Padres fire executive president and general manager Josh Byrnes

The San Diego Padres have fired executive president and general manager Josh Byrnes, the team announced today.

"This ownership group is committed to fielding a team that consistently competes for postseason play,'' said Padres President and CEO Mike Dee in a statement on Padres.com. "Thus far this season, the results on the field have been mixed at best and clearly have not lived up to expectations. After a lengthy evaluation of every facet of our baseball operations, we have decided to make this change today.''

Byrnes was hired by the organization in 2010 by Jeff Moorad, the team's previous owner, and promoted to general manager following the 2011 season.

In August 2012, a new ownership group took over control of the team, led by local businessman Ron Fowler. The owners accepted the resignation of former team president and CEO Tom Garfinkel last August and now have made the

move to relieve Byrnes of his general manager duties.

The Padres front office had expressed optimism for this season after increasing their team payroll from $68 million in 2013 to $89.4 million in 2014, but instead the team has the worst offense in Major League Baseball. They are last in the majors in most important offensive categories including batting average, hits, runs and RBIs.

In Byrnes' nearly two and a half seasons as general manager, the Padres had a losing record of 184-215 for a .461 winning percentage.

The Padres finished the 2012 and 2013 seasons with identical 76-86 records and were 32-43 entering today's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team missed the playoffs in both of Byrnes' full seasons -- they haven't

reached the postseason since doing so in consecutive seasons in 2005 and 2006 --and are currently eight games out of a playoff spot this season.