In officially beginning his second managerial tenure, Andy Green looked back at his first. He cringes, he said, as he thinks back to conversations he had with players as Padres manager from 2016-19.
“I told them the truth,” he said during his introductory news conference Tuesday, when the “interim” label was stripped from his title. “I was never scared of that. I wasn’t scared of the veterans. Wasn’t scared of anybody.
“I didn’t do it in a way that was going to help catapult somebody to the next step. It worked with some guys, other guys it didn’t. I hope this style works with more guys.”
This style — uplifting everyone around him with words that inspire and, oftentimes, come with constructive criticism, in a way that informs players both how good they are and how good they can be — worked well enough to earn respect from everyone in the clubhouse and front office, which culminated in a three-year deal with the Mets.
