SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres today announced the members of manager Bob Melvin’s coaching staff for the 2023 campaign.

• Ryan Christenson – Associate Manager
• Ryan Flaherty – Bench Coach/Offensive Coordinator
• Ruben Niebla – Pitching Coach
• Ben Fritz – Bullpen Coach
• Matt Williams – Third Base Coach & Infield Instructor
• David Macias – First Base Coach & Outfield Instructor
• Oscar Bernard – Assistant Hitting Coach
• Scott Coolbaugh – Assistant Hitting Coach
• Brian Esposito – Catching Coach
• Peter Summerville – Game Planning & Coaching Assistant
• Heberto Andrade – Bullpen Catcher & Coaching Assistant
• Bryan Price – Senior Advisor to Major League Coaching Staff
• Mike Shildt – Senior Advisor to Player Development & Major Leagues

Christenson, 48, returns for his second season on the Major League coaching staff and his first as associate manager, originally joining the Padres in 2022 as bench coach after spending 16 seasons with the Oakland Athletics organization, most recently as Melvin’s bench coach from 2018-21. Prior to his promotion to the Major League staff in Oakland, the Redlands, Calif. native spent five seasons managing in the Athletics farm system. After Single-A stints at Beloit in 2013 and Stockton in 2014, he guided Double-A Midland to back-to-back Texas League Championships in 2015 and 2016. Christenson served as manager at Triple-A Nashville in 2017 and manned the third base coaching box for team USA in the 2017 All-Star Futures Game. His teams had a 391-307 (.560) record in five seasons. The former outfielder played parts of six seasons in the Majors with Oakland (1998-2001), Arizona (‘01), Milwaukee (‘02) and Texas (‘03) and was a .222 hitter with 16 home runs and 102 RBI in 452 games. He was originally selected by the A’s in the 10^th round of the 1995 First-Year Player Draft out of Pepperdine University after earning West Coast Conference Player of the Year honors in his final season with the Waves, leading the league with a .376 batting average.

Flaherty, 36, returns for his fourth season as a coach for the Major League club and his first as bench coach/offensive coordinator. He originally joined the coaching staff in 2020 as Major League advance scout/development coach in before serving as quality control coach from 2021-22. Flaherty enjoyed an eight-year MLB playing career with the Baltimore Orioles (2012-17), Atlanta Braves (2018) and Cleveland Indians (2019), where he played in 547 Major League games (360 starts) and appeared in 13 Postseason games, hitting .265 with two home runs, five RBI and five runs scored. After attending Vanderbilt University, where he earned 2007 Second Team All-American honors by the American Baseball Association and Rivals.com, Flaherty was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the first round (41^st overall) of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft. He earned Baseball America Short-Season All-Star honors and Northwest League Post-Season All-Star honors in ‘08 and was also a Southern League Mid-Season All-Star selection in ‘11.

Niebla, 51, returns for his second season as Padres pitching coach after spending 21 years with Cleveland’s organization.  The El Centro, Calif. native spent 2020-2021 as assistant Major League pitching coach for Cleveland after serving as the club’s minor league pitching coordinator from 2013-19. He was a Major League staff assistant in 2010 prior to serving as pitching coach for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers from 2011-12.  He also held the role of pitching coach for Team Mexico in the WSBC Premier12 event held in Mexico and Tokyo in November 2019, helping guide the Mexican team to a 2020 Olympic berth for the first time in its history. Additionally, he served as pitching coach for the Mexican National Team in 2015 and has spent several seasons instructing in the Mexican Winter League for Águilas de Mexicali. The left-handed pitcher began his professional career in the independent Atlantic Coast League, Western League, and Texas-Louisiana League from 1995-97. He signed with the Montreal Expos as a free agent in 1998 and split ‘98-00 pitching in the Expos and Los Angeles Dodgers organizations, reaching the Triple-A level in Ottawa and Albuquerque. He concluded his playing career in ‘00 in the Western League, making a total of 122 career minor league appearances (one start) with a 4.49 ERA in 122 appearances (89 ER, 178.0 IP).

Fritz, 41, enters his ninth season with the Padres organization and fourth as bullpen coach at the Major League level. Fritz assumed the role of pitching coach in August 2021 through the end of the season following the dismissal of Larry Rothschild. He served as coordinator of AZ/rehab from 2018-19, manager for Single-A Tri-City in 2017 and spent the 2015-16 seasons with the club’s Rookie-Level affiliate in Peoria. He was selected in the first-round (30th overall) in the 2002 First-Year Player Draft by the Athletics and pitched seven professional seasons between the A’s (2002-07) and Detroit Tigers (2009) organizations, as well as parts of three seasons with the Lancaster Barnstormers of the independent Atlantic League (2008-10). Overall, the right-handed pitcher posted a career record of 45-61 with a 4.75 ERA in 192 minor league games (187 starts). The San Jose, Calif. native played collegiately at Fresno State, where he was the Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and a second-team All-American selection in 2001.

Williams, 57, returns for his second season as Padres third base coach & infield instructor after spending the previous two seasons as manager of the Kia Tigers of the Korean Baseball Organization. 2023 will mark his 11^th season on a Major League coaching staff, most recently serving as Melvin’s third base coach for the Athletics from 2018-19. Williams managed the Washington Nationals from 2014-15, earning ‘14 National League Manager of the Year honors, and was also on the Diamondbacks Major League staff as first base coach in 2010 and third base coach from 2011-13 and 2016. The Bishop, Calif. native enjoyed a 17-year MLB playing career with San Francisco (1987-96), Cleveland (1997) and Arizona (1998-2003). A .268 career hitter with 378 home runs and 1,218 RBI in 1,866 games, the five-time All-Star (1990, ‘94-96, ‘99) also won four Gold Gloves (1991, ‘93-94, ‘97) and four Louisville Silver Slugger Awards (1990, ‘93-94, ‘97) at third base. He played in three World Series with three different teams (Giants, ‘89; Indians, ‘97; D-backs, ‘01) and became the first player to hit at least one World Series homer with three different clubs.

Macias, 36, returns for his second season as Padres first base coach & outfield instructor after joining East Carolina University as an assistant coach in July 2021. He spent the previous four seasons coaching at Vanderbilt University under Tim Corbin, helping the Commodores to a pair of College World Series Finals, including the 2019 National Championship. Vanderbilt posted single-season records in ‘19 in home runs (100), RBI (541), walks (339) and runs scored (578) en route to a SEC-record 59 wins and their second College World Series title. The Houston, Tex. native was with the Seattle Mariners organization from 2016-17, serving as the coordinator of international player programs in ‘16 and ‘17 before taking over as manager for Single-A Clinton midway through the ‘17 Midwest League season. Macias’ first stint on the Commodores coaching staff came across the 2014-15 seasons, serving as a volunteer assistant in their national runner-up campaign in ‘15, and as strength coach in ‘14 when they won their first national championship. He spent the 2012 and ‘13 seasons as a player development/international scouting assistant with the Chicago Cubs, the club that drafted him in the 19^th round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft out of Vanderbilt. During his senior season, the former outfielder was named first team All-SEC and second team All-South Region/All-District 3. His 96 hits during the campaign are tied for fifth-most on Vanderbilt’s single-season list, and he is also among the program’s all-time leaders in at-bats (9th, 784) and hits (10th, 255).

Bernard, 39, joins the Major League coaching staff as assistant hitting coach in his eighth season in the Padres organization, having spent the last seven seasons as the club’s minor league hitting coordinator. Bernard joined the Padres in 2016 as hitting coach for the Tri-City Dust Devils after spending the previous three seasons with the Chicago Cubs organization, most recently as hitting coach for Rookie-Level Mesa in 2015. He served as hitting coach for the Cubs’ Dominican Republic League affiliate in 2013-14 and spent the 2008-12 seasons as a coach in the Texas Rangers organization. The San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic native originally signed with the Cubs as a non-drafted free agent in April 2001 and spent five seasons as a position player (‘01-05) and two as a pitcher (‘06-07).

Coolbaugh, 56, joins the Padres as assistant hitting coach in what will be his 22^nd year of experience as a professional hitting coach. The Binghamton, N.Y. native spent the past two seasons as hitting coach for the Detroit Tigers after serving as the assistant hitting coach for the Chicago White Sox during the 2020 season. He spent 2019 with Triple-A Oklahoma City of the Los Angeles’ Dodgers system as hitting coach after serving as Major League hitting coach for the Baltimore Orioles from 2015-18. He spent eight seasons (2007-14) in the Rangers’ organization as a hitting instructor, including time as the Major League hitting coach from June of 2011 through the end of the 2012 season. Prior to joining Texas’ Major League staff, he worked as a hitting coach in the club’s Minor League system from 2007-11, including time with Double-A Frisco (‘07-08), Triple-A Oklahoma City (‘09-10) and Triple-A Round Rock (‘11 & ‘13). He began his coaching career in the Arizona system from 1999-2004 after playing parts of four Major League seasons as a third baseman between Texas (‘89-90), San Diego (‘91) and St. Louis (‘94). He was originally drafted by the Rangers in the third round of the 1987 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Texas, where he was an All-American with the Longhorns, hitting .361 with 15 home runs as a junior in ’87, while his .351 career batting average ranks as the 13^th-highest in school history.

Esposito, 43, joins the Major League coaching staff as catching coach for his second season in the organization after joining the Padres in 2022 as manager of Single-A Fort Wayne. The Staten Island, N.Y. native spent the previous nine seasons (2013-21) in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, most recently as manager for Triple-A Indianapolis from 2018-19 and ‘21, while spending ‘20 at the Pirates Alternate Training site in Altoona, Pa. He spent two years (2015-16) as manager for Single-A West Virginia, highlighted by a club-record 87 wins in ’15, after managing Single-A Jamestown in 2014 and serving as a player/coach in the Pirates farm system in 2013. He was originally selected by the Boston Red Sox in the fifth round of the 2000 First-Year Player Draft and played 13 seasons in the minor league systems of Boston, Anaheim, Texas, St. Louis, Colorado, Houston and Chicago (NL). He made 688 minor league appearances at catcher, 22 as a pitcher, 14 at first base and one each at third base and in left field. He made his Major League debut as a defensive replacement behind the plate with St. Louis on June 2, 2007 and made two appearances with the Astros in 2009. He played collegiate ball at the University of Connecticut, where he was voted team MVP in 1999.

Summerville, 31, returns for his fifth season on the Major League coaching staff and second as game planning and coaching assistant, having spent the previous four seasons as bullpen catcher/coaching assistant.  Summerville played four years collegiately at Santa Clara University, was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a minor league free agent in 2016 and spent two seasons (2017-18) with the Dodgers as a development coach.

Andrade, 56, returns to the Padres for his second season as bullpen catcher and coaching assistant after spending the previous 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, including the final three seasons as a Major League coaching assistant following 15 years as bullpen catcher. Andrade spent three years (1986-88) as a catcher in the Chicago Cubs farm system and played professional baseball in Venezuela, Italy and Colombia before retiring as a player in 1996. He served as an area scout for the Oakland Athletics in ‘96 and in the same capacity with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1998 to 2002. Andrade has also spent the last 27 years as a coach and catching instructor during the Venezuelan Winter League, and he participated in the Caribbean World Series four times as a player and once as a coach.

Price, 60, returns to the Padres organization for his second season as senior advisor to the Major League coaching staff after a coaching career that spanned the past three decades, including manager of the Cincinnati Reds from 2014-18, and pitching coach for the Seattle Mariners (2000-05), Arizona Diamondbacks (2006-09), Reds (2010-13) and Philadelphia Phillies (2020). Price worked under Melvin for six seasons in Seattle (2003-04) and Arizona (2006-09) and won Major League Coach of the Year honors from Baseball America in 2007 after the D-backs’ pitching staff posted a 4.13 ERA (fourth-best in the National League) and reached the NL Championship Series. The San Francisco, Calif. native also spent 11 years in Seattle’s player development system as both the pitching coordinator (1998-89) and pitching coach for Memphis (1997), Port City (1996), Everett (1995), Bellingham (1992 & ‘94), Riverside (1993), Peninsula (1991), and the rookie-level Arizona League team (1989-90). In his role with the Padres, Price works alongside the Major League coaching staff throughout Spring Training and the regular season, serving as a both an on-field instructor and a mentor within the clubhouse.

Shildt, 54, returns for his second season with the Padres, serving as senior advisor to player development & Major Leagues in 2023 after spending 2022 as player development consultant. The Charlotte, N.C. native spent four seasons (three full seasons) from 2018-21 as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, leading St. Louis to three consecutive Postseason berths from 2019-21. He compiled a 252-199 (.559) managerial record, highlighted by 17 consecutive wins in September 2021, the longest streak in franchise history and the longest in the National League since the 1935 Chicago Cubs. Shildt was voted NL Manager of The Year in 2019 by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, joining Hall of Fame managers Whitey Herzog (1985) and Tony La Russa (2002) as the only Cardinals managers to have won the award. He is also the only MLB Manager of the Year to have never played professionally. He joined the Cardinals’ Major League staff in 2017 and served as third base coach, quality control coach, bench coach and interim manager before being named manager on August 28, 2018. Shildt originally joined the Cardinals’ organization in 2004 as an area scout and held a variety of roles in their minor league system before logging eight seasons as a manager. He compiled a minor league managerial record of 471-432 (.522), winning league championships in each of his three career Postseason appearances.