Several candidates remain in Padres' manager search
Servais, who previously interviewed for San Diego job, hired by Mariners
SAN DIEGO -- Go ahead and scratch Scott Servais off the list of potential managers of the Padres.
Servais, who earlier this month interviewed for the Padres' vacant managerial job, was named the manager of the Mariners on Friday.
Where does that leave the Padres?
It's not known if the organization has moved on to the second round of interviews yet, but the club has interviewed a handful of candidates for the job.
To date, the team has interviewed ESPN analyst Alex Cora, D-backs Minor League manager and former Padres third baseman Phil Nevin, Pirates third base coach Rick Sofield, D-backs third base coach Andy Green and former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.
While it's believed Padres hitting coach Mark Kotsay has interviewed for the job, bench coach Dave Roberts has not. Roberts, according to FoxSports.com, was a finalist for the job in Seattle.
Kotsay, Roberts and the other Padres coaches are under contract through Oct. 31.
General manager A.J. Preller said last week that once the first round of interviews is complete, the list will be cut down to a smaller group.
Preller has also said previously that there's no hard-and-fast timeline for when he would like to settle on a manager.
In terms of previous experience, Preller has stated he's keeping an open mind, and that time in the dugout wasn't necessarily a prerequisite to getting hired.
"Experience brings a lot of factors to the mix, a been-there, done-that quality," he said. "And with a lot of big league managers, that second or third job they've done better based on what they've learned from past experiences.
"But there have also been cases with first-year guys where they've come in and done really well."
Given the composition of the Padres' roster, with many players with extensive big league service time -- Matt Kemp, Melvin Upton Jr. James Shields, Craig Kimbrel -- some in the industry have surmised an experienced manager might be a much better fit for this particular team for a variety of reasons.
Interim manager Pat Murphy -- who had never spent a day in a big league dugout -- wasn't a good fit. The team was 42-54 under Murphy, losing 21 of its last 31 games. The Padres were 32-33 when Bud Black was dismissed in mid-June.
This would seem to indicate Gardenhire, who had a .507 winning percentage with the Twins from 2002-14, might be a target. Nevin, who has spent the past five seasons managing in Triple-A, could be another strong consideration.