Nightengale's Notebook: New Padres manager Bob Melvin finally has what he needs to win it all

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Corrections/clarifications: A previous version of this column contained inaccuracies that were clarified in Major League Baseball’s schedule release last week.

PEORIA, Ariz. — It was like looking out of your living room window every day, seeing your gorgeous new Mercedes-Benz sitting in the driveway, but still waiting for the dealership to deliver the keys.

It has been nearly five months since Bob Melvin was hired by the San Diego Padres to be their manager and only now, after the 99-day lockout, can he finally run his team.

Melvin, who signed a three-year, $11.5 million contract with the Padres after leaving the Oakland A’s, will be the best acquisition the Padres make all year.

He’s a difference maker.

The Padres, easily the most underachieving team in the National League last season, expect to live up to their talent, and perhaps even topple the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.

You can talk to any manager or GM in baseball, and they’ll tell you there may be a manager or two who’s on the same level as Melvin, but no one is better.

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Finally, after spending the last 11 years with the Oakland A’s, with raw sewage occasionally seeping into the clubhouse, stadium lights that don’t always work, a passionate but small fanbase, and a payroll that erased dreams of landing marquee free agents, Melvin no longer has to drive a Prius in the Daytona 500.

The Padres, who had the second-largest payroll in baseball last season, with a  talented team, frenzied fanbase and gorgeous ballpark, finally have the man who could lead them to where no Padre team has ever gone before.

Yes, a World Series championship.

“I think about that a lot,’’ Melvin told Paste BN Sports. “You can’t help but think what a world championship would mean in San Diego. There are some big-time players here that want to bring a championship to San Diego.

“It’s the only game in town now, and it would mean everything to that city.’’

Melvin, who plans to address his team Monday, jokes that he may use his old material from Oakland considering this group of players has never heard his spring-training opening speech. He feels like a kid on the first day of school.

It’s finally happening, and he’s still trying to wrap his mind around it.

One day he’s the manager of the A’s, a team that’s on the verge of a massive rebuild and putting their prized players on the trade block, with the city no closer now to building a new ballpark than they have in the past 20 years.

The next, A’s president Billy Beane is calling him on the phone, telling him the Padres have asked permission to interview him, and the next thing he knows he’s being introduced as their new manager in a press conference.

The A’s, of course, could have denied permission. They could have even asked the Padres for a player in return. Instead, they realized it would be unfair to keep Melvin around for another year if they’re not going to contend, and considering their financial woes, shaving $4 million off the books would perhaps spare them from dumping another player.

“I had great relationships with everyone in Oakland,’’ Melvin said, “and they were very supportive on whatever I wanted to do. It ended up to be a timing thing. In Oakland, there’s a process every year and the timing of the call coincided with not really knowing where the team was going yet.

“I felt like they didn’t want me to leave, but they left it up to me. They said, 'If this is something you want to do and talk to another team, we’ll keep it quiet. If you want to come back, great. If not, we understand.' "

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Melvin, the three-time Manager of the Year who led the A’s to six postseason berths, quickly departed but he’ll always look back with nothing but beautiful memories.

Oakland was home for Melvin. He grew up in the Bay Area, going to the Oakland Coliseum for concerts when he was a teenager. He went to the University of California. And go ahead, mock the decaying ballpark all you want, Melvin loved the joint.

“It’s just an old ballpark that has issues, but it wasn’t an issue to me,’’ Melvin says, “I grew up there. I watched concerts there when I was 15 or 16. I went to World Series games. It had more sentiment to me than maybe anyone else. I didn’t have a problem with it, I really didn’t.’’

Melvin had such a passion for the place that the only pictures hanging on his office wall were from concerts that he attended: The Grateful Dead. The Who. Peter Frampton. Fleetwood Mac. Lynyrd Skynyrd.

“There are a lot of special things in that ballpark that resonated with me,’’ Melvin says.

Now, he’ll be spending his summers at Petco Park, with spectacular views of the San Diego Bay and downtown skyline with a team that could be just as glorious.

Really, the only thing he has to get accustomed to in his new job is the crowd noise, having only nine crowds of more than 15,000 at the Coliseum last summer, all against the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.

The fans will be packing Petco all summer, but Melvin will be missing the constant pounding of the drums that reverberated throughout the Coliseum.

“It takes you like a month not to hear those drums in your dreams,’’ Melvin says. “There weren’t many fans, but the ones that were there, were really passionate.

“I’m going to miss the place, but I can’t wait to spend the summer in San Diego.’’

Maybe, if it all goes according to plan, Melvin will be spending the month of October there too, ending with a downtown parade.

Around the basepaths

– The biggest mystery among the marquee free agents is the landing spot for shortstop Carlos Correa.

The Yankees insist they’re not interested because they don’t want to block the path of prized prospect Anthony Volpe.

The Chicago Cubs just signed shortstop Andrelton Simmons to a one-year, $4 million deal.

The Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t expected to be serious candidates, but are an X factor since Trea Turner is a free agent after the season and is thought to prefer playing on the East Coast.

It leaves the Houston Astros as a potential favorite. The Astros already offered Correa a five-year, $160 million contract, which is five years and about $160 million light. Yet, could he take a short term deal with a higher average salary with opt-outs each year to hit the market again in the near future??

– MLB informed the 30 GMs that it will wait several weeks, circle back, and see if expanded rosters are needed in the month of April.

While most GMs certainly will sign up, the cost has gone up for owners with the minimum salary going from $570,500 to $700,000.

So we’ll see whether money or health rules at the end.

– Tony Clark, executive director of the players association, is worried about Canada’s mandate that requires anyone who crosses its borders to be vaccinated. Players who are not vaccinated will be placed on baseball’s restricted list during the series without pay or service time.

“It’s a concern," Clark said. "I think as everyone knows, we appreciate and respect the decisions that are made, particularly in regard to player health and community health. But that is an issue as one in the pandemic itself that we’re navigating domestically that we’re going to continue to have to try to work through here."

– Dodgers starter Trevor Bauer’s administrative leave was extended through March 19 while MLB continues its eight-month investigation of sexual assault allegations.

MLB is expected to suspend him once the investigation is completed. There have been 15 players suspended under MLB’s sexual assault policy, and all have accepted a settlement in which they agreed not to appeal. Bauer could become the first to appeal.

Either way, the Dodgers are expected to release him once MLB makes a decision.

– The postseason will now start Oct. 7 this year with best-of-three series, with the World Series opening on Oct. 28 and concluding no later than Nov. 4.

– The monetary difference between having a 14-team playoff pool than the adopted 12-team format?

MLB was scheduled to receive $100 million with a 14-team format, and it now drops to about $60 million, according to MLB officials.

– There was no drug testing during the lockout, but it will resume in earnest this week. MLB plans to increase the number of in-season tests for performance-enhancing drugs during the year, while adjusting the schedule to make the testing less predictable.

It also will use dried-blood spot-testing rather than venous blood draws for hGH testing.

– The Dodgers are expected to sign manager Dave Roberts to a contract extension this week, increasing his salary closer to the $4 million average that Buck Showalter and Bob Melvin received this winter.

– Nice to see traditional baseball back in action: Doubleheaders will return to nine innings and no more free runner in extra innings.

– Marlins owner Bruce Sherman had every intention of cutting ties with Derek Jeter after the 2022 season before Jeter departed on his own volition, but neither one has expressed any ill feelings towards each other, simply acknowledging that the relationship had run its course.

– While the minimum salary rose from $570,500 to $700,000, the minor league minimum also rose for players with big league service, increasing from $93,000 to $114,100.

– For those counting, Chicago White Sox closer Liam Hendriks and his wife now have increased their family by six with three dogs and three cats.

–  Now that Russell Wilson is in Denver as the Broncos’ new quarterback, Rockies GM Bill Schmidt reminded reporters that Wilson could have been a major league baseball player too.

Schmidt was the Rockies’ scouting director when they selected Wilson in the fourth round of the 2010 draft. Wilson, a second baseman, played two seasons in the minors for the Rockies before playing collegiate football at the University of Wisconsin.

"He was very dynamic,’’ Schmidt told reporters in the Rockies’ camp. “There were a lot of things he wanted to prove to people.

“I thought he had a chance.’’

– While the San Francisco Giants loved getting starter Carlos Rodon, signing him to a two-year, $44 million contract with an opt-out, the Chicago White Sox didn't have any interest in bringing him back.

– Congratulations to Cubs manager David Ross on his new contract extension locking him up through 2024 with an option for 2025. Ross was in the final year of his original three-year deal.

“It’s always been a little funny to me that you sign a three-year deal but yet you’re a lame duck the last year,’’ Ross said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. As a player, I never looked at it like that. I think your leadership is your leadership until it changes.”

– MLB still stuck to its original plan by limiting the rosters to 13 pitchers during the season – and 14 in September – hoping to put more emphasis on starting pitching.

They hope to reduce the number to 12 pitchers in the next two years.

– It was 27 years ago when MLB voted to expand the league to 30 teams, adding the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays.

The D-backs have won one World Series since their inception, with six postseason berths, but have only reached the playoffs once in the last 10 seasons.

The Rays have never won a World Series, but have won two American League pennants with eight postseason berths.

– The New York Mets will unveil their Tom Seaver statue on Jackie Robinson Day before their home opener on April 15.

– The Cubs made a shrewd signing with Andrelton Simmons considering they have three of the elite ground-ball pitchers in Marcus Stroman (50.8%), Wade Miley (49.4%) and Kyle Hendricks (43.1%). Simmons saved 15 runs last year, according to the defensive metrics, second behind only Carlos Correa.

– Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander’s one-year, $25 million contract will turn into a two-year, $50 million if he pitches at least 130 innings this season. Verlander, who underwent Tommy John surgery 18 months ago, has thrown at least 200 innings in every full season since 2016.

– The Padres badly need another starting outfielder, and likely will turn to the free agent market.

– Baseball is back!