Padres fire Canadian hitting coach Matt Stairs after lacklustre year

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres have fired hitting coach Matt Stairs after one year on the job as the team continued to rank at the bottom of the majors in key offensive stats.

General manager A.J. Preller confirmed the move Tuesday, saying in a text to The Associated Press: “We made the change.”

The rebuilding Padres finished last in the NL West at 66-96, five losses worse than 2017.

Stairs’ replacement will be the Padres’ 10th hitting coach since Petco Park opened in 2004.

He had replaced Alan Zinter, who was fired on Sept. 1, 2017.

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Stairs, from Saint John, N.B., spent the 2017 season as the hitting coach for the Philadelphia Phillies, his first professional coaching position. He played parts of 19 seasons in the major leagues with 12 different franchises, including the Montreal Expos (1992-93), Toronto Blue Jays (2007-08) and the Padres (2010).

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Bernie Wilson, The Associated Press