New Padres manager Andy Green: 'I'm open to anything'
Andy Green is one of the youngest managers in MLB and has no prior major-league experience at the helm of a team, but there's a reason he appealed to the San Diego Padres front office.
Green, who served as third base coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks last season, impressed general manager A.J. Preller during his interview with his openness to new ideas, a characteristic becoming crucial to landing a managerial job in MLB's current landscape of analytically-driven front offices.
"I think the biggest thing with Andy is he's open to ideas," Preller said. "Not just ideas, but he's open to thoughts and ideas. That was attractive, for sure.
"He's open to any idea that's going to help a team, help an organization get better. He's not looking at any idea or a particular statistic as being gospel. I think that's something we share. You present an idea, he wants to hear it and then he wants to see how it works."
Among the bulleted points on Green's résumé that appealed to Preller was his spearheading of the implementation of the Diamondbacks' defensive shifting. His balanced opinion on shifts presents him as the type of cerebral figure who can lead a ball club.
"I think, as a coaching staff, you have to recognize that not all information is great for players to receive," Green said. "You need actionable information; you need stuff that you're going to do something with. You don't want to inundate them with information. You have to be able to analyze it as a staff: Is this productive to give our players?"
At 38 years old, Green is the second-youngest manger in MLB behind Kevin Cash of the Tampa Bay Rays by a few months. He'll be tasked with turning around a Padres franchise that hasn't finished in the top two in the NL West in five years and hasn't made the postseason in nine years.
He hopes analytics and another other advanced information will help give him an edge over the competition.
"In me, there's a desire to take information from wherever you can get it to gain a competitive advantage. I'm open to anything," Green said. "I believe, to be successful going forward, we'll be open with our front office and be ready for any information that's going to come through the door. If it's usable, let's put it into practice and take advantage of it."
