Souza’s recruitment comes as a surprise. The 36-year-old has never worked on an MLB staff. He retired as a player in 2022 and spent the ’25 season as a special assistant with the Rays. Souza played parts of eight big league campaigns. The righty outfielder did his best work in Tampa Bay between 2015 and 2017, including a 30-homer in his final season at Tropicana Field. Souza totaled 72 round-trippers and hit .229/.318/.411 in just under 1,900 career plate appearances.
Although Souza is best known as Ray, he started his career in the organization in Washington. The Nationals drafted him in the third round in 2007 out of high school. Souza briefly reached the major leagues in 2014. Stammen was in the Nats’ bullpen at the time. The following offseason, Washington traded Souza to Tampa Bay as part of the three-team deal (coincidentally also involving San Diego) that saw Will Myers to the Padres and then prospect Trea Turner to the Nats.
Souza will work with Stammen again, this time on the coaching side. He replaces Victor Rodriguez, who left for the same position with the Astros earlier this month. Souza will lead an attack that ranks just 18th despite a star-studded lineup. They ranked in the top 10 in batting average and on-base percentage and had the sport’s third-lowest strikeout rate, but they finished only above the Pirates and Cardinals in home runs.
Petco Park remains relatively favorable for pitchers. That may have played a bit of a role in the team’s pedestrian offense, but they were 23rd in scoring and 28th in road home runs. Ryan O’Hearn And Luis Arraez have hit free agency. While the Padres have shown some interest in bringing back Arraez, first base is the most obvious position where the team could look to add power.
Knorr, 57, also knows Stammen from their time in Washington. He was the bullpen coach when Stammen broke into the Majors in 2009. Three years later, he earned a promotion to bench coach and served in that role through the ’15 campaign. Knorr then spent time as a consultant in the front office, on Dave Martinez’s staff as first base coach, as a minor league manager and in their player development department. He remained in the organization until the end of last season.
Brian Esposito was San Diego’s bench coach this year. He applied for the leadership position after Mike Shildt resigned. The brothers clearly went in a different direction. Acee wrote that Esposito is expected to remain in the organization in a role to be determined. The Padres are expected to retain highly regarded pitching coaches Ruben Niebla and Ben Fritz (bullpen coach), each reportedly on multi-year contracts. It is not yet known if they will make any further changes to the batting side.
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