The Padres remain mum, but signs are that Texas Rangers coach Jayce Tingler is the favorite to be their next manager.

Team officials met Saturday with former Padres player Mark Loretta, who also spent time in the organization’s front office and was the Cubs’ bench coach in 2019. That was after they met with Tingler and Braves third base coach Ron Washington for second interviews last week. However, two league sources, speaking on the condition they not be identified, indicated that interview occurred Saturday due to scheduling issues and was not expected to lead to Loretta’s hiring.

On Monday, Padres General Manager A.J. Preller was in the Dominican Republic and spent time with Tingler.

Tingler, who is managing Escogido in the Dominican winter league, has been described by several people as Preller’s favorite from the start to replace Andy Green, who was fired Sept. 21.


It is not clear why Washington, who managed the Rangers for eight seasons, would no longer be in the running. He had been described by multiple people as the favorite due to his experience, having managed the Rangers in two World Series.

Sources familiar with discussions inside the organization describe those deliberations as ongoing, and the Padres could still pivot to another candidate. While Preller has consistently been described as pushing Tingler, there are people in the organization from players up to the ownership level who desire a manager with experience.

The 38-year-old Tingler, who worked with Preller in the Rangers organization, would become the second-youngest manager in the majors (Minnesota’s Rocco Baldelli turned 38 last month).

Tingler played four seasons in the minor leagues, the last of them in 2006 in the Rangers’ system. Preller was a Rangers assistant GM when the organization selected Tingler in the Triple-A portion of the Rule 5 draft in 2005.


After the ’06 season, Tingler began his coaching career.

He coached and managed for the Rangers in the Dominican Republic and Arizona and was the organization’s minor league field coordinator from 2012-14.

He served on manager Jeff Banister’s big-league staff in 2015 and ’16 before joining the front office as an assistant GM in 2017. Tingler served as bench coach for interim manager Don Wakamatsu at the end of 2018 and interviewed to be Rangers manager that offseason. Under Chris Woodward in 2019, Tingler returned to the role he held in the ’15 and ‘16 seasons.