Column: Bob Melvin offers perfect ‘lockout manager’ for Padres

There’s a disarming ease about Padres manager Bob Melvin, even before he’s fully unpacked his San Diego bags. He’s a comfortable pair of sneakers, threatening to unravel at the seams. He’s the faded jeans you’ve worn since the Bush Administration, two Georges ago.

There could be an ego, about winning here and winning there, payroll and personnel be damned. Instead, Melvin comes off as your wise, kind uncle pouring lemonade at the family picnic.

Though he’s going to steer a ship steaming into the 2022 MLB season with a projected payroll of more than $180 million, fourth highest at this point according to industry money-cruncher Spotrac, you wonder if he’ll appear in the next episode of “Ted Lasso.”

The former A’s manager could be the perfect “lockout” manager, if there is such a thing.

Asked about his franchise-related wish list for Santa Claus at the military family toy program Operation Holiday Joy on Wednesday at Murphy Canyon Chapel, Melvin flashed his soft, savvy touch.

“Get the season going, first and foremost,” he said. “There’s a lot of presents under the tree here already.”

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Bringing in a new manager just under the lockout wire could stunt the relationship- and culture-building process before it starts and cause the whole of it to spin.

Melvin is 60. He’s been a Manager of the Year in both leagues. He’s won without big names or big bank accounts. He’s metronome steady, in a game besieged by analytics and shifts and flavors of the day.

Unlike former managers Jayce Tingler and Andy Green, he does not need every minute of his first San Diego offseason to transform plow rows into playoff crops. When baseball’s labor unrest fades and the players are allowed into the clubhouse, there’s no reason to leave copies of his résumé at Manny Machado’s locker.

Melvin’s self-built to go, now — whenever now arrives.

“Sure, you’d like a little bit more time in the offseason,” he said. “Once you get to spring training, once you get into the uniform and once you get around the guys, that’s when it really starts anyway.

“It’s all about baseball. Guys are comfortable in uniforms and being at a spring training complex. So, there’s plenty of time for that.”

All of it creates a happy intersection of experience and timing for the Padres, who are trying to shake the lingering taste of a late-season collapse marinated in day-old gym socks.

Melvin will walk in with credibility galore. That’s very, well, un-Padres.

Before the labor-relations ax fell, he got a sniff.

“I got a pretty good feeling, at least in initial conversations with guys, that everybody’s pretty excited about where this team is,” said Melvin, whose seven postseason appearances are more than the Padres franchise. “Everybody was excited about getting back to spring training this year, because, as far as the players go, and certainly the front office, felt like there was a little bit left on the table.

“The team is better than maybe the record indicated last year.”

It will not be critically necessary, or necessary at all, for Melvin to prove his chops. Forget the megaphone, amplifying his 18 seasons as a manager and World Series ring as a bench coach with the Diamondbacks. No name dropping about a decade as a big-league catcher.

Rather than players wasting time to measure and feel out a new manager, it’s time to work. That is, whenever baseball’s bean counters put away the calculators.

Melvin is patient.

“That was a huge hook for me, the actual roster that’s in place right now,” he said. “I think there’s enough on this roster right now to accomplish some big things.”

As a lockout throws a wet blanket over the offseason, every team hopes to hit the ground running when the stadium gates swing open. Melvin is an experience fit, a personality fit and a relationship-building fit. He screams, in his own understated way, “I’m comfortable in my own skin.”

This car is likely to start at the end of the on ramp, building speed, instead of racing to catch up from a dead stop.

“We don’t want to be in the position we’re in right now, obviously. But that’s where we are. So I think the fact that I have some experience doing this job and doing it for other teams, this isn’t a first for me.”

Quizzed about a sensitive subject like superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. reportedly being involved with a minor motorcycle accident Sunday, Melvin deftly tight-roped the labor dispute’s rules about commenting.

“I’m really not at liberty to talk about that,” he said. “I wish I could. So that’s the hard part of this whole dynamic right now, in terms of the lockout. You can’t talk in specifics about guys, unfortunately.

“But I understand you have to ask the question.”

Melvin has started to see how the Padres’ sausage is made, though.

“It’s very scout-based and thorough in how the front office goes about its business,” he said. “I’m learning a lot.”

Keep those comfy jeans handy. Baseball, and Melvin, will be back.