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Padres To Name Mike Shildt Manager
By Steve Adams | November 21, 2023 at 10:49am CDTThe Padres are set to name former Cardinals skipper Mike Shildt their new manager, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Dennis Lin of The Athletic adds that a formal announcement is expected today. Shildt has spent the past two seasons in the Padres’ player development department.
The Padres somewhat surprisingly wound up with a managerial vacancy this offseason after allowing now-former skipper Bob Melvin to interview with the Giants, who ultimately hired him and signed him to a three-year contract. He’d previously been under contract with the Padres through the 2024 season.
Shildt, 55, beat out a field of reported candidates including former Angels skipper Phil Nevin, current Padres bench coach Ryan Flaherty and Angels infield coach Benji Gil. Former Yankees bench coach, who was hired as the Mets’ manager earlier this month, also interviewed for the Padres post. San Diego had some level of interest in recently ousted Cubs skipper David Ross, though it’s not clear whether he ultimately interviewed for the position.
Shildt’s own ouster in St. Louis was something of a shocking development a couple years back. He’d been viewed as an extension candidate late in the season as the Cardinals rattled off 17 consecutive wins to surge back into postseason contention, and there’d been no public indication that Shildt’s job was in jeopardy. However, Cards president of baseball ops John Mozeliak cited “philosophical differences” for the rationale behind the move, with additional reported details filtering out in the days and weeks following the decision.
The dismissal of Shildt was particularly surprising given the Cardinals’ success under his watch. His St. Louis predecessor, Mike Matheny, was fired midseason in 2018 after a 47-46 start to the year. The Cards went 41-28 under Shildt to close out that season, and his next three years produced records of 91-71, 30-28 (during the pandemic-shortened season) and 90-72. Shildt was named the National League Manager of the Year in 2019 and finished third in 2021. Overall, he was 252-199 as the Cardinals’ skipper.
Shildt will now get a second crack at managing in the big leagues. His appointment in San Diego will somewhat incredibly make him the fourth full-time Padres manager in a span of just six years (and fifth if you include interim skipper Rod Barajas, who finished out the 2019 season after Andy Green was let go). San Diego hasn’t had a manager last more than three full seasons on the job since Bud Black helmed the club from 2007-15.
In addition to his time as the Cardinals’ manager, Shildt has a lengthy background in a baseball career that began as a scout in the early 2000s. He eventually was named a coach in the low levels of the Cardinals’ system, slowly rising through the ranks and holding a variety of coaching titles as he climbed the organizational ladder. The Cards added him to their Major League staff as Matheny’s bench coach in 2017. He’ll bring more than two decades of experience in scouting, coaching and player development to the table as the new dugout leader in San Diego.
Nice. The Padres under-performed last year, but have a talented roster. A great opportunity for Shildt. Plus the San Diego area is not a bad place to hang your hat.
GC, I appreciate you sharing the news, but please do not post full articles from other sites. That is especially the case without crediting the original source. A summary and a link would be greatly preferred next time. Thank you.
I hope Shildt has a good run as Pads’ skipper. Whatever else, the man bled Cardinal red and you gotta like that.
I am watching his press conference now. He is a pupil of George Kissell and a very bright baseball man. I wish we had him.
i think this is a terrible move for Shildt
he likes things HIS way, and the egos on that team seem to have been the problem last year, and i dont see the org siding with an old-school coach over their mega millions superstars
it is a move ON PAPER that makes sense…bring order and responsibility with old school manager…but with the guys (Machado, Soto, Tatis, Xander etc.) i just think this is not going to work
Whether or not he’s successful in SD, my guess is that he’ll get a fair shake from the Padres organization. Obviously that’s more than he was afforded in StL.
The Cardinals have had both the 2019 & 2023 Managers of the Year on staff and neither are the Manager of the Redbirds. IMO, Shildt & Schumacher are better than who we currently have.
If Mozeliak had less of an ego, and was more emotionally mature, he might very well have appreciated having a lieutenant with “philosophical differences.” That sounds like a man that thinks on his feet, and goes by his gut at times, and is not afraid to challenge you with a different perspective that maybe you had not thought about.
You read some history about Abraham Lincoln, and he wanted people who saw things different from himself. But Mo seems to prefer a robot where he feeds in the data, and the robot executes.
It will be interesting to see how Shildt does. That team does have some egos on the playing field, so Mike will be challenged a time or two keeping everyone’s eyes on the goal and not on themselves.
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