The Padres announced their player development staff today, with a notable new name joining the fold in former Cardinals manager Mike Shildt. While reports last month indicated that Shildt was going to take a job in the Commissioner’s Office, Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat tweets that Shildt will actually be working in both positions, as the league gave Shildt permission to also consult with San Diego.
This isn’t the first link between Shildt and the Padres, as San Diego interviewed Shildt for their managerial vacancy back in October, in the aftermath of Shildt’s surprising firing from the Cards dugout. While the Padres ultimately opted for Bob Melvin as their new manager, clearly they liked what they heard from Shildt, enough to work this rather unique arrangement with the league office.
The 53-year-old Shildt will now be working for just the second MLB organization of his long career, as he had previously spent almost two full decades with the Cardinals. The Padres job represents something of a full-circle moment for Shildt, who began as a scout with both the league and with St. Louis, before moving on to became a minor league coach and then manager in the Cards farm system. Joining the big league coaching staff prior to the 2017 season, Shildt worked as a quality control coach, third base coach, and bench coach before being promoted to interim manager when Mike Matheny was fired in July 2018.
From there, the Cardinals basically just kept winning under Shildt, as the team reached the postseason every year from 2019-21 and played to a 252-199 record under their new skipper. However, it was far from smooth sailing within the organization, as some discord arose between Shildt and the front office when the Cardinals were struggling earlier in the season. While St. Louis ripped off a 17-game win streak in September to book a trip to the postseason, it wasn’t enough to save Shildt’s job, as president of baseball operations John Mozeliak cited “philosophical differences” as the somewhat vague reasoning for Shildt’s firing.
Now, Shildt will take on a wide range of new responsibilities, between his duties with both the league and the Padres. It may seem odd to speculate about what a next step might entail for someone who already has two jobs, but Shildt has seemingly positioned himself well for any number of different future roles, whether with MLB, the Padres, or another team interested in his services as either a manager, coach, or player development executive.
This is only temporary. He will still be the first manager in San Antonio Scorpions history.
I don’t know about that but this does seem like a pretty serious demotion for a manager who just managed his team into the playoffs a few short months ago.
I do have to say the limited amount of managing I saw him do last year didn’t impress me at all. I watched him leave Alex Reyes in a close game (which the Cardinals were initially leading) to either HBP or walk 5 batters in a row without recording a single out. How does a guy put 3 hitless batters in a row on base, then walk in a bases loaded run and you still think he’s good to go for the next batter? Needless to say, Reyes walked in another run and the Cardinals blew that game.
The Cardinals led the league in bases loaded walks last season by a wide margin. It was in the double digits. They came pretty close to breaking the all time single season record. That is definitely indicative of a manager having no clue when to pull a pitcher out of the game.
I remember that game since it happened against my Braves.
Shildt was not the best in game manager. He never figured out how to do a double switch so the pitcher would often bat right before he was removed. Putting Reyes in with the game on the line in the wild card game was also just a terrible decision. Seems like a nice guy but was not sad to see him go. Mo apparently didn’t like his moves either. Hope Marmol does better.
He was just thinking ahead. Why bother to learn to double switch now.
He was to much like matheny when he got late in the games. He had no idea how to use the bullpen.
Interesting. Would this be a strong suit for him @Cards fans?
Cardinals: He do analytics bad.
Padres: I missed the part where that’s my problem.
Good hire. He may not be there more than a season but he can help.
Interesting. Would think that he probably wanted a bench coach/head coach job more.
Good hire for the Padres. He will help with instilling the Cardinal way into your Padres players that really had no example of what winners do to become the best.
He was the last person who knew the cardinal way. The cardinals are a shell of an organization and the cardinal way dies officially when Molina and Wainwright are gone. Their current group has nothing to pass on
Tell me you know nothing about Cardinal baseball without saying you know nothing about Cardinal baseball.
Lol the most clueless response I’ve seen in some time
Managed the minors in STL got promoted and didn’t last. Now he’s back at what he does best
As a long-time Cardinals fan from the St. Louis area, not only am I glad Schildt is gone, but I don’t think the Cards should have ever dumped Mike Matheney in the first place. I was never impressed by Schildt’s managing of the Major League club, illustrated by incidents such as his embarrassing obscenity-laced team speech during the 2019 playoffs to his poor management of his relief staff in the 2021 postseason, to name a few. I don’t know if his replacement will have success the Cardinal way, but Schildt was not “the guy”.
Oh no… someone used bad words and that makes them a bad person… Grow the hell up. Baseball players are grown men and Shildt is hardly the first manager to use profanity.
This is a hilariously embarrassing take.
Oh shildt! Is on
Smells fishy,I hope Melvin is healthy
Manager in the waiting.When the Friars fail to make the playoffs this year he is in and Melvin is gone.