The Padres are expected to hire Bob Henley, Ryan Goins, and Kevin Plawecki to the team’s revamped coaching staff under new manager Craig Stammen, The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reports. Henley will coach third base, Goins will be an infield coach, and Plawecki will move from being a minor league catching instructor for the Padres to a new role as the big league catching coach. First base coach David Macias will return in his role, and Nick Punto will also return for a second year on San Diego’s staff in an unspecified role.
Henley (who turns 53 in January) has spent almost his entire baseball career in the Expos/Nationals organization, save for a single game with the Pirates’ A-level affiliate in 2002. Selected by Montreal in the 26th round of 1991 draft, Henley spent his first seven pro seasons as a player in the Expos’ farm system, and his only 41 career MLB games came in a Montreal uniform in 1998. Elbow problems then essentially ended his career, and Henley then spent 11 years as a manager and field coordinator at the minor league level for the organization, bridging the Expos’ move to Washington.
Promoted to the third base coach job for the start of the 2014 season, Henley spent the next eight seasons in the role, before moving into a player development job at the conclusion of the 2021 campaign. Henley made a brief return to the coaching staff as a Major League field coordinator last July, as the Nationals had to make some alterations to the staff once Davey Martinez was fired as manager.
Stammen pitched with the Nationals from 2009-15, so there’s plenty of familiarity between the Padres skipper and his new third base coach. Plawecki is also a known quantity to Stammen from their shared time working in San Diego, and Plawecki’s brief time as a player in the Padres’ minor league system. Goins has no past ties to Stammen or the Padres, but he is no stranger to SoCal, after working on the Angels’ coaching staff for the last two seasons.
Goins is a veteran of eight Major League seasons (2013-20), spent primarily with the Blue Jays. Despite a lack of hitting, Goins’ solid glove helped him carve out a niche for himself as a part-time player, and he’ll now look to impart his defensive wisdom onto the Padres’ infielders. Goins worked as the Angels’ infield coach in 2024 and 2025, though he was promoted to a bench coach role last June in the wake of Ron Washington’s medical leave. Bench coach Ray Montgomery became the Halos’ interim manager, thus creating a vacancy in the bench coach job.
Plawecki also played in the majors for eight seasons (2015-22), with the bulk of that time spent in a backup and part-time catcher role with the Mets and Red Sox. He played in the minors for two more seasons, and after spending 2024 with the Padres’ Triple-A team in El Paso, he retired to step into a new job as instructor for San Diego’s Arizona Complex League club.
