have such a familiarity that I know what’s gonna be asked at the beginning of the game.”
The 48-year-old Christenson,
whose acting bench coach will be Ryan Flaherty, managed in the minor leagues for five years before joining Melvin’s staff. That was after the Redlands native played parts of six seasons in the majors from 1998 to 2003.
Melvin on Tuesday called Christenson a “future manager.”
“I’ve never been in a hurry to want to be the manager,” Christenson said. “I’ve enjoyed my time with him. It’s a nice compliment coming from him. … If the opportunity does come eventually, then I’d be open to that, but I’m not that big hurry to want to be a manager. I love the interaction with the players. I like my role with being able to work with the outfielders and the base running and soak up
all the experiences sitting next to Bob and somebody like (third base coach) Matt Williams and just continuing to grow as a coach.”
Part of Christenson’s responsibilities for the Padres is alerting outfielders and baserunners to things that could come up and tendencies of opponents.
“He’s really good at his attention to detail and he notices the little things throughout the games that a lot of people wouldn’t notice,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said. “He does a good job of bringing it up the next day … so when it happens, good or bad, we don’t make the same mistake or we learn from somebody else’s mistake.”
Melvin came to the Padres with a résumé few managers have. But Christenson
has a similar nothing-isever-wrong vibe as his boss, and Padres players have been raving about his insights since the season began.
“It’s more the in-game feel about what’s going on,” Cronenworth said. “Just the day-to-day having a handle on things. Super, super, super smart baseball mind. … He’s very similar to Bob. He’s always got a handle on whatever’s going on ingame. He has the ability to see what’s going to happen to three innings later depending on how the game is going. He’s just always under control in all situations.”
For now, Christenson sees his job as this:
“Hold down the ship.”