NL WILD CARD SERIES: CUBS VS PADRES

September 29, 2026

Craig Stammen

Petco Park

San Diego Padres

Pregame Press Conference

Q. Can you speak to the decision to include Joe on the roster and kind of just what that does for the group knowing what he's been through and knowing what it means to have him back?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Very excited to have Joe as part of the Wild Card roster. I think what we've seen from him the last week or ten days has been good, impressive. I think the biggest thing we were waiting on was his ability to recover after pitching to hitters. He's been able to do that. He's been able to play catch every day, including the day after some of his outings.

Great news for Joe that he's finally feeling capable of handling a Major League workload. No better time to put him on the roster than now.

Q. You say from what we've seen from him. From what you guys have seen from him, because we haven't seen much -- he's obviously been doing a lot behind the scenes -- what did it take for him to show you enough that he's a part of this group?

CRAIG STAMMEN: We can probably go back to some of his Triple-A outings where everybody got to see that, and we saw that he was very capable of pitching and getting guys out. His stuff looked really good. It was just the ability to recover afterwards was lacking.

I think coming up with a plan to pitch him a little bit different way, pitch less than the 100 pitches he was going to need to be a starter and seeing if he could recover from that was the thing we were trying out, and he was able to handle that really well and recover really well.

For me it was just about him being able to recover. If he can recover, I think Joe Musgrove can get anybody out.

Q. Craig, what's your sense for how much Joe can give you, and what kind of role do you envision?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think Joe is capable of doing anything. I'm not going to put anything past him. We've had him up to five innings in Triple-A. Now, do we know what he's going to recover like after those five innings? We don't know, but playoffs, anything's on the table. Joe's as much of a team player as anybody. He could be in a variety of roles.

Q. What would you say is the biggest difference in this team between now and the first game in the season?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Probably a lot. I think a little bit of belief in themselves, that they can overcome anything. A lot of guys were definitely struggling personally with their performance throughout the year, and they were able to put the work in and saw better days here at the end of the season.

I think the other part is they know that they're a collective unit and that they're stronger together than they are separately. A lot of things that are going to bode well for a playoff team and a team that needs to stick together through the ups and downs of playoff baseball.

Q. With the addition of Andujar, you have a lot of optionality as far as right-handed bats with Taylor, Hays, Andujar. Having Taylor in left and Hays DH'ing today against Boyd on the mound, what was beneficial to you about that?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think it gives us a platoon advantage at least at the beginning of the game. We'll see how long Boyd goes. I like the speed option with Samad. We've played him in a few big games where he can use that speed to his advantage.

Then Hays has been kind of our really good right-handed bat against left-handed pitching. He's done a great job here since we got him since right after the trade deadline. He's been really good against left-handed pitching.

Feel really comfortable with those two guys in the lineup, and then we also have guys on the bench that are capable of coming in and pinch-hitting and filling in those roles if we need to switch them out.

Q. What do you think that moment will mean to Joe Musgrove, and what do you think the challenge will be in harnessing those emotions, kind of given the full-circle aspect of this and how much he's wanted to kind of contribute in this manner?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think that's the unknown is the emotions that are going to play a part in this. I'm going to be emotional. I'm going to be excited about it. Hopefully it's something that we can use to our advantage as a team because I know the fans are going to go crazy when he comes in the game.

I think if there's anybody that can handle what Joe has gone through and what he's about to endure hopefully pitching in a playoff game is Joe.

Q. Just on that note, Craig, he hasn't pitched in a Major League mound for two years, but we've all seen what he can do in the postseason. What was that dialogue maybe between you and the front office or whoever with him about whether this was a good situation to put him in versus being in some regular season games first?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think it's just about trusting the person, number one. What we've seen physically from him, what he's capable of pitching is definitely good enough to get Major League hitters out, and he's proven that in the past. We're seeing similar stuff for him here these last few outings that we've been able to see. I think most importantly is the character of the person and knowing that he can handle about anything.

This is going to be something that's very tough for him to handle, there's no doubt about it. This is not just like snap your fingers and he's back to the guy that left on the mound in the last Wild Card series that he pitched in.

We're banking on him, and of all the guys in the clubhouse, he's probably one of the top guys that you would trust.

Q. How much does Samad Taylor embody what this whole journey has been about?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I think he's definitely a part of that. I think the team coming together, finding different ways to win, not necessarily doing it how everybody predicted it, and Samad being a player that wasn't necessarily supposed to impact our season the way he has is a big part of that.

The one thing that Samad brings to the table, he's all in on the team. It's not about him. It's not about him having a certain batting average or creating a certain amount of steals or whatever. It's about him trying to help us win a game any way that's possible. He's just taken heart to that, and he's been a big part of being one of those pieces around our team that's helped us win games.

Q. Just following on those pieces that you talked about, A.J. was in here, and he said, look, we've some guys on this roster -- he listed Samad -- that don't have the most traditional path, but he said that's part of our story. How would you echo that?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, there's no traditional path, I think, to winning or getting to the playoffs or hopefully going farther than we've ever gone before. I think you've got to be open to the not ordinary, and that's what A.J. has always been on.

That's one of the best things about him as the GM. He's open to anything and everything that could help our team win, including bringing players along like Samad and Dustin Harris and bringing them at points in the season when our season was on the line and trusting those guys to get the job done and trusting the rest of the organization and what they've said about those players and how they could help us.

Q. Often when pitchers come up or come back, we talk about soft landings. I'm guessing that's a little bit different in the playoffs with Joe.

CRAIG STAMMEN: Yeah, no such thing as soft landing in the playoffs. Every inning is you can't give up a run. That's just the way it is. There's no such thing as an unearned run in the playoffs. They all count the same.

That's the most difficult part about this. It would have been much easier if it happened two weeks ago or a week ago if we could get Joe in games, similar to the way we got Jason Adam in games, but that just couldn't happen.

Q. You said his game started getting faster when he started working in shorter bursts?

CRAIG STAMMEN: We started over basically with the rehab and ramping him up, and when he was able to do that, he was able to recover a little bit better.

Q. What's your level of confidence with Nick on the mound tomorrow and just your thoughts on his journey back here and as good as he's been despite missing all of that time during the summer?

CRAIG STAMMEN: High level of confidence with Nick. What a road he's been on this year also. We talk about that with a lot of our players, but for him, when it didn't look great at the beginning of the season and him to put in the work throughout an entire season and not know if he's ever going to get back, and then get back to rehab outing and have it end, the first one, the way it did and things might look bleak but he stuck with it, and now he's one of our best pitchers and been one of our best pitchers down the stretch, and he's just a guy that we trust.

Q. As a Latino, we're celebrating this month Hispanic heritage. As a coach, how has been the experience of coaching Latino players, and what is your favorite thing about our Latino culture?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I'll start with my favorite thing about the Latino culture is the excitement that they bring with music and the energy and the way their bodies move. I think that's the best part about it.

Then what it's been like coaching those guys, it's been amazing for me. I grew up in a place where everybody looked like me. Small-town farmers. To be able to be exposed in my life to a lot of different cultures, a lot of different people, and trying to figure out how you can get along with about anybody, it's been truly an awesome experience for me, probably one of the greatest experiences of my baseball life.

Q. Does that mean you are learning Spanish now?

CRAIG STAMMEN: I do not know Spanish very well. It's very malo.

Q. Craig, in your first year as a manager, how has been for you the roster construction for this Wild Card series and experience throughout the season with guys getting into IR and in and out from the roster?

CRAIG STAMMEN: It's definitely different. I leave that up to Josh and A.J. in the front office. Those guys handle the roster really well. A.J. has kind of talked to me a little bit about it. He's always asking my opinion. But my job as the manager is to take the roster they deem to be the best and try to win with it.

I think we take our 26 guys and we go at the opponent and we try to beat them as many times as we can. That's what we're going to do in this series too.

Q. In this short series, you talked about before that Mason could come out in the eighth inning if necessary. You think basically any pitcher is available except for the starter for tomorrow, if needed?

CRAIG STAMMEN: In the playoffs, anything is on the table. It's figuring out a way to win that game that day. It's a little bit different than the 162-game season where you've got to keep people fresh throughout the entire year and make sure they last the entire season. At this point, a lot less of that. A lot less of that and more of getting those outs when we can get them.

Q. Six years ago you were part of the Padres roster and played in this exact same stage. Now six years later you're still a Padre, different role as a manager. How do you consider things have evolved in this organization, and what experience did you take from that postseason to tell your guys to have a nice run?

CRAIG STAMMEN: It's crazy to think about it in that way for me personally. You could have put ten other things on the table, and I probably would have picked the other ten of those besides this. But it's exciting.

What I've learned along the way, all those experiences add up to where I'm at now and how we think and how we go about our experience. Without those experiences, I wouldn't be here, so thankful for all of them.

Q. Pete Crow-Armstrong is likely going to win the National MVP. How do you approach a guy playing at such an elite level as a manager?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Great player. Had an amazing season this year. He's going to be batting leadoff for them and playing center field. He's going to be a tough player we're going to have to face in this series. We're going to have to handle him the right way, hopefully get the right type of pitchers on him, and then if the situation calls for it, try to maybe pitch around him or play around him.

The only thing, if you put him on base, he can steal bases too. He's just got a lot of tools you have to deal with, and they've got guys behind him that are very good also. Stacking Alex Bregman, arguably their best right-handed hitter, right behind him makes it a very difficult matchup for us. Our pitchers will have to be on their game.

Q. For a guy like Boyd who this team saw a year ago in the postseason, can they take anything from that, or is there too much time has passed, different roster and all that from the guy they saw last year in the postseason?

CRAIG STAMMEN: Any time you face a pitcher, you're taking information in. We faced him twice again in this regular season. We faced him last year in the postseason and last year before that too. Our guys are not short on at-bats against him. I think that's hopefully an advantage for us. Again, he's a great pitcher. He's pitched well against us in the past. We've got to bring our A-game against him.

Q. The Cubs had some chaos this last weekend. They had to stop in Boston and Tampa on the way here. They had to play a double header. You're still home. You have home field. Does this feel like advantage Padres? How good is it to be on your side of the comparison?

CRAIG STAMMEN: It's an advantage until the first pitch is thrown, and then all that goes out the window. They're probably trying to look at it as an advantage for them: We can handle all this crazy stuff going on and look where we're at and we're still here ready for pitch one, capable of beating the Padres.

There's an advantage to look at any way you look at it. I'm sure they're looking at it in a positive way, not a negative way. They're not feeling sorry for themselves. It's an unfortunate circumstance they had to go through the last week of the season.

Q. More broadly speaking, you just look at it as an observer of the game. How much harder is it to win at all from a Wild Card spot than it is if you're off the first series of the postseason?

CRAIG STAMMEN: It's another -- yeah, we have to play the Cubs instead of not having to play the Cubs in the first round. In that way, it just makes it harder. We've got to win two extra games compared to the teams that are in the Division Series. It just makes it tougher.

We're going to try to use it to our advantage, just like teams have in the past to be able to stay sharp and stay ready. Then hopefully we're as hot as we were in September, we can carry that the rest of the postseason.