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Padres fire manager in move that could affect Giants

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Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports


There’s no doubt that the Padres getting a head start on the manager search caught the Giants’ attention.

It certainly could affect how things fall into place for the next Giants manager. It’s a long shot, but it could affect how things fall into place for the current Giants manager.

San Diego dismissed Andy Green on Saturday with eight games remaining in a lost regular season, and executive vice president/GM A.J. Preller was fairly up-front about the curious timing: The hunt for his successor — which will surely include some of the same candidates the Giants will want to talk to — can begin.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision, but one we felt was necessary at this time to take our organization to the next level and expedite the process of bringing a championship to San Diego,” Preller said in a statement. “Our search for a new manager will begin immediately.”

A lot of names are thrown around with both jobs — Raul Ibanez, Eric Chavez, Joe Espada — and Farhan Zaidi, who, if nothing else, will do his due diligence in talking to everyone possible, will be behind San Diego, a more attractive job than San Francisco’s.

The Padres enter Saturday’s game 69-85, nearly unfathomable with the talent on their roster. Whoever steps in will inherit Chris Paddack, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Eric Hosmer and perhaps the game’s best farm system.

There’s one intriguing Giants connection who could emerge as their next skipper:

And there’s another avenue for the Padres to possibly explore, although at this point it’s more fun conjecture than plausible wild card. Bruce Bochy is hugely popular among Padres fans and lives in San Diego in the offseason. Yes, he has said repeatedly he is retiring at season’s close, but the asterisks occasionally pop up.

Just this week, he mentioned the possibility of managing France in the World Baseball Classic because a baseball lifer usually can’t simply stay away.

“I gotta stay busy here. I said if I ever got out, I’d probably manage a Little League team or something,” he said.

He’s gone on quite a goodbye tour this season. If he eventually returns, it would seem more likely he takes some time off before realizing he can’t go fishing forever. Still, how about his sitting in the Padres dugout next year, watching a rotation headed by Paddack and Madison Bumgarner?

“Never is a big word,” Bochy told reporters at spring training, asked if he could say firmly he would never manage again. “It’s a long time, isn’t it? Never say never. You never know what’s ahead of you. Where my head is at right now, I’m retiring as a manager here this year.”