Ruben Niebla

Yeah.

Working with Ruben Niebla, assuming he doesn't become a manager somewhere else.

What you have going for you with Michael King is he clearly likes it here.

And based on what we heard from him last year, doesn't love the free agency routine experience.

One other note on Morejon, you touched on what Stammen said.

Ruben Niebla, the Padres' pitching coach, had a, had a little media session inside the locker room.

Right.

He mentioned the word fatigue.

I guarantee you he knows about the tipping thing.

I'm sure New- Neil, uh, uh, Ruben Niebla knows about the tipping thing.

What it do, Neil, Neely Kat? What up, Neil Kat? I don't, Affie, I don't think we're gonna see anybody get thrown at.

I don't think we're gonna see that.

I thought this was the first time I saw Craig Stammen panic.

This was the first time I thought Ruben Niebla panicked.

I don't know whose decision that is, finally, and we'll never know.

So, therefore, it's the manager's.

Because the guys who he got out the first time, the first three outs, those were the guys who got him on the back end.

So...

As we all sit here frustrated, as we all sit here looking for answers, my opinion is that Craig Stammen and Ruben Niebla panicked.

And whoever's decision it was to not trust what you've done all year long, you may have shaken the confidence in the bullpen.

Obviously, you've got Mierzowski in game one, who's a great pitcher.

Top to bottom, they're a solid, solid team." "The key," says Ruben Niebla, Padres pitching coach and associate manager, "is keeping their leadoff hitters off base." Peter Crow Armstrong, who will likely be the unanimous NL MVP, reached base once the entire series on a walk.

Alex Bregman never reached base at all.

"They're a dangerous team," Niebla said of the Brewers.

He asked a bunch of questions, but he says, "Should we be concerned about losing Ruben Diebla to other teams that are firing their managers?" I didn't get a chance to talk about this more in full before.

Um, it's definitely something to keep an eye on I think for the off-season, what they do with Ruben Niebla, what they do with their managing staff in general, um, what they're able to do.

Because baseball's gonna be at a, a, a crapshoot this off-season with the potential impending lockout, and I am wondering if Ruben Niebla, while I haven't heard nothing but that he loves it here and all that stuff, if he was running for the manager position.

It's fair for me as just a background observer to be like, "For you to run for manager and be, like, a candidate for it," I don't know what went down behind the scenes.

I don't know how the conversations went.

Like, I've been the, the guy on over that, and I lose out to a guy who hasn't had any managing experience.

I am wondering if in the back of his mind he's like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go get, like, a managing position over in Seattle where they have awesome pitchers and I can go cook over there." Who knows? Who knows? It is a narrative to keep an eye out for because he has been so, so instrumental in turning not just this team around, but kind of the, the narrative associated with them.

I talk a lot about this on the podcast, but I've heard from some people that for a while teams kind of approached trades being like, "Yo, go trade for some Padres pitchers 'cause they don't know what they're doing over there." I don't think that that's what's happening anymore and I think that the hiring of Ruben Niebla has been at least one of the things that has contributed to that.

And I think A.J. and Craig knew that.

Ruben knew that.

And so it's like, all right, if this guy's good, we know his willpower can get him through this.

He needs to be on this roster.

Him coming back to the Padres, we didn't think he was going to come back to the Padres.

But he came back on a one-year deal with an option.

And if that didn't happen, his relationship with Ruben Niebla, him already being a Padre, I think helped him, obviously, deciding to be a Padre in 2026.

So give credit to the Padres organization for making it a place that King wanted to be in when he didn't get the big contract that maybe he thought he would get.