On Tuesday, the San Diego Padres have named Mike Shildt to be their next manager.
This hiring probably would have happened sooner if not for the death of Padres owner Peter Seidler last week. His passing cast a pall during an otherwise joyous day for Shildt.
Shildt had previously managed the St. Louis Cardinals. After serving in various capacities with the Cardinals since 2003, Shildt replaced Mike Matheny as the team's manager during the 2018 season. Shildt then guided the Redbirds to three consecutive post-season appearances between 2019 through 2021. The 2021 season included a spectacular 17-game winning streak to clinch a NL Wild Card berth.
Despite this success, the Cardinals shockingly fired Shildt after the 2021 season owing to so-called "philosophical differences". The Cardinals would name Oliver Marmol to succeed Shildt. Although the Cardinals would win the NL Central under Marmol in 2022, they fall all the way to last place in 2023, their first in over 30 seasons.
Fortunately, Shildt was not out of a job for long. In January 2022, the Padres hired Shildt to their player development staff. Over the past two seasons, Shildt has also occasionally returned to the field as a third base coach, first base coach and bench coach most notably when Matt Williams had colon cancer surgery during the 2022 season.
Shildt succeeds Bob Melvin who sought greener pastures with the San Francisco Giants following a contentious relationship with GM A.J. Preller. After reaching the post-season in 2022, the Padres underachieved in 2023. They did manage to finish with a winning record of 82-80 and only two games behind the NL champion Arizona Diamondbacks but had to win 14 of their final 16 games to get over that hump.
There is the question of if the Padres will trade Juan Soto this offseason. Closer Josh Hader will likely be gone to free agency. Can Blake Snell replicate his Cy Young season?
I suspect Shildt will roll with all of this and work with what he has and motivates the Padres to be a better team with the objective of winning their first World Series in franchise history.
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